Sanskrit is scary (and so are a lot of other things).
Yoga Nidra, Sankalpa, Pranayama, Koshas, Chidakasha and so on.
This is the language of my passion. Guiding people into a state of deep relaxation and ease.
The offering of an opportunity to dig deep and coax the shy little wild animal of the soul out of the underbrush. This is a sharing of collected knowledge that has been gifted to me by the mysterious benevolence that brought us all here.
Here, home. Here, onto this walking path of earth school. We are all gifted in a particular way. Every single one of us holds timeless gifts within us that shape us and inform us, move us forward and change us. And, when we are courageous, and perhaps vulnerable enough, we connect and share.
My particular tribe of friends and family run the gamut of atheists, agnostics, subscribers of organized religious groups and universal seekers. I am well supported , whether it is a tolerance or a full out jamboree of like minded companions.
There was a point along the way when I became interested and even enchanted with the sublime practice of Yoga Nidra.
I fell deep. This practice was profoundly life changing for me.
It showed up for me at an extremely difficult time of sadness and despair. It called to me with the whispers of tenderness. I felt compelled to entrench myself deeply in the beauty, mystery and science of it all- to dig deep and shift and learn so that I could teach it. It flowed in and out if me as naturally as my midnight breath.
Quiet, simple and ever present. And then…right beside this bright new found friend, hiding in the gauzy gray shadows THEY arrived. The inner narratives. The saboteurs. The bullies, the naysayers and the killjoys.
Those gauzy shadows were multi-layered. And they were shape shifters. Often they were mine and equally as often they were my tribe’s. We are mirrors of each other so this comes as no surprise. In their succinct longing to be heard ( I did mention they are bullies!) they sounded something like this:
Layer #1
“It’s just a long nap- I don’t need/ have time for that”
In this sound bite world we have become extremely efficient at tasks we are good at. Our culture validates efficiency and so we have become very good at accomplishing our “to do” list. This in turns leaves us in a consistently disconnected superficial state of being. We love “busy”. (Until we don’t) We use the word as a source of pride. As though our life is ruled by a taskmaster. But guess what has been forgotten? We are the choice makers. The exhaustion, the sighs, the feeling of depletion are all products of our own doing. The gentle inner entity of Quiet is sitting patiently, waiting to be acknowledged. It sounds something like “At this moment, at this breath -stop. Stop and listen- I have something to say. Come on in. Come back home.”
Layer #2
“My mind is too busy- I could never do that”
Ahhh, but you can. Among the many beautiful qualities of Yoga Nidra is the sequential deepening of the relaxation response that we all have access to. Here lies the deeply healing power of quiet.
This practice is based on the model of the koshas (UH-OH Sanskrit word!).
Put simply, the koshas are known as the 5 “subtle bodies” (also described as sheath, cover, treasure) that we all hold within us as Human/Spiritual beings. They are often visualized as the layers of an onion.
Using this framework as a model for Yoga Nidra, one is allowed to move from the most familiar layer- your physical self, to the deeper layers of energetic self, emotional self, wisdom self and at it most deepest- your connection to the Divine self. This is done through slow somatic (body) movement, intention setting, breath awareness (pranayama) and visualization.
As you move deeply inward, the nervous system is naturally calmed and the brain waves gently slow to allow for a deep and nurturing and healing environment. This is where science meets mystery meeting alchemy.
Layer #3
“Its called Yoga Nidra? I can’t do yoga. (Can you call it something else?)”
I meet all kinds of people. I teach, I work at a large trauma center as a respiratory therapist in a large urban hospital and I am a fellow student at the University of Earth School. If I could sit down next to every person that I have crossed paths with and who has told me they can’t DO yoga- I would say this:
If you are truly participating in this world, operating from the empathetic home of kindness and compassion, if you are walking down the street and making eye contact- offering a smile- then you are doing yoga. If you are chasing after a stranger who dropped a glove, helping the little mom and pop corner store by buying your milk there (even though it costs a little more), taking a few moments to let a stranger on the streetcar bend your ear, you are doing yoga.
One of the simple translations of the word yoga is “to yoke or join”. I would say “interconnect”. This interconnection begins with you, in the quiet acceptance of your uniqueness. Sure, “doing yoga” can include asana (or postures) that run the spectrum of simply standing and feeling your two feet on the ground to the opposite extreme of standing on your hands and everything in between.
I choose to believe that when in the solid place of connection - human and spiritual- we are not “doing yoga,” we are yoga. And the more we can commit to finding and holding the quietness within, the greater that realization becomes.
Yoga Nidra (“The yogi’s sleep”) is one way to cultivate inner connection. It is by no means the only way. It happens to be my way. As the poet Rumi says “There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground” So, if it makes you feel better, you can call it “connection” practice. I’m still going to call it yoga nidra.
Layer #4
“What is this word embodiment? It’s not Sanskrit, but it feels like a strange and foreign land.”
Yes, truly feeling your body and waking up to sensation can feel otherworldly. Strange that we can inhabit this human container that we walk around with in various degrees of numbness, depending on life experience and lifestyle. Strange that we are so used to the state of “dis-embodiment” that it has become tolerable and even normal for us.
We actively seek out addictive behaviours so that we don’t have to “feel”. Stranger yet is that feeling sensation, which is our natural state, has become the foreign concept instead of the other way around. Our senses are the gateways to the depths of feeling and emotion.
All the beauty and mystery and subtlety of our purpose and uniqueness reside in the sublime sensations of our body. The sensibility of awareness is timid. In the quiet, that awareness will poke it’s head out and start befriending you. It will whisper back to you the silent answers to your deepest inquiries.
These answers show up in the form of a feeling of ease or expansion or softness, It wants to be known, to be heard. E-motion is energy in motion. Yoga Nidra allows you connect to and feel your body. To receive what you need and to let go of what you don’t. To land tenderly in the country of YOU.
Layer #5
"What’s the point?"
Remembering. That’s the point. Remembering who we truly are and why we are here. What we know and what we forget...
There is an old Hebrew parable that teaches us about the story of "us" before we are born. In the simplest form, the legend goes that while we are still in the safety of our mother's wombs- as innocent growing entities- just before we are at our ripest state, an angel comes to visit us.
At this blessed visitation - through the benevolence of our Creator, we are given all the secrets of life. This knowledge is so exciting that we feel the need to be born and share this wisdom. But! Just before this happens, that same angel taps the space just under our nose - creating the dent - and says Shhhhhh!...... Whoosh... we arrive!
This powerful yet gentle tap has caused us to forget everything about the gift that we received. We arrive as a blank slate... Thus the conundrum and cordial teachings of earth school.
We are here to live and make mistakes and get wise and help each other. Everything a reminder to come home to what we already know and hold within in us. This is the generosity of the gift of Yoga Nidra and quiet practice.
Integration and acceptance.
One of the first books I read at the pivotal point in my life leading to the work I do was M. Scott Peck’s’ book “The Road Less Traveled.”
The very first line of the book is “Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult - once we truly understand and accept it - then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.”
Quiet. Sanskrit words. Relationships. Life.
There will always be scary stuff. This is the call of living an expansive and rich human life. Living it creatively and fully. This is the coming home... to you, your mind, your body.
A plethora of opportunities to coax the quiet and sweet inner knowledge out into the open. To remember who you are and what you now and have always known.