At yoga class recently, an instructor advised my husband (who frequently falls asleep and starts snoring loudly during savasana) to consider trying yoga nidra, to give him the opportunity to enter deep relaxation and feel refreshed afterward. (She also advised him to get more sleep, in general.)
I was skeptical, but remembered that several years ago, I had downloaded a yoga nidra album and forgotten about it: Deep Water, Still Mind, by Roz Newark. I decided to give this yoga nidra idea a test run. I’ve tried it three times now, and am amazed by my results.
First, I want to note that the two guided yoga nidras on this album are each about 20 minutes long — just about the length of a power nap, if you’re into power naps. But, they make you feel as though you have been asleep for much longer — to the point that I “came to” in a panic twice, convinced that I had been asleep for hours and that my alarm hadn’t gone off. (For any deep relaxation experience, I recommend that you set an alarm — I always do! — in case you do get very relaxed, enough to lose a significant amount of time.) Earlier in the yoga nidra, I was so relaxed that I felt limp almost to the point of paralysis. Afterwards, once I got over the panic of feeling as though I had lost time, I was very refreshed and still have an unusually clear and focused mind even hours later.
Second, I found that the yoga nidra experience balanced my emotions. I was having a bad day each time that I tried it — in fact, I tried yoga nidra in part because I was having a bad day and needed some balance. And again, hours later, I still feel calm. The things that normally get to me have somehow faded to a dull roar. This is a very good thing, because those things that normally upset me also prevent me from getting work done, work that I really need to do.
So I classify this product as more than a deep relaxation tool and a chance to get some rest at a level that is mind-boggling. I would classify it, believe it or not, as a productivity tool for those of us who sometimes let lack of emotional balance interfere with the things that we desperately need to do. I highly recommend it.
And the best thing about this product is, that if you download the MP3 files, it doesn’t cost more than $3. I love it when something that helps me so much can be so affordable.
Quiet Mystic 