You know the place just before you fall asleep?

As you feel your body putting up the closed-for-business sign, locking the door, and counting the profit in the register, it begins to go into a state of hibernation.

Your mind shifts from logic to mysticism. You’re aware of your bed yet your awareness is floating away from physical reality.

At this point, you might feel like you are falling and you are still aware enough to catch yourself right before you drift into complete sleep.

This place between asleep and awake is where the unconscious mind connects with consciousness. We can enter this state through a guided meditation called Yoga Nidra or yogic sleep. This is a powerful practice to promote self-healing by reprogramming your mind.

Changing Our Minds By Changing Our Brains

You have heard the phrase: “A child’s mind is like a sponge.” Their brains aren’t fully developed, so neurons continuously try to make new connections and grow. For example, in early childhood, we make about 1 million new connections every second.

By the time we are adults, we have about 100 trillion of these connections in place. At this point making new connections isn’t quite so easy because many, if not all, of our neurons have already made a connection.

Once a connection is made it is difficult to alter it without effort.

Our minds try to protect our perception of reality by maintaining these connections.

Luckily, by understanding that change is necessary no matter how old or experienced we are, we can use new information to break old connections and form new ones using Yoga Nidra.

Breaking Behavioral Patterns With Positivity

What controls the neurological connections or patterns made in our brains?

Our experiences and reactions to those experiences.

Emotions are one of the biggest contributors to how we react. One of the most common emotions is fear or anxiety, which leads to stress. A body in stress goes into survival mode, unable to think rationally or heal.

Stress and emotions also release hormones that in turn feed our belief systems and our current perception of reality.

When an overflow of negative emotions invades our minds again and again, then we develop hardwired behaviors that can act as triggers or unconscious habits called samskaras.

To alter these emotional reactive responses, we have to redirect the energy. We do this by feeding positivity to create new neuropathways.

Our emotions are processed and stored deep in our brains in the Limbic System. This is where Yoga Nidra comes into play by accessing the subconscious where our emotions live. Here we can remove the dualistic thinking that places our experiences into good and bad categories based on our emotional responses.

It’s important to note that we should never feel bad or regret behaviors because this only feeds the negativity. Instead, we should view all of our experiences as a stepping stone toward an ultimate inner goal called sankalpa, which I will go into detail about later.

When we feel gratitude rather than resentment toward our past, we can activate neurotransmitters that release feel-good hormones like serotonin.

This is the place where healing can happen as we allow ourselves to feel safe, removing the stress hormone, cortisol, that puts pressure on our nervous system and entire body. It is impossible to heal when cortisol is in our blood.

But first, we must gain insight into our subconscious and access those emotions by getting into the right state of mind.

Surfing the Perfect Brainwave

Yoga Nidra recreates the state between sleep and awake because it is the perfect place for rewiring our neuropathways. This is when are brainwaves are most flexible and easily influenced.

Altering our brains is key, but how do we do this?

Brainwaves change according to our circumstances and whether we are in a state of rest, focus, or stress. These brainwaves include:

Beta: Focused, awake mind, capable of processing information through motor sensors, most common brainwave state

Alpha: Replaces active thinking with deep consciousness, relaxed, body at rest (Gateway to Yoga Nidra and any meditation)

Theta: Deep meditation, light sleep, dream state, gain insights

Delta: Deepest sleep, rejuvenation period, no dreams, difficult to reach if suffering from certain diseases

Gamma: Most active state, feeling gratitude and satisfaction, most creative and productive, connect experiences

Electromagnetically, as we move closer to Alpha>Theta>Delta our brain waves lengthen as the mind calms and the body relaxes. Our brains could go into any of these three states during Yoga Nidra. Each one offers us a particular gift that our bodies and minds need at that moment.

However, to achieve the deep insights needed to alter neurons, it is best to remain in between Alpha/Theta. This is where we gain insight while keeping the mind at ease to remove negative thought patterns.

Going into Alpha/Theta during your Yoga Nidra practice is so effective that a 45–60 minute practice equates to roughly 3–4 hours of normal sleep.

To get to this state we must peel back the layers to reach the core of who we are.

