Yoga nidra (or yogic sleep) is an ancient practice that can help us face the demands of modern living. It’s accessible to everyone, regardless of their age and physical fitness. Yoga nidra helps the body deeply relax and builds our resistance to stress. It can remedy insomnia and even improve memory – the list of benefits goes on.

Our first meeting took place in 2015. I was living in a Hridaya yoga and meditation community in the south of Mexico and despite my nearly decade-long yoga experience, I had never heard of nidra. After the class, I felt reborn. The short practice was enough to bring me a sense of deep calm, distance from the world around me, and inner lightness that I had never experienced before. I didn’t yet have the theoretical knowledge to realize that for the past 30 minutes, my brain had been floating freely on the alpha waves typical for the relaxation phase we experience right before falling asleep. Much later, I also learned that classic writings refer to the state of mind after yoga nidra practice as “peace that eludes words to describe it”. In the years upon my return to Poland, I was overjoyed to see more and more yoga schools and teachers offer this form of practice to their students.

The path to deep rest

Let’s start with the basics: yoga nidra does not require us to do any kind of gymnastics on the mat. We spend the entire session lying comfortably on the ground, wrapped in warm blankets. We practice in savasana, also known as the corpse pose. The only thing we are expected to do is follow the voice of our guide and try to stay conscious, without falling asleep. The guide will lead us softly through several stages of the practice. First, we find an unconstrained and comfortable position, then create the intention, focusing on individual parts of the body. Finally, we visualize. Each