How I discovered Yoga Nidra
Like many people around the world, I too experienced difficulties when Covid19 struck the world back in 2020. My performance at the university was in a steep decline and my personal life wasn’t any better either. We are social animals, and removing this aspect of our lives causes distress and somberness.
Around march of 2020 I discovered a video of a person named Dr. Alok Kanojia, often referred too as “Dr. K”. A psychiatrist that focuses on the modern day struggles of the younger generations. In this video, he mentioned the use of Yoga Nidra and it’s many benefits to his quality of life. This peaked my interest, how could a purely mental practice where the only challenge is not falling asleep, be so beneficial?
After watching this video I started my journey in finding a suitable narrator for the practice. I found and tried a few Indian narrators who also did English sessions, and eventually settled on Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati. A respected Yogi and the founder of Bihar Yoga Bharati. The video in question is no longer available on YouTube, but can be found on the site of Bihar, or by using this link.
Beginning the practice
Yoga Nidra is essentially a mental practice wherein a narrator will guide you through relaxing your body and focusing on mental conjuration of images, eventually leading and ending with a meditative state.
First success
It took me a few times to get into it, distractions being the main culprit of my failures. However, after about two weeks of practicing this video every night I finally achieved the meditative state. A surreal experience that can only be described as “true peace”. For the first time in forever I didn’t experience a single thought or worry. It was just me, the narrator and “the friendly darkness” (the space in front of the closed eyes).
Now personally, this alone was more than enough for me to incorporate this into my daily life. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg of benefits that Yoga Nidra brings with it.
The benefits of Yoga Nidra
One of the first benefits you will notice is the absence of worries at the start of the day, and a general improvement in the quality of sleep you experience. Yoga Nidra should always be practiced either before sleeping or after waking up, but regardless of choice these benefits will be present.
After a few weeks of practicing, the ability to concentrate and focus on a task improved dramatically for me. I wrote a 15.000 word report about Quantum Computing as one of my final assignments for the school semester and managed to score a perfect 10/10 (A+ for Americans). The best part is that I completed the task in a day or two. In contrast, just a month before I could barely motivate or focus on a single assignment. It was a night and day difference. I ended up recovering my grades that semester and finished university with “Cum Laude” (Latin honors) about a year and a half after that. Something which would have never been possible had I not started practicing Yoga Nidra.
At the start of the practice and the end of the practice, the narrator will mention a “Sankalpa” also referred to as a resolve. In short, this Sankalpa will be your highest truth to follow in your life. It is a way to change or add something to who you are, but should remain simple. An example might be: “Be kind to those in need of it” or “peace is my true nature”. A Sankalpa, is a vow and commitment to make for life.
Now this might sound very spiritual, and it definitely is. However, it is also not required and it’s perfectly okay to just start practicing without a Sankalpa. A Sankalpa requires you to be ready for a deep introspection before committing to something, and shouldn’t be made on a whim.
The final benefit is a very simple one. Like many people I have had some very stressful periods in my life. And in these moments it can be terribly difficult to fall asleep at night. Now while I recommend tackling the core of the issue, Yoga Nidra is one of the best ways to fall asleep. It might be seen as a joke but it really is a challenge to stay awake. The ability to listen to Yoga Nidra and fall asleep within about 30-40 minutes instead of hours, that alone is already worth gold in my opinion.
Conclusion
I hope you, the reader, give Yoga Nidra a chance. And I would love to hear your succes story, so feel free to message me anywhere with any questions or experiences.
Author: Tim van Oudheusden
Published: 2025-01-13