Planting the Seed With Sankalpa

Before we embark through the layers or koshas that make up our physical and spiritual bodies, first we have to set an intention or purpose for our practice called a sankalpa.

Using the statement “I am…” we affirm our innermost wish or desire that has the power to transform. This statement should come directly from our conscience as it is incapable of telling a lie. It is something that we may feel uncomfortable sharing with others because it is so personal.

Saying this “ I am” statement at the beginning of our practice will set the stage within our mind and plant this seed of intention deep within all koshas.

Some examples of a sankalpa may be:

I am healing

I am strong

I am safe

I am thriving

I am enough

We should keep using the same sankalpa each time we practice Yoga Nidra until it feels like we have completed our intention.

Now let’s get to the koshas.

Going Through Each Layer of Existence (Koshas)

Kosha means sheath in Sanskrit, which means a protective cover.

Five koshas protect the various layers of our being. Each one necessary to experience this life, the koshas act similar to a lampshade as they hide the next inner layer.

Peeling back each layer slowly reveals atman (our true selves), the light within.

Let’s go over each kosha separately.

Anamayakosha

The first kosha is anamayakosha, which is our physical body.

We focus on this layer of experience for two reasons: 1. To bring awareness to the body and 2. To give the cognitive mind something to focus on.

In Yoga Nidra, this happens through body scans.

Our attention goes to each body part, one by one bringing all of our awareness to this area. Then, slowly, we begin to connect the entire body as we recognize this first layer enveloping our physical existence.

Pranamayakosha

You may be familiar with pranayama where you control prana (the life force) through breathing exercises. When we speak of prana as a kosha, it means the energetic body or pranamayakosha.

This layer can be seen as the aura around us that represents the prana moving through our energy pathways (nadis).

To access this layer, we use prana as a guide to feel the energy pathways within the body or the first layer, anamayakosha. We do this using pranayama techniques that further relax the body and bring awareness further within.

Manomayakosha

The next layer is manomayakosha, the emotional and thought kosha.

Here is where many of our samskaras originate. It is the birthplace of our perception of the world based on the emotions we feel after experiencing something impactful.

To gain access to this realm, we introduce negative and positive emotions through word association. Using language to trigger emotion allows each person to feel something unique to their experience.

After feeling both negative and positive emotions, we then merge both emotions together. Bridging the gap of duality and finding the middle path toward wholeness.

Emotions dissolve and what is left is pure experience and acceptance.

Vijnanamayakosha

The word jnana in Sanskrit means wisdom and the vi added makes vijnana that means realization. However, these words don’t refer to knowledge as something that you learn. Instead, they are a spiritual wisdom, intuition, or a deep knowing. One that you have known your whole life whether you accessed it or not.

This innate wisdom is the layer of insight called vijnanamayakosha. The kosha is reached purely by your intention, however, a Yoga Nidra practitioner can assist with this insight.

Typically, this is done through rapid visualization or storytelling that leaves the intent open to interpretation.

In our deep state of rest, our intuition will naturally fill in the gaps of the visualization to provoke an inner realization.

At this point, we are guided back to our original intention, our sankalpa, to help us see that our insights are already working toward our intention.

Anandamayakosha

The final layer or kosha is one of bliss called anandamaykosha. This is the state at which one would access during deep meditation, reaching a direct connection to the divine source and achieving bliss.

We are reminded that this connection is through our own will and intention. And that this connection shows us how powerful we are, especially when it comes to healing.

How to Practice Yoga Nidra

Yoga Nidra can be practiced anywhere and anytime. All you need is a comfortable, quiet area as well as a mat to lie down on. You may also want to drape a blanket over your body to stay warm and place pillows under your head, neck, lower back, or knees to maintain comfort.

A typical practice lasts anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes. You can find guided Yoga Nidra practices online or on YouTube.

Practice at least once a week, working with the same sankalpa for the best results.

While practicing, you may fall asleep or go in and out of sleep. Try your best to remain aware, but if you do fall asleep, then it is a sign that your body needs this type of rest the most. Accept it and enjoy it.

Hari Om Tat Sat, All is reality, all is truth, all is good.

Namaste :)