Yoga offers so many ways for us to slow down, switch off and allow healing to take place. One of the most accessible is Yoga nidra, or yogic sleep. One of the things I love about this is the fact that I can do it at home, in ten minutes if that’s all I have (or up to 35 if I have longer and want a deeper relaxation) by using an app or a YouTube recording. All you do is lay on the floor in Savasana and listen as a soothing voice guides you through the relaxation. Nice and easy and clearly a chill-out; you're just laying on the floor. And at first you may not feel that the practice has done much more for you than simply that.
But if you keep doing it regularly, and particularly if you use the opportunity to set a Sankalpa (intention) for a way you’d like to live, or be, then it’s incredible how powerful this practice is. The science behind it is that Yoga nidra puts you into an altered state of consciousness that not many of us reach on a day-to-day basis. The guided meditation takes you down through various brain-wave states until you reach delta, a state of deep (but waking) relaxation similar to that experienced by patients in a coma, in which your body can restore itself. When you return to full awareness, it’s almost as if you can bring a little of that slowed-down full-bodied calmness with you into the craziness of ordinary life. And supposedly the deeply relaxed state you reach in Yoga nidra is as effective as several hours of actual sleep.
There are other yogic ways of exploring healing; restorative yoga and gong baths are also fantastic practices, and both of these are a treat to myself that I try to get to every now and then. But Yoga nidra can be done at home, whenever you have a short period of time to lay down and tune in. It’s one of the best ways I’ve found of looking after myself that has a clear effect on my mental state afterwards. I’m certainly not doing it daily, but am trying for weekly and occasionally more often. It's a way to allow a very modern brain to surrender to the power of this ancient wisdom.