I have spent a while trying to articulat my understanding and approach to Yoga Nidra,  but I have been unable to produce anything as well as what has already been written by James Reeves (my teacher). So, I’m sorry if you think I’m being lazy and I hope James does not mind me sharing his piece? The 4 headings: Awakening From The Dream, Working With Unconscious Material, Acceptance Of What Is and Starting From Wholeness are a neat ‘toe dip’ to more understanding if you read on…

Awakening from the dream

Yoga Nidra is a play on words. The word ‘Yoga’ can be translated as ‘oneness’ or ‘interconnected wholeness’ and points to our essential self as a feeling of belonging and interconnectedness with life itself, accompanied by a quiet, watchful presence. The word ‘Nidra’ means sleep. Often inaccurately defined as ‘sleep yoga’, the words ‘Yoga Nidra’ really imply that we are all somewhat asleep: to this real nature of timeless, spacious presence and to the unconscious aspects of ourselves that play out daily in our lives.

Through practicing Yoga Nidra again and again, we learn to access a liminal state somewhere between ‘asleep’ and ‘awake’. This place gives us the opportunity for alchemy. As we rest here, we can meet all of our sensations, feelings, emotions, thoughts and beliefs in a new way. We learn to be with our whole self – our whole experience - with a dreamlike quality that is inherently more spacious than our thinking mind. Rather than dividing, judging, choosing and refusing what we do and don’t like about ourselves and about life, we have the opportunity to be with this content in a new way – one that is considerably more open and non-judgmental.

Working with unconscious material

Yoga Nidra works - initially - to establish a state somewhere between the conscious and unconscious mind. As we engage with the practice, our thinking mind ‘shifts gears’ toward the pre-sleep, hypnagogic state. This state is more dreamlike in its quality, and we may see images and access feelings that are not as readily available in our day-to-day, waking (thinking) state.

As our mind begins to produce a new rhythm of alpha brain waves, we become ‘abridged’ between the thinking mind (Beta) and the dream state (Theta). Now a new possibility emerges: to experience these deeper aspects of ourselves, which psychology refers to interchangeably as the subconscious/unconscious.

In this way, repressed or unknown content can arise freely and unexpectedly during practice sessions. We may find ourselves seeing a surprise image or encountering a deep feeling or emotion that we were not aware of in our waking life.

As we progress through numerous Yoga Nidra sessions, we are also invited to proactively engage and even call forth this same, unconscious material. As we shift from refusal to curiosity and a more natural openness, we fall into deeper levels of trust with the inner world (and its trust in us), so this content can come to our conscious attention.

It is quite common to cry for ‘no reason at all’, or feel frustrated or angry, or anxious in a way that takes us by surprise. In these moments there may be a tendency to:

- Start thinking about the experience and try to work it out; therefore closing it down/escaping from it (we go back into the thinking ‘Beta’ state, and leave this more expansive ‘Alpha’ state, which is what brought it about).

- Project the unwanted feeling - again, by thinking about the ‘other’ or the circumstances that caused it, or how we’re annoyed by the voice of the recording, or the noise around us, or the uncomfortable ground below.

- Merge with the experience, becoming overwhelmed or ‘flooded’ by the feeling or emotion.

Over time, we train ourselves to notice these tendencies to avoid, repress or act out our unconscious material and replace them with curiosity and spacious openness.

It’s key here to remember that whatever arises in our practice is our own content (even if it was ‘triggered’ by an external circumstance) and that we are learning to find a middle ground between spacious openness and proactive engagement with this inner content. Too much or too little space/contact can leave us either distanced from or flooded by what is waiting to be integrated.

Acceptance of what is

When we fight with reality – who we are and what life is asking of us – we often lose. You can see for yourself if this statement is true. Reflect on the battles you have taken with yourself and the world: how did they conclude?

It is one thing to meet, greet and welcome the parts of ourselves that are bent out of shape and offer them love, it’s another to try and cut off from who we really are.

In this model, there is no ‘winning’, end game, or place to get to. Ultimately you recognise that your awakened nature is an open, timeless presence that has always been alive in you; it was just waiting to be uncovered. All that obscured it was the belief that you were separate, and your identity was misplaced. It is like coming home to a good friend and a loving home.

Starting from wholeness

Whilst many systems propose healing or recovery, Yoga Nidra points to our wholeness. Rather than starting from a place of brokenness, or implied problems that need a solution, this course offers a new perspective: that as we meet our very being, we uncover an unshakable ground that empowers us to be with and integrate all of the disowned parts of ourselves.

Along the way, we may uncover deep-rooted beliefs we hold to be true about ourselves and the world, historical traumas and memories, conditioned ways of relating to and being in the world. But ultimately we discover that who we are is none of these things. Our real nature is untouched, untainted and healthy, healed and whole - just as it is. We might say that as we uncover our ‘completeness’ it provides us with a more-than-adequate space to meet ourselves in ever-deeper ways, allowing fear and doubt to be replaced by a fearless curiosity.