Gong Yoga Nidra
Combining the deeply restorative practice of Yoga Nidra, with the transformative power of gongs.
Yoga Nidra is Ancient NSDR
Yoga Nidra is yogic sleep, or sleep with awareness. It's maintaining the connected awareness as you're dropping deeper through consciousness. It's measurable in brainwave cycles. In those few minutes, just as we are dropping off into sleep our brain drops into the liminal state, the meditative mind. In that state, we experience the deepest levels of relaxation and visionary experiences. Through Yoga Nidra, we can allow our brains to maintain that state for the entirety of the practice.
Non-Doing
The practice of yoga Nidra guides us into a state of non-doing, a highly regenerative state where the energy normally burned by the mind is fully freed to heal and restore the body. The healing energy of the body, freed from the thoughts of the mind, can become prana energy, unlocking inner guidance, knowing and insight into your true nature.
Benefits of Yoga Nidra
Prolonged time in a deeply meditative state has been shown to increase the hormones that regulate our nervous system, GABA, melatonin, serotonin, oxytocin, endorphins, dopamine, DHEA, and human growth hormone. At the same time it decreases cortisol, epinephrine, norepinephrine, and lactate, all of which can damage the body, weaken the immune system through inflammation and lead to disease and the dysfunction. As a restorative, an hour of Yoga Nidra is equivalent to 4 hours of quality sleep.
Adding Gongs
The sounds and vibrations of the gongs during Yoga Nidra help to induce a hypnagogic state of receptivity. They direct and focus the mind’s attention and enhance visualization, working on both visual and audio imagination. They invite us to effortlessly down-shift our normal beta state (waking consciousness) to alpha (relaxed consciousness), and reach theta (meditative state) where deep internal healing can occur.
History
Yoga Nidra comes from Nyasa, the ancient tantric tradition of using the body as a vehicle to enlightenment. An early tantric practice was to sanctifying every part of the body with the sound of its own mantra. Gong Yoda Nidra makes this practice more accessible for everyone by substituting the universal healing sound of the gong for the individual mantras to sanctify the body. The sound of the gong opens the portal to another realm of consciousness and, as such, is a sacred instrument that sanctifies those around it.
A powerful tool for therapeutic change
Gong Yoga Nidra has been helpful for many with inducing deep relaxation, heightening awareness, connecting deeply with oneself, integrating changes, facilitating creativity and can be a tool for eliminating habit patterns that are at the root of physical and psychological suffering
Yoga Nidra follows the yogic model of healing through the five layers of existence of the human being, called the koshas, or the sheaths of existence as illustrated below
Gong Yoga Nidra is a deeply restorative guided meditation through the five layers of being: physical, energy, emotional, knowledge body, and bliss body
During the practice, you will be guided by voice and gongs…
The Physical Body: through guided body awareness
The Energy Body or Chakras: through directed breath awareness
The Emotional Body: through images and sensation awareness
The Higher Knowledge Body: through guided meditation
The Bliss Body or True Self: through transformational gong playing