by Alison Eastland
“Burnt-out people aren’t equipped to serve a burning planet…the well-being of our hearts and souls must be reestablished to their rightful place as relevant, essential.”
Susi Moser, All We Can Save
Yoga, meditation and mindfulness practices have become widely accepted tools for self care and stress relief. If I had to choose only one practice out of them all for climate activists, health workers, or anyone concerned about the climate crisis, I would choose the practice of yoga nidra.
Yoga nidra is a specific kind of carefully crafted guided deep relaxation. yoga nidra gives our minds & bodies the most easily accessible, deep replenishing rest and also reconnects us with our innate creativity and problem solving abilities.
It’s been proven that yoga nidra is beneficial for our nervous systems on its own, without the physical practices that are more well-known: (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22866996/).
While yoga nidras vary between different traditions, and there is also iRest, a modern practice based on yoga nidra, most practices include some grounding sensory mindfulness, breath mindfulness, a body scan, and some imagery.
One of the best things about yoga nidra is that it’s so accessible. All you need to do is place yourself in a comfortable position, and listen. Even just practising a 20 minute yoga nidra a few times a week can have a big impact on your well-being, and if you do it consistently, your ability to access deep rest will accumulate over time. With practice, you can even take yourself through a yoga nidra yourself, without a teacher or a recording.
A regular yoga nidra practice has been proven to reduce anxiety levels (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6134749/) and prompt dopamine release in the brain, a neurotransmitter that has a profound effect on brain function and mental health (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0926641001001069).
In a study on the effects of a yoga nidra practice on mental health clinicians’ perceived stress, participants reported significantly lowered perceived stress at the end of the study: https://scholarworks.smith.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2781&context=theses
Why is yoga nidra so beneficial?
During yoga nidra, the brain produces theta (4-7 hertz) and delta waves (1-3 hertz), the brain waves of deep sleep, and yet we remain conscious throughout the practice. These are the brain waves that facilitate deep restoration both physically and psychologically, while reducing pain and stress levels.
Theta is the state of mental and emotional healing. Unprocessed thoughts and feelings are reorganised and cleared. Theta waves stimulate learning and memory, allowing us to be creative and intuitive – qualities that are essential for problem solving..
When delta waves are dominant, your physical body heals and regenerates and cortisol, the “stress hormone”, is lowered. If we don’t get enough uninterrupted time in the delta state, we can become less sensitive both to our own needs and to the needs of others. We may become burnt out, or “jaded”.
These effects on the brain make yoga nidra an incredibly useful self-care practice for activists and health practitioners, nurturing both your health and your work, and helping you to avoid burnout.
From the Yogic perspective, yoga nidra also trains the mind and body to relax and move more easily into the deeper states of sleep, so that with regular practice, you’ll sleep better. Considering the impacts of poor sleep, such as poor memory, trouble concentrating, heart disease, increased blood pressure, metabolism dysfunction, hormonal imbalance, weakened immune system and increased inflammation, anything that helps us sleep better is going to help us to stay healthy and help us to keep working in a sustainable way for everything we love.
There is still much study needed to explore all of the commonly reported benefits of yoga nidra. The practice can also be specifically adapted for the needs of an individual.
Below is a nature-themed yoga nidra recording you can try for yourself. This yoga nidra is from my online Yoga & Meditation Sanctuary “Calm & Courage”. Thanks to my Huon Valley Yoga community, I have pay-it-forward places in Calm & Courage that arefree to donate to climate activists or to anyone suffering from climate anxiety or climate grief who may not be able to purchase a place. I encourage you to get in touch with me if you would like to apply for a cost-free place.
A yoga nidra for you to try:
More yoga nidra and iRest research:
Remotely Delivered yoga nidra for Insomnia and Anxiety during COVID-19
Erica Sharpe, Matthew Butler, Doug Hanes, Ryan Bradley Sleep, Volume 44, Issue Supplement_2, May 2021, Page A96 “Remotely delivered yoga nidra is feasible to deliver, and demonstrates potential benefits for anxiety and insomnia, warranting additional research”.
Esther N. Moszeik, Timo von Oertzen & Karl-Heinz Renner Current Psychology (2020)“Overall, a large, heterogeneous sample showed that already a very short dose of meditation can positively influence stress, sleep, and well-being…”
“Yoga nidra may be a beneficial and acceptable treatment approach for soldiers experiencing significant symptoms of PTSD.”
Effects of a yoga nidra on the life stress and self-esteem in university students
Kim SangDol Department of Nursing, College of Health Science, Kangwon National University: 346 Hwangjo-gil, Dogye-eup, Samcheok-si, Gangwon-do, 245-907, Republic of Korea Received 19 December 2018, Revised 4 March 2019, Accepted 4 March 2019, Available online 8 March 2019. “The yoga nidra group showed significantly decreased life stress intensity levels compared to the control group…”
iRest Yoga-Nidra on the College Campus: Changes in Stress, Depression, Worry, and Mindfulness
October 2013 International Journal of Yoga Therapy Heather Eastman-Mueller, Indiana University Bloomington; Ae-Kyung Jung, Gyeongin National University of Education; Andrea Kimura, University of Missouri; Jeff Tarrant, NeuroMeditation Institute “iRest yoga-nidra practice may reduce symptoms of perceived stress, worry, and depression and increase mindfulness-based skills”.
KshetrimayumGuneri Devi, Shivaprasad Shetty and Prashanth Shetty 2019 “This study result concluded that yoga nidra improved HRV significantly by increasing parasympathetic activity and reduces the cardiovascular morbidity and mortality rate of insomnia patients”.
Alison Eastland, registered Senior teacher with Yoga Australia.
