The practice of yoga nidra is a wonderful way to deepen the connection between the full range of consciousness and your physical body. It is enjoyable and helpful to practice it on an occasional basis — we did it for the last class of the session in the Willow Street gentle/therapeutics class and you all are welcome to come to the New Year’s Yoga Nidra workshop on Sunday, January 4th — but it can be even more productive as a regular weekly practice.
Here are some good resources if you have found yoga nidra helpful and want to find out more about it and establish a home practice:
To read more about yoga nidra, I recommend the following books, both of which I believe are available at Willow Street Yoga Center.
- Yoga Nidra, Swami Satyandanda Saraswati, Yoga Publications Trust, Munger, Bihar, India, Bihar School of Yoga (1988)
- Yoga Nidra, The Meditative Heart of Yoga, Richard Miller, PhD, Integrated CD Learning, Sounds True, Inc. (2005) [this comes with a CD]
These CD’s lead you through yoga nidra practices of various lengths and emphasis:
- Experience Yoga Nidra — Guided Deep Relaxation, Swami Janakananda, www.skand-yoga.org [my favorite — maybe it is the soothing tones of an Indian swami speaking English with a Swedith inflection]
- Yoga Nidra with Robin Carnes, Robin Carnes leads a yoga nidra class at Willow Street Yoga Center.
- Moving Into the Garden of Your Heart, Betsy Downing, Ph.D [Betsy Downing, the “grandame of Anusara” will be at Willow Street Yoga in January 2009]
- Relax Into Greatness with the Treasure of Yoga Nidra, Rod Stryker [Rod Stryker is an exceptional master and leader of tantric yoga practices, such as yoga nidra, and I highly recommend his meditation CDs and his workshops. This is an older CD, and I sometimes find that the body scan is a little fast for my comfort].
I second the recommendation of Janakananda’s CD! Just take care with the disk. I loaded it onto my iPod only to find the long program cut in half. Very, very jarring! My poor sister got most of the way through hers and wound up stuck on “bird” (birdbirdbirdbird…).
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i am currently enrolled in a Yoga class. the health benefits of Yoga on myself is great. I am more relaxed and i can sleep well at night.