How to Create a Yoga Nidra Nest for Deep Rest

Welcome,

I'm Jocelyn.

I offer a lot of tracks here on Insight Timer around yoga nidra meditations.

And I find that a lot of people don't really know what a yoga nidra is.

That word yoga in front of it makes it feel like it's efforting,

Right?

Or it's strength building.

But actually,

Yoga nidra is effortless.

It's a meditation.

And often when we do yoga nidras,

It's beautiful to have what's called a yoga nidra nest,

A place to be held.

So this track is really just about what yoga nidra is and how to create your own yoga nidra nest.

So Yoga Nidra is effortless.

Is a time that you can Call all your own.

To find deep rest.

In fact,

Yoga nidra is often called yogic sleep or no sleep deep rest,

NSDR.

And it's a place where we surrender effort in the body and allow a beautiful softening of our subtle bodies.

And what I mean by subtle bodies,

In yoga nidra,

We work with koshas,

Subtle bodies.

And those five koshas start with the physical body,

The energetic and pranic body,

The emotional and mental bodies,

The wisdom body,

And the bliss body.

And as you enter into a yoga nidra,

You're going through those layers subtly.

And as you do that,

There have been studies that have shown that we can find ourselves in delta brainwave activity while still aware.

And that is the most healing thing.

And to think that you are just.

.

.

Allowing and surrendering and listening,

Right?

Yoga Nidra is really beautiful when you have a nest,

Something that can hold you,

That can support you.

I'm going to kind of bring you around.

I have behind me a little bit of a Yoga Nidra nest that I have created just to show you the pieces of it.

But there are some elements that I'll talk about first.

Something like a pillow to support your head or underneath your knees,

Right?

You might want an eye pillow to close out the light,

Right?

You might want a rolled up towel to go under your knees or a blanket to pull up over you because as we begin to surrender and really give over to the rest.

Sometimes we can get cold.

So having a warm blanket,

Something that you can pull up over you.

It also feels good to nest within the blanket.

You might want to be on a bed,

Which you can do this on your bed.

I do yoga nidras on my bed all the time.

Or you can do it on the floor,

Like in a yoga studio or on your own floor.

Often I dim the lights and I'll tell everyone in the house not to interrupt me unless it's an emergency so that that time is mine,

Right?

So a yoga nidra nest just creates the atmosphere of that surrender.

Right not all people but some people do fall asleep in a yoga nidra i have been known many times to fall asleep in a yoga nidra because all of a sudden my system's like oh i'm allowed to rest And I've had a crazy,

Crazy day,

So I just fall asleep.

So sometimes when I'm going in for a yoga nidra,

What I do is I set an alarm,

And that alarm is for 20 minutes after the yoga nidra has ended.

I give myself that little extra time to rest,

And I just leave that alarm on at a soft volume.

Yoga nidras can be anywhere from 10 minutes all the way up to 50 minutes to even longer than that.

In fact,

I have on my Insight Timer teacher page,

I have yoga nidras that go past the 50 minutes.

I have some that are 15 minutes.

But a yoga nidra is beautiful for that deep rest.

And this is coming from me,

Who's a mama and a homeschooling mama to three kids ages nine to almost 17.

And I don't get the sleep I need often.

So yoga nidra is something that allows me to deep rest in the day.

And I feel just rejuvenated after I come up and I can move and I can be in my life very present afterwards.

This is really great stuff to be able to start to listen to yoga nidras when I have insomnia I will listen to it at night if I can't fall asleep because my mind is buzzing yoga nidra gets me there every time So I am going to show you some of the pieces of the yoga nest and you can see how you might create your own and everyone's nest is going to be different.

You'll have different things to work with.

You might have more rolled up towels or you might have bolsters for your yoga practice that you can use in this.

And the last thing I want to say is with a yoga nidra nest where you get in and get you ready to be in that stillness,

In that surrender,

You might find that your body does not want to surrender laying on your back.

Side.

For instance,

When you're pregnant,

It is not easy to surrender and feel good and effortless on your back.

So it's best to be on your side,

But you can support your belly with different rolled up towels.

You can support your back with a bolster.

We just want to get the body as effortless as possible.

We want to get the body to a place where it is not holding itself,

Where we can really feel the relaxation.

And what a gift that is.

When you start beginning to practice Yoga Nidra.

So I'm gonna show you a little video,

I'll walk you through the different pieces.

This is the yoga nidra nest set up i'm just going to take it apart and show you the different elements underneath the yoga mat i have a thicker mat this is something i had from my mother who used this for her feldenkrais practice So I use it in my yoga nidra nest,

Not in yoga,

But in yoga nidra nest.

And then I take my yoga mat and I smooth it down over that.

Thicker mat.

This is a pillow that my daughter made for me.

It's easy enough to make your own pillow.

And it goes under my head.

And this is a bolster that I put under my knees.

And this is a towel that's already rolled up that I will put under my ankles to give my ankles a little bit of support.

I'm just gonna roll it out for you.

It's so simple to roll a blanket.

You can just fold it in half,

Roll it up,

And it's ready to use.

I have a blanket for warmth that I'll pull up over myself.

And you can use any blanket.

You might even use a weighted blanket.

And of course,

I have an eye pillow.

And my eye pillow has lavender in it because I enjoy that,

But you can have a totally unscented one.

I'm just going to set myself up put the bolster underneath my knees and then the towel underneath my ankles and i'm going to begin to pull that blanket up over myself And as I start to lay down,

I'm going to feel where i need to adjust putting that eye pillow on making sure all the parts of my body are supported and as effortless as possible.

And just to give you an idea of a way you might lay on your side,

You might change the pillows around.

Now it's going to be different for everyone.

I like to take a smaller bolster and put it between my legs and my thighs and then I'll take that larger bolster and I'll put it under my top leg so that my leg feels totally supported.

Put that blanket on.

And I might take that rolled up towel and turn it more into a circular form so that I have a little extra support.

Right under my top arm as it rests down.

So my wrist is supported,

My arm is supported.

And this is going to be different for everyone.

You might want to put a polster behind your back.

This is just some ways to use that yoga nidra nest.

I have not turned the lights out in this,

Just so you can see everything,

But I would most definitely turn the lights low,

Close the curtains.

And get ready for my yoga nidra guided meditation.

That is it.

That is a simple yoga nidra nest.

And like I said,

It can happen in a bed.

You just might bring a few extra things into your bed.

You might bring that eye pillow into your bed,

Whatever you want to do.

This is just one that I created on the floor that I often create for people who come to work with me.

Yoga Nidra.

I hope you check out some.

There are many wonderful Yoga Nidra guides here on Insight Timer.

And I have a lot as well on my teacher page.

Just know that,

You know,

To understand the depth of what yoga nidra does for somebody,

Does for your nervous system,

Does for your body,

Does for your mind.

It is like watering the garden,

Right?

It's like watering the garden.

Yeah.

Yeah,

So hopefully I'll see you again,

Being able to guide you in a yoga nidra,

My friend.

Namaste.