Calm Inflammation with Yoga Nidra (= yogic sleep)

As within, so without.

Really, regardless of our ethnicity, geographic location, upbringing, etc. we are more the same than we are different. Every human responds with relaxation to warmth and affection, muscular contraction to cold, sweat to heat, etc. But it’s not just in response to direct stimuli. Just watching the news of wildfires across the globe makes us feel hot and anxious, we even if we ourselves are in the dead of winter at the moment.

Simply put – there is no way to isolate ourselves from unrest somewhere on the planet. No matter how well things stand at home, if another home across the globe is in rubble, so collapses some chamber of our heart inside our BODY:

• an artery narrows

• respiration rate increases

• pulse quickens

• mind revs up into higher gears of anger, fear, worry.

We want to do something, yet feel powerless. We become a WORRIER.

This is a state of Fight or Flight.

We may recognize it and immediately remediate with some sort of self-effort: focus on the positive, take a day of self-care, garden, go on vacation, self-medicate… But next day – another wildfire miles away, another price hike at the pump, another virus, unjust legislation, war, famine -> -> -> another micro collapse in our internal infrastructure… Again, we feel powerless. And again, we try to remediate, finding ourselves stuck in permanent damage control mode.

This is a heart attack waiting to happen.

The sense of –

• anxiety

• anger

• powerlessness

• PTSD

– that we are ALL suffering to greater or lesser degree today has reached deep into our collective psyche. For some it feels like part of their DNA: most powerful unrest, with roots buried in deepest layers of the MIND, well out of reach. Collectively, we have become sick with anxiety, despondence and depression.

A sick MIND is unfit for any practice, let alone saving the world.

For us to be able to do something about anything, we must first become established in conscious practice of PERSONAL SUSTAINABILITY. In the context of inflammation, we must SUNSTAIN ABILITY to return to a place of CALM within, no matter what. Then and only then can we see what is available to us, from us, and for us by way of right action..

This is attainable through YOGA. And I am not talking about the poses here. There are many dimensions of yoga, with varying degrees of subtlety. The more subtle the causes of our suffering, the more powerful their destructive effect on us, the more difficult they are to work with, therefore, the more subtle should be our technique. The subtlety of root causes should match the subtlety of our approach to healing pain. SUBTLE is the most POWERFUL. 

Yoga NIDRA => “Yogic sleep” is one such practice

In Yoga Nidra we put our worrying on serious SNOOZE, giving our body a chance at homeostasis, so it can heal. I have been working with a client in HEAL your FLAME program, who is a US Army Veteran and sufferer of PTSD. Yoga NIDRA has been remarkably effective for him. So effective, I decided to share a recording of Yoga Nidra with YOU. WHY? Because I want the world to be a calmer place. As I know you do as well. So, let’s start with inner peace today, shall we?

Please enjoy this recording before bed time or 2-4pm during the day. REPEAT. REPEAT. REPEAT. Please do not get attached to following the instructions perfectly – just relax and follow as best you can. It’s not about precision here, but, rather, sustained effort of surrendering to instruction, that does the job – remarkably well.

Yoga NIDRA video lesson from HEAL your FLAME program

And if you find yourself stuck in perpetual Fight or Flight mode, