Yoga Nidra, sometimes called ‘Yogic Sleep’ is a meditation technique practiced in a resting posture, listening to a guided visualization. Breath practice (pranayama) and focus (dhyana) are often incorporated into the session. Unlike some other mind-body practices, Yoga Nidra does not require focus or effort. If you have ever taken a nap then you can do this technique! Nidra asks us to float - releasing the effort of thinking and perceiving. In the moments just before falling asleep, we enter a liminal state where it is possible to directly experience the sea of universal consciousness. This space between waking and sleep has profound implications for our health at the physical, mental, emotional levels.

Yoga Nidra is a very old solution for a very modern issue. It is the ‘do not disturb’ setting that we can choose for ourselves. Our inherent sleep mode, digest mode, creative solutions mode, and play mode have all been interrupted by amplified stress, fear, political instability climate collapse, and human suffering. Technology is designed to steal our attention, loop us in, and hold us in a suspended state of attention. Yoga Nidra is not another optimization gimmick. We are not practicing to become more productive members of a society that doesn’t care for our well being. We practice rest to experience our own humanity and to remember the inherent wisdom of our own bodies.

As changemakers, we must reimagine how people can come together to heal. We experience our thoughts, emotions, and our activism through the our bodies. Our bodies require us to nourish, protect, and be tender with ourselves. Our bodies need spaces to be vulnerable. This is not theoretical, it is practical.

If the original purpose of Yoga was a tool to understand and explore consciousness, how do we return to that?

Modern yoga is primarily focused on utilizing the physical asana for ‘healthier’ bodies and uses meditative tools to decrease stress for individuals. If we continue focusing on individual wellness for the able bodied and privileged, we are missing the extent of how Yoga can be utilized in our movements for collective liberation. If we could offer a simple technique for complicated humans and make it accessible to learn and to practice, then we are making a start. Whether you are leading a protest or teaching a class of third graders, your capacity to find calm in chaos will benefit everyone around you.

To be a helper, a leader, a caregiver, and a changemaker is a commitment and a calling. This is not a weekend course that will make you a healer or a master. There is no certification or CEU's. We are the medicine for one another - that knowledge lives in the genetic codes of all living things, both human and more than human.

Let’s spend some time remembering what is possible when we gather with the intention to care for one another.