Sep 6, 2024
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It can be tough when you arrive in a new place to get a good night’s sleep, even in a place as beautiful as Bawah Reserve! But there’s a meditation practice that you can do to help you fall asleep or get back to sleep if you’re suffering from jet lag. It’s called yoga nidra meditation.
A very gentle form of meditation that’s done lying done and requires no effort from the
meditator, you simply need to listen to the meditation which is fully guided. Yoga nidra
meditation mimics the same brainwaves that we enter when we sleep and literally quietens
down the frequency of our thoughts which we can think of as brainwaves. Science shows why yoga nidra is such a powerful practice!
Using EEG machines that measure brainwaves, yoga nidra practitioners move from a waking beta brainwave state to a theta and even delta brainwave state. The progressive sequence of yoga nidra meditation helps to relax the body through a body scan and breathing, withdrawing the mind from the
external world to the internal world.
When we are in a beta brainwave state, we are fully identified with our external world, our to-do lists, emails work, etc. Most of us spend our day in this state unless we are in creative
industries such as painting or art in which case you would be mostly in alpha state. When you close your eyes and begin to move from the external world to the internal world, you move into an alpha brainwave state your nervous system begins to relax and you open up to the feelings and sensations in the body. It's in this stage that we do a body scan to fully relax the body.
During this stage your body is completely relaxed, but you're still somewhat alert. This
relaxed awareness makes you feel good - it produces serotonin and heart coherence. You
may start to have more creative thoughts or ideas.
After about 20 minutes the brain really begins to slow down and enters into a theta
brainwave state which is similar to the brainwaves of REM sleep at night. It's kind of like you
are daydreaming... there's a screen in front of your mind and you might be visiting past memories or dream-like scenes could flash in front of your eyes.
At a much deeper level is the delta brainwave state which is the most restorative state we can
enter, in fact, doctors induce this state when they put patients into a coma after a brain
injury so that the brain and body can heal itself! This is the equivalent of deep dreamless
sleep at night with one difference being that during yoga nidra meditation you are still aware.
During this stage of the yoga nidra meditation, we welcome gratitude or do a loving-kindness
practice, anything related to the heart and joy that help to stimulate the neurotransmitter
anandamide, the “bliss molecule,” which incidentally gets its name from the Sanskrit word 'ananda'; meaning bliss or joy.
Yoga nidra meditation is also a great practice for a nap if you’re feeling tired during the day,
just make sure you set an alarm in case you do drift off into sleep which is easily done as most of us carry a huge sleep debt.
There are other things you can do to support your sleep such as deep abdominal breathing
which helps to relax the nervous system and prepare the body for sleep. I recommend
inhaling for a count of 3 and exhaling for a count of 6 to fully relax the body for 2-3 minutes
before settling yourself in bed with meditation for a good night’s rest.
Enjoy this guided meditation to help you get to sleep.
Sleep well, dear friends!
For another short guided meditation from Bawah Reserve with Davina Ho - SEE HERE
Davina is a certified Tantra Hatha Yoga and iRest® meditation teacher. She teaches her stressed-out clients tools for mental and emotional resilience no matter the challenges they are facing. Davina was a visiting practitioner on Bawah Reserve in July 2023.
Experience true wellbeing at bawah reserve
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