In this blog, I will talk about Yoga Nidra. This is non-posture yoga to take you into the ‘rested self’ where you stop striving and start being. But first, how did I discover it?

I had already practiced 27 years of karma yoga by the time I became a Kundalini yoga teacher. This is how we yogis define raising a family. But the right time shows up when the soul is ready (you can’t rush a soul) and I found myself receiving the most incredible gift; to live near a yoga studio for two years that offered a variety of yoga classes. and the idea that I could be a teacher was revealed in my subconscious after 3 days of White Tantra Yoga at the European Yoga Festival in France. I had never been to a music festival in my life, let alone a yoga one, and  it was the encouragement of a yoga teacher at that studio, that helped me pack my rucksack, board Eurostar and make my way into rural France to sleep on the floor of a spider-filled wood for 12 nights.

I remember how my mind ruminated about fulfilling potential, whilst driving the children to yet another essential appointment enriching ‘their’ lives. Whilst I believe the mother is the first important caregiver/teacher for the child, the mother must stand within her own strong self and power to deliver this. Motherhood taught me one also needs to pay awareness to one’s own energies to be able to give out.

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Through this yoga studio life I also met yoga Nidra. I took a workshop with an excellent teacher to introduce me to the experience over two hours instead of the usual class time of 45-60 minutes. He had the ability to take students ‘to gentle place’ where one found spaces within that showed us that rest is accessible within us at all times. Nidra teaches restful awareness through the practice of subtle awareness of the body and breath, sort of experiments in observation without an expected outcome. You may feel you can’t still the constant chatter of your mind or a persistent negative self-narrative inner voice. The practice requires you to trust and allow and absolutely not ‘try and rest.’ Trying is not resting!

What is rest? The rest is feeling spacious. Rest is the time in your life when you are not trying to change anything. When you have let all else fade away and you are completely and wholly in the experience, like gazing at an awesome view on your walk for a moment (the rest of the time you may have been ruminating on your ‘to-do’ list while you walked) or like the times you get lost in an absorbing (especially if creative) task.

You are perfect as you are, and if you stop trying, you can experience the feeling of being rested through awareness. You are awareness itself. Rest will come and yoga Nidra finds you the opportunity to stop, listen, allow and enquire.

The Guest House by Rumi

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

Rumi

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My soul begins when I can do no more.

Paul Valery

Some Yoga Nidra sessions work with Sankalpa

It is said that a Sankalpa intention, stated with intention and fully felt through our senses, cannot help but to come true.

This Sankalpa, the seed of intention helps you manifest in your life. Yoga Nidra can also work with the power of the subconscious mind when we incorporate a Sankalpa statement into our practice. This is one of my most supportive practices for your personal growth. Come and join me for a free session

Non-postural, my voice guides you.

Choose a warm place, even a bed, and turn your phone to airplane mode.

Light a candle to enshrine your practice with holy spirit vibes.

Sat Nam!

Friday 6.30 pm on Friday 29th January 2021 via Zoom.

Session time: 45 minutes

Zoom – email emma@yogaspaceyorkshire.com to receive the link