Day 14 of IDJSIJ Challenge - Nighty Night

​My very busy family weekend aggressively continues, thanks to a four day weekend from school and a sweet little gal turning double digits. On the weekend, I almost always have to practice at night between everyone’s bed times, and that gets dicey. It’s easy to just peace out and go to actual sleep. So far so good, but the longer the kids are home during the day, the more my personal restoration time disappears. I know I’m not the only one with this problem, so I will say it loud and proud for all our sakes. Doing jack shit takes effort, and the effort is worth it!

That reminds me of a nice topic for today – Yoga Nidra, roughly translated to “yogic sleep”. Yoga Nidra entails going into the restorative pose called Savasana (Day 3 post) which is demonstrated in the above picture by the birthday girl herself. We set the body comfortably lying on the ground on a mat, with a rolled up blanket under the knees if the lower back is not resting comfortably on the ground. Instead of sinking into relaxed awareness by letting the thoughts slow down on their own, in Yoga Nidra, we bring awareness into each part of the body slowly and in a specific pattern.

Properly done, Yoga Nidra sends the body into a deeply relaxed sleep-like state while the mind is still conscious and aware. I’ve never done this practice without listening to a recording and I very often accidentally fall fully asleep. It really is wonderfully relaxing, and the yogis say that 30 minutes of Yoga Nidra is the equivalent of 2 or more hours of actual sleep.

If you are following along with my challenge, and find your mind is too busy to drop into stillness when you go into your restorative pose, try listening to a guided practice. YouTube has many options, some as short as ten minutes, but a 20-30 minute practice would give you the full benefit. My plan is to get the kids to bed, do my seated meditation, and then end in Yoga Nidra. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz………