Yoga Nidra:
Awakening to the True Self through Deep Relaxation & Awareness

"Calmness is the one thing necessary for the spirit to be heard."
—William Q. Judge

Yoga Nidra, often called “yogic sleep,” is an ancient meditation practice that guides the body into profound rest while the mind remains awake and aware. It is both a technique—a systematic process of relaxation—and a state of being, where we experience ourselves as awareness itself.​

Ancient Roots 

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Yoga Nidra comes from the yogic tradition and was systematized in modern times by Swami Satyananda Saraswati, who drew on ancient tantric practices to create an accessible method for everyone. His approach combines guided awareness, body scanning, breath, and visualization to lead practitioners into the threshold state between waking and sleeping.​

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What happens in Yoga Nidra?

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In a session, you simply lie down, close your eyes, and listen. The body is guided into deep stillness. Breath slows, muscles release tension, and the nervous system shifts into its healing mode. Awareness is gently led through different stages—body, breath, senses, imagery—allowing layers of physical, mental, and emotional holding to dissolve.​

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While the body rests as if asleep, the mind is not lost in dreams. Instead, you enter the hypnagogic state, the subtle space between waking and sleeping. In this state, brainwaves shift into the theta range—a frequency associated with creativity, memory integration, emotional release, and deep restoration. Unlike ordinary sleep, Yoga Nidra teaches us to remain conscious here, resting in awareness itself.

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Why Practice Yoga Nidra? ​

Yoga Nidra is more than relaxation—it is a doorway to self-regulation and healing. In this state, the body and mind restore themselves in ways that ordinary rest cannot reach. More importantly, it is a direct experience of yourself as awareness. 

Benefits include:

• Profound physical rest and stress relief

• Resetting the nervous system into balance

• Emotional release and healing

• Improved sleep and digestion

• Access to insight, intuition, and creativity

• A felt sense of spaciousness and inner peace

​With continued practice, Yoga Nidra becomes a skill. You learn to step into calmness even in the midst of life’s challenges, to steady your awareness, and to live more fully from the clarity of consciousness itself.

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Beyond Sleep: Resting as Awareness

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Ordinary sleep restores the body, but it can still be filled with dream activity and stress responses. In Yoga Nidra, awareness is anchored while the body rests deeply. This creates a unique opportunity: to experience yourself as pure awareness, as consciousness itself.​

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​​This recognition is both healing and transformative. It reminds us that beneath the fluctuations of the mind and body, there is an unchanging presence—whole, steady, and free.

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To release identification with the transient—body, thoughts, and emotions—is a pinnacle of yogic philosophy, as Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtras teach. In this way, Yoga Nidra offers a path to transcend the Kleśas (mental afflictions). When we no longer grasp at what is impermanent, we free ourselves from suffering.

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So Yoga Nidra is neither ordinary waking nor ordinary sleep. It is the space between—the still point where the mind grows quiet and the eternal Self becomes apparent.

As Swami Satyananda Saraswati wrote:

“Yoga Nidra is the yoga of aware sleep. In this lies the secret of self-healing.”

And as William Q. Judge reminds us:

“Calmness is the one thing necessary for the spirit to be heard.”

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Through Yoga Nidra, we discover that awareness is always present, steady, and whole. This recognition is profoundly healing and deeply elevating.

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Experience Yoga Nidra with Me 

Yoga Nidra is at the heart of my offerings. It precedes and deepens the sound journeys of Soundful Sanctuary (group immersions at The Theosophical Society in Detroit) and Harmonic Sanctuary (intimate sessions at Boston Tea Room in Ferndale).

In these spaces, Yoga Nidra gently guides you into deep rest, while the resonance of crystal singing bowls, chimes, and other instruments sustains the state of relaxation and awakens an elevated consciousness.

A shorter variation of Yoga Nidra is also often offered at the close of physical yoga practice, allowing you to rest more fully in Śavāsana, the final posture of integration and release.

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