Introduction & Guiding Principles
Welcome to this online porthole. The talks that you will find here support the Deep Rest Teacher Training event that you will soon be attending live and in person.
Please listen to these talks between now and your first day of the in-person training. Exploring some of these foundational concepts will help you understand the approach we will take toward the practice of Yoga Nidra. Please consider each of these Guiding Principles as a foundation or cornerstone of the practice itself. By understanding some of these key concepts, you will be able to flow more easily around the training content and structure of this particular approach to Yoga Nidra.
I’m looking forward to seeing you on the 14th of September for our 4-day immersive adventure! Until then, stay well and happy, James
Welcome & Introduction
Yoga Nidra is a play on words. The word Yoga can be translated as ‘oneness’ or ‘interconnected wholeness’ and points to our essential self as a quiet, watchful presence that exists beyond our thinking and the identities we carry as to who we are. The word ‘Nidra’ means sleep. Often inaccurately defined as ‘sleep yoga’, the words ‘yoga nidra’ really imply that we are all somewhat asleep: to our real nature of timeless presence and to the unconscious aspects of ourselves that play out daily in our lives.
Starting From Wholeness
Whilst many systems propose healing or recovery, Yoga Nidra points to our wholeness. Rather than starting from a place of brokenness, or implied problems that need a solution, this practice works in the opposite way: as we recognise and explore consciousness itself, we uncover an unshakable ground that empowers us to be with and integrate all of the disowned parts of ourselves.
Welcoming and Acceptance of What is
When we fight with reality – who we are and what life is asking of us – we always lose. You can see for yourself if this statement is true. Reflect on the battles you have taken with yourself and the world: how did they conclude? It is one thing to meet, greet and welcome the parts of ourselves that are bent out of shape and offer them love, it’s another to try to cut off from who we really are. What we resist persists, what we can acknowledge, be with and integrate, we can see beyond.
The Nature of Consciousness
Every perception takes place within consciousness. Each thought, sound, sensation, image - and indeed anything we are perceiving, either externally or internally - arrives via the senses and is seen. Consciousness is what sees. This seeing is unconditioned. It doesn’t have preferences, ideas, opinions, likes or dislikes. It just is.
Conscious & Unconscious Mind
Everything you’ve ever experienced has been recorded and catalogued in the deep recesses of your mind. Much of this remains benignly dormant and will never again rise up to be remembered. Some of these recordings have a strong ‘charge’ and for better or worse, lead to unconscious thinking, decision-making, and responses that can leave us bewildered as to why we made that choice or had a certain reaction.
Holding Our Hurt
Our mind begins to produce a new rhythm of alpha brain waves as part of the relaxation and moving toward sleep in Yoga Nidra. We experience a ‘liminal’ state, somewhere between the thinking mind (Beta) and the dream state (Theta). The brain's production of Beta waves relates to thinking and analysis, Theta waves relate to the dream state, where we resolve or re-experience our emotional realm with an opportunity to make peace with difficult moments of our day or previous experience.
It’s Not Personal
Consider who you take yourself to be; all your preferences and desires and reactions and responses; all the ways you are ‘good’ or ‘bad’; your habits, qualities and personality; you take it to be ‘you’. You take it personally. If you step back for a moment and look at this more objectively you’ll instantly recognise that ‘you’ didn't do this. It happened. Life happened. None of it was in your control. You didn’t make you, you happened. It happened.
The True Meaning of Integration
As we come to understand our own internal world of thoughts, feelings, emotions and beliefs it is our work to begin to unpick these aspects of ourselves. As we meet new parts of ourselves, we are asked to integrate them, but what is the meaning of this word, and what might be the pitfalls of integration in the context of a spiritual journey such as the one undertaken when we engage in the practice of Yoga Nidra?
Being
This word can be confusing to the uninitiated. What does it mean to ‘be’? And how can we access this simple state?
Here are some audio practices to listen to. Please pick just one to give you a sense of what is to come, or listen to a few if you feel drawn to it!