Meditation is a blessing for those who are troubled with anxiety, panic, endless thoughts, and restlessness. But what if these emotions do not let you meditate at peace? When you are worn out with feeling fearful and anxious all day, the body and mind crave the experience of some rest and a little peace; but more times than not, you are too restless to stop, relax and meditate!
At this very acute stage of anxiety and panic, our bodies need something that can tell them that it’s ok to relax and let go! Yoga nidra – a systematic, multistage set of relaxation techniques, helps to induce a deep, meditative state by shifting concentration on the breath. It is both, a form of meditation as well as a mind and body balancing therapy.
Yoga nidra allows us to reach the most profound level of relaxation possible. It actually benefits the practitioner on all the three levels of existence; i.e. physical, mental and spiritual.
Relieved physical restlessness
By guiding your body to balance states of physical and emotional being, practitioners often experience immediate physical benefits, such as reduced stress and better sleep, and relief from various pains. Yoga nidra is known for its potential to heal psychological wounds. The mind turns sharper at grasping information and learning becomes much quicker when practicing yoga nidra. Some of the most troubling post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, including hyper alertness, anxiety, and sleep disturbances, have diminished. Diseases such as insomnia, hypertension, migraine, ulcers, digestive disorders, and even asthma can be managed by “Yoga nidra”.
Anxiety can be described as an unpleasant feeling of fear of something. It can be categorized into at these five distinctive types:
- Panic – an extreme momentary fear without any obvious external cause.
- Phobia – irrational fear resulting in conscious and forceful avoidance of particular objects, anticipated situations, people and other things.
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) – a reiteration of thoughts (obsession) for something that has to do with a certain fear.
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) – mainly brought about by excessive negative past experiences rendering one feel helpless and / or fearful.
- Generalized anxiety disorder – a general feeling of ‘angst’ or aroused fear of anxiousness.
Managing anxiety with Yoga Nidra
Yoga nidra is a wonderfully effective deep relaxation technique for anxiety treatment and panic, releasing tension and improving health. It is indispensable for settling anxiety problems. Suffering from anxiety involves dealing with a highly alert and over reactive mind which is constantly either on fight or flight mode. Continuously ruminating on negative thoughts, worrying about future events, or probable circumstances, can get really tiring. Our mind creates our world. Thus our reaction patterns often become the source of suffering. A person in an anxious state of mind has readily created barriers around her own life thus impeding a free and creative unfolding.
Yoga nidra is highly effective to help calm down such a mind and release negative thoughts. Continuous practice of yoga nidra cultivates a mental sense of quietude and deep physical and emotional relaxation in the practitioner.
A lot of us are continuously trying to bring about a behavioral or emotional change in us and yoga nidra helps us to welcome ourselves and mould our new being into our own skin easily. This moment of true welcoming is where the profound transformation takes place. Often when the body and mind are unable to deal with pressure; either physical or emotional, it releases from the body and mind in the form of frustration, anger, panic or anxiety, pains or illness. Often pent up emotions or accumulated stress is released during yoga nidra, which detoxifies the mind.
Yoga nidra counteracts stress and provides effective relief from depression and long standing anxiety. Regular practice of yoga nidra will help to release this stress step by step from all levels of existence and enhance our emotional quotient. As a meditation practice, yoga nidra can engender a profound sense of joy and well-being. Yoga nidra offers a gentle approach, starting with body awareness, then working compassionately with thoughts and emotions as they arise, and gradually leading the meditator to access a greater field of awareness.
