Practicing Yogic Sleep – You Can Meditate Lying Down!
If you have a back pain or if you find it hard to sit and meditate then I have got a meditation method for you which you can perform lying on your back, I will reveal it in this post only if you promise that you won’t fall asleep while doing it because I have ended up sleeping many times while doing Yog Nidra.
Yogic Sleep or Yog Nidra not only rejuvenates the body but, it also calms down the mind and prepares an individual for the rest of their day.
It is very easy but, do not make a mistake of thinking that it is not powerful just because of the simplicity, it is an ancient very powerful meditation practiced by Indian Yogis and Buddhist Monks.
For practicing yogic sleep, it is not at all required that you must have been familiar with meditation or yoga before.
Best time to perform Yog Nidra is during the morning hours but, it is all up to you when you want to use it.
Yog Nidra is a good method for gaining back your energy without actually having to take a nap, this saves your time and keeps you active during the day hours as you can use it as an alternative to your afternoon naps.
Not only this, it is equally effective for helping you to get in touch with your inner world just as any other powerful meditation method like for example the Vipassana meditation is.
What Is It All About?
Yogic Sleep is a process of relaxing the whole body and bringing the mind into a peaceful state.
Unlike in the usual sleep where the person is not conscious, in yoga nidra a person is consciously relaxing their body and they are well aware of their thoughts and feelings.
The logical or thinking mind(ego) fades when a person goes deep in yogic sleep but still, they are aware of their surroundings.
Just like the mindfulness meditation, this exercise also helps a person to increase their conscious awareness.
How to Do Yogic Nidra?
There are many simple as well as complicated methods for performing yogic sleep, I will suggest here my favorite one which you may like to try out and you can also customize it if you want.
First, it is necessary to get relaxed by taking a few conscious deep breaths, and as you feel more relaxed follow the below given procedure:-
Lie down and close your eyes. Now, Imagine a ball that emits golden light (assume this light is filled with pure love and joy) coming down to you from above.
Bring this ball close to your feet and see it revolving around it. Feel the light entering the cells and membranes of your feet, relaxing them completely and filling them with pure love and joy. (This is something I have taken from what I learned in the love or above course)
See this ball taking a spiral path upwards around your body doing the same on every part of your leg, then move it to the other leg and continue as before.
Bring this imagined ball upwards filling each of your body parts with this light of peace, joy, and love.
Finally, when you have brought this ball up to the top of your head, visualize that the ball is now carrying all the negative energy and stress from your body. See the power of light dissolving all those negative energies and let the ball go back to the sky.
Stay in this relaxed state and observe whatever thoughts or images comes up in your mind. You can be there as long as you want and get up by slowly counting from 5 to 1 and with every count repeat the words “I am awake now”, open your eyes at the count of 1.
Dreams and Yogic Sleep
You won’t have a dream while doing yoga nidra since you are completely aware but you may have some spiritual experiences and deep thoughtless trance states.
Ancient Tibetan dream yoga is much similar to this process but it takes this even deeper, it is where you maintain awareness when your body is asleep, no I am talking about lucid dreaming but yes, yog nidra is indeed helpful to induce lucid dreams.
The relaxed state we are talking about here is perfect for doing any law of attraction exercise that requires you to become totally relaxed and of course, your visualization sessions becomes super effective when your mind is totally at peace.
If you start dreaming while doing this meditation then obviously, you are sleeping, that’s okay, don’t worry if that happens and accept that your body just needed some rest.
Do not try yogic sleep when your stomach is full because in that case “Yogic Sleep” will result in “Sleep” for sure.
Remember, I mentioned about a Tibetan Practic earlier? It is a very interesting thing I am exploring right now, so I have made a post on it which you may also want to read – Dream Yoga.
I hope you enjoyed this post. Share your thoughts on this with me by commenting below, I would love to hear from you.
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