What is Yoga Nidra? Techniques Versus a State of Consciousness

Transcript

namaste this is Ally and in this video I'm going to be answering a question that is one of the most frequently asked questions on this channel which is around yoga Nitra and what exactly is yoganitra is it is it a practice is it a state of consciousness is it a meditation technique so we'll dive a little bit more into this question and yes contemporarily yoganitra is often known as a practice or a technique or maybe even a set of different techniques which yes there are a lot of techniques that can be used you've probably explored many of those techniques here on this channel um things like a rotation of Consciousness where or sometimes known as a body scan where we you know bring a gentle awareness to different points in the body a rotation of imagery you might be familiar with there are lots of different techniques and also pre-practices that can help to bring one into a yoginitra so things like pranayama different asanas that can be helpful pre-practices for calming the nervous system and taking one into that deep state of relaxation a deep breath state that is the really the foundation of yoginitra practice however what does yoginitra truly mean if we're referring to the historical context of looking and studying the ancient texts and The Vedic texts what you'll find is that Yoga Nidra is really a state of consciousness it's a unique state of consciousness where the physical body is in a deep state of sleep or at least mimicking a deep state of sleep and not the dreaming state of sleep where the mind is quite active with different visuals and cognitions but the Deep Sleep state where there are really no cognitions or a ton of activity happening in the brain in terms of thoughts and visuals and States Of Consciousness that are associated with some of the higher frequency brainwave States so in yoga Nitra the state is more associated with a Delta brainwave State a deep Delta brainwave state which is the same brainwave state that is present in deep slow wave sleep so in this state of yoginitra there is a slowing down of the brainwave modulations into Delta brainwave state which is a very deeply healing and rejuvenating state to be in and this is one of the reasons that people really love the practice and love the benefits of the practice is going into these states of deep deep rest where the nervous system is going into rest and digest and healing mode so you might think of what it's like to experience deep sleep deep dreamless sleep it's not uh a state that we often associate with remembering a whole lot about so going into that deep dreamless sleep where you went so deep you can tell in the morning just by the way that you feel or you might even like not remember how you got there you went so deep into that that emptiness that sort of void of uh deep sleep where all of the thoughts cognitions dreams they all cease to be there and there's a sense of emptiness or void that is the Deep Sleep state so the body really goes into this state yet it's a unique State of Consciousness because there's this Trace awareness where there's a sense of the part of you that perceives your experience there is a sense of consciousness that remains in that state of emptiness or nothingness and this is where it can sometimes become a little bit paradoxical for people because there's a state of emptiness that connects us to an experience of Oneness so it's like this emptiness and fullness simultaneously and people often can really only describe it when they come out of that state as you know I touched into something meaningful and they often can't even really describe their experience because it's more like they're experiencing the after effects of it if that makes sense so there's this sort of fragrance of I touched into sometimes people will say I feel like I tapped into my innate wholeness where I feel like I tapped into a state of Oneness with all of that there is or you know something happened that's a really common one that people will say to me I don't know what happened but something happened to me and I can't quite describe it but I feel like I touched into something true and something profound and something deeply healing and so yoginitra as a state of consciousness really is not so much about sleeping that word Nitra in yogenitra is then deep sleep State that's it the word Nitra if we really distill it down to its simplest translation would be just sleep whereas with yoga yoganitra it's yogic sleep and this is this state that we're talking about here in this video this state where all cognitions tend to cease all the thoughts tend to slow down into this sense of spacious presence and people will essentially describe it sometimes as tapping into their their true nature and with each practice people tend to bring back with them more peace more contentment more self-acceptance more feeling that our true sense of innate wholeness and worthiness and really from a yogic philosophy standpoint we're not even really scraping the surface here of what Yoga Nidra what you can dive into in terms of the study of this of this state and of this practice but know that these different techniques that we explore here on the channel are really meant to help to take you into that state take you into that place of non-doing no mind deep deep rest deep sleep state and it becomes a journey of Awakening and many people will come to me and tell me about the cumulative effects of their practice because sometimes they come here to learn or practice Yoga Nidra as a technique that they've heard about that they know you know it's good for the nervous system or this or that and then they start to realize that there's something more happening here there's something more to this state if they're tapping into or touching into that state so my suggestion to you is to gravitate towards the techniques and the practices that take you into those deep States within yourself or maybe you have a sense of coming back from something that you can't quite put your finger on maybe the fragrance of a sense of innate wholeness or tapping into uh that feeling of Oneness with the whole universe sometimes I'll get really interesting comments from people here on the channel that have had these sort of wild experiences where they have felt like they've come back from essentially merging with the entire universe or something like that the way the different ways that people describe coming back from this experience are there's a wide array of ways that people try to bring bring language to this to the sort of after effects of coming back from that place where they're like something big just happened something magical maybe a little bit it's not magical but I like to use the word magical sometimes anyhow I hope that this is helpful I do explore lots of different techniques and know that there are different ways and different styles of techniques that yoginitra guides will use to bring people to invite people into that state of yoganitra and like one of my beloved mentors would say there are 360 degrees over ways to climb a mountain and so just be really open to the different techniques that you learn and and be curious and try try different techniques but know that the techniques and the state are not one in the same and that's not to say that every time we practice yoginitra that we're meant to go into that State of Consciousness there are many different states of Consciousness that can be explored along the way and I will sometimes get comments from people who have gone into a lucid dreaming experience or an out of body experience or into like complete deep sleep we're into a light hypnagogic or sort of hypnotic like trance and and these are all different experiences that can happen in the practice and are very normal um so know that you can trust you can trust your body to know what it needs within the practice and for me when I first began my yoginitra journey uh I I thought for the longest time I would just completely fall asleep and I'd wake up at the end feeling completely different like something incredible had shifted in my life and I had no idea what and I was really dealing with a pretty chronic sleep and rest deficit at that point in my life and it wasn't for many practices and being persistent with practicing Yoga Nidra with my teacher who was a senior teacher at The kripalu Institute that I eventually would start to have this sense of misawareness that would come along with me for for the journey and then the states that I would explore would become much deeper over time so I hope that you found this video helpful please let me know in the comments below if this is making sense the difference between you know techniques and practice versus the state the state of yoginitra and know that one of the other most common questions that I get on this channel is about sankopa what is a sankopa and so I have actually created a video in the past where I talk about my primary sankulpa and how that has sort of evolved over the past couple of decades so I think it will be helpful for you to check that out if you don't know what is asankopa because really although many guides will offer Essen Coppa that you might invite in at the beginning of a practice what you really want to do is get in touch with your your sankulpa your heartfelt desire your North Star in this life so it might be helpful for you to tune into my journey with uh when I first discovered this practice and learned about what sankulpa is and how it has really um progressed into something much more meaningful over time in the sense that it's a senkopa that is giving back to the world uh or the intention is to to nurture the world in this way of spreading peace my sankulpa has to do with spreading peace within the world so I hope that you check that out if you're wondering about senkopa in your Yoga Nidra practice and if you'd like to dive deeper into yoga nintra and all of the incredible knowledge and Science and ancient science that support some of the techniques of this practice and will help you to cultivate that state more often in your life then please feel free to check out my online yoga netra training it's a yoga teacher training to learn to become a guide of yoga Nitra but we also have just really sincere students and Seekers who want to dive deeper into their Journey with yoginitra who joined the program as well so you can find that at my website I'll I'll put a link below and I would just love to hear from you in the comments so let me know if this video gave a little bit more clarity for you around this Yoga Nidra the practice versus the state of Yoga Nidra the State of Consciousness and uh yeah I would just love to hear from you connect with you and if you're in the Yoga Nidra training I'd love to hear how things are going uh so far so let me know and then thank you as always for joining me and for being here and for your continued curiosity and learning around this incredible subject may it be peaceful maybe happy maybe healthy maybe free namaste