I AM Yoga Nidra with The Productivity Coach

You are invited to work with your own intention in this Yoga Nidra. Working with Intention supports laying down new neural pathways in the brain. Intention is particularly powerful in Yoga Nidra as we state our intention when we are beyond the conscious mind, so there is no resistance to our stated intention.

When working with intention, the rule of thumb is to make it 1) as succinct and simple as possible, 2) always stated in the positive and 3) you have a visceral response in your body, meaning you feel physical sensation in your body when you say it. 

Intention can be a high level statements such as “I am kind to myself” to “I am at peace with myself as I am and the world as it is.” Or it can be specific, and cover anything from “I eat healthy foods that nourish my body” to “I balance my needs with the needs of others.”

General intentions are powerful because they are not prescriptive and so leave space for greater creativity - being kind to ourselves can take many forms, many of which may not have occurred to us yet. 

Specific intentions are helpful when we are working on a particular thing and want to resource ourselves and speed up the transition. 

Choose an intention that supports change you are trying to implement in your life, and use the intention throughout the day as well as during the Yoga Nidra. This means that you will be drawing on the resources of your conscious and unconscious mind to support the movement to a new way of being.

The techniques used in this Yoga Nidra require no physical movement. The practice uses three different breathing techniques to deepen relaxation. 

You are invited to work with your own intention in this Yoga Nidra. Working with Intention supports laying down new neural pathways in the brain. Intention is particularly powerful in Yoga Nidra as we state our intention when we are beyond the conscious mind, so there is no resistance to our stated intention. 

When working with intention, the rule of thumb is to make it 1) succinct and as simple as possible, 2) always stated in the positive and 3) you have a visceral response to the statement, meaning you feel a reaction in your body. 

Intention can be a high level statements such as “I am kind to myself” to “I am at peace with myself as I am and the world as it is.” Or it can be specific, and cover anything from “I eat healthy foods that nourish my body” to “I balance my needs with the needs of others.” 

Choose an intention that supports change you are trying to implement in your life, and use the intention throughout the day as well as during the Yoga Nidra. This means that you will be drawing on the resources of your conscious and unconscious mind to support the behaviour change.

Techniques used in this Nidra include "Palming the Face" and "Sheetali Breath". Instruction are given for both during the Nidra.

A Yoga Nidra to assist with managing stress levels and forming a more relaxed relationship with life. 

In this Nidra, at the deepest part of the meditation, we pose a question to ourselves:

"Show me how to have a more relaxed relationship with life."

This Nidra taps into our own wisdom, acknowledging that we have all the answers to our own questions, and starts to build the muscle of looking inwards, versus outwards, for solutions to challenges we are facing. 

You may get an answer in the moment in the form of a thought, vision, emotion or knowing, or you may have greater clarity in the hours and days that follow on what you need to do. Pay attention to your own experience and how your inner wisdom speaks to you. Your inner wisdom is trying to speak to you all the time; tuning into your own wisdom is the greatest gift you can give to yourself.

Health Warning: 

* This Yoga Nidra is 52 minutes long so please set yourself up properly for the practice so that you will be comfortable lying down for that length of time. 

** It includes a tension and relaxation exercise - if you cannot have undue pressure in your head, please DO NOT hold your breath during the exercise. Tense and breathe as normal.

*** If you are in an environment where you are self-conscious about tensing and relaxing the body, visualise yourself doing it instead.

**** This is a great Nidra to do when you wake up too early and would like an extra hour of sleep. The 52 min nidra is equivalent to 2-3x normal sleep time, so 2-2.5 hours. 

A Yoga Nidra designed to help you to make up for lost sleep. Yoga Nidra is a sleep-based meditation technique, which means that it harnesses the body’s falling asleep mechanism to access a deep state of meditation.

In practice, you are  guided from the waking state to a deep sleep state and back to the waking state. It is a consciously-experienced, complete sleep cycle, making it the ultimate power nap - 45 minutes of Yoga Nidra is equivalent to 2-3 hours of normal sleep.

Ideally the practice is done lying down somewhere where you won’t be disturbed, the conditions in which you would normally go to sleep.

This Yoga Nidra is for you if you:

- have not slept well and are feeling exhausted before the day even gets underway.

- wake up really early and want to extend your sleep hours.

- feel depleted and need an energy boost.

This Yoga Nidra is for you if you:

- suffer from insomnia and have trouble sleeping

- if you have problems dropping off to sleep at night

- if you wake up in the middle of the night and have trouble getting back to sleep.

This Yoga Nidra is designed to help you to fall asleep as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Yoga Nidra is a sleep-based meditation technique, which means that it harnesses the body’s falling asleep mechanism to access a deep state of meditation.

In a typical Yoga Nidra, the practitioner guides you from the waking state to a deep sleep state and back to the waking state, allowing you to have a conscious experience of a full sleep cycle.

This particular Yoga Nidra does not guide you back to the waking state. As the intention of this meditation is to support you in falling asleep, you will be guided to the deepest part of your sleep cycle and the meditation will end there.

Consider the practice to be a tugboat guiding you into your own sleep cycle.