Yoga Nidra

Last year when the change of season from summer to fall rolled around, I began to feel extremely tired.  All. The. Time.  No matter how much I slept, all I ever felt like doing was sleeping some more and I never felt well-rested.  Eventually my husband suggested I had better see my doctor.  

My doctor gave me a thorough going-over and sent me for blood work.  The results looked great and everything else she checked looked good, too.  She told me that I was the perfect picture of health and her only suggestion was that I could probably stand to get a bit more cardio exercise.  

I found this rather frustrating, as the way I was feeling didn't line up with the diagnosis (or lack thereof) that I got.  But I took my doctor's advice and started working out regularly, as well as boosting some of my vitamin supplements and cutting down on refined sugar. These things eventually seemed to helped somewhat.  

Another thing that I added to my box of wellness tools at that time was Yoga Nidra.  Through a series of random events, I had found my way to Karen Brody's website, Bold Tranquility.  I signed up for a free 21 day yoga nidra challenge and found it helped me to get better sleep, feel more relaxed and have more energy.  I've been practicing yoga nidra regularly ever since.

So what IS yoga nidra, exactly?  

Yoga nidra is a sleep-based meditation.  It looks nothing at all like what we normally think of as yoga.  Basically, you lie down and do nothing!  Nothing but listen to a guided meditation that takes you through breathing exercises, body awareness and into deep rest and relaxation.   You move through different brain wave patterns until you are in the deep brain waves of sleep, although you remain awake and aware throughout.  Yoga nidra takes you to sleep consciously and some say that half an hour of yoga nidra is equivalent to four hours of sleep.   

This year, as the seasons changed from summer to fall, I discovered that Karen (whose voice I fall asleep to most nights) was offering training for birth workers in yoga nidra for pregnancy and postpartum.  I was very excited about the opportunity to offer this to my clients and signed up for the training.  I learned more about yoga nidra, how it works and how to offer it to those I work with.

I have now completed my training, and I am thrilled to let you know that from now until the end of the year, I will be offering yoga nidra FOR FREE as part of my doula care package for those who sign on with me in this time period.  I am excited to share this with you as many women have found it has given them deeper rest and better sleep, helping to lessen the fears, anxiety and stress that sometimes accompany pregnancy and the postpartum period.  If you are interested in incorporating yoga nidra into our prenatal visit times, I would be happy to make that happen!