Yoga Nidra for Deep Rest

Move Well to Live Well

I co-facilitated a session with Roxanne Cohen this week on Living Well with Stress and she said something that made me smile

“If you want to live well, you have to learn to rest well.”

That’s great, but what does resting have to do with yoga? Not much if your understanding of yoga is based on the deeply commercialized mix of gymnastics and calisthenics that most studios, gyms, and yoga influencers are selling you on. And it makes sense that they are. It’s far more visually appealing to watch someone move through choreographed body shapes that require years of strength and flexibility training than it is to watch someone rest.

But yoga practice can look like deep, active resting. According to the Cleveland Clinic “best part about this style of yoga is that a 45-minute session could leave you feeling like you indulged in a peaceful three-hour nap…with yoga nidra, you are lying down and the goal is to move into a deep state of conscious awareness sleep, which is a deeper state of relaxation with awareness. This state involves moving from consciousness while awake to dreaming and then to not-dreaming while remaining awake — going past the unconscious to the conscious.”

In addition to the physical, physiological, and psychological benefits, tapping into sleep can reduce your risk of an early death. This fun meta-analysis on Sleep Duration and All-Cause Mortality notes that participants who reported less than 7 hours of sleep showed an increased risk of death from all causes (men 1.15 [0.93 to 1.42] and women 1.73 [0.99 to 3.03]), as well as an increased risk of death from cardiovascular causes (men 1.19 [0.90 to 1.58] and women 2.30 [0.94 to 5.60]).

Resting is also an ultimate act of resistance against capitalist, colonial, patriarchal systems and structures designed to profit from our exhaustion. If you aren’t already familiar with Tricia Hersey’s Rest is Resistance framework, it’s an excellent perspective on resting.

All of this to say:

Choose rest. Frequently and often. If you struggle with resting, yoga nidra is a great way to begin.

I hope you enjoy this practice. To do it, silence all notifications and ask people not to disturb you. Lie down in a warm, comfortable space. Cover your body with a blanket. Block out any distracting light. Listen to the recording. Observe what arises, or doesn’t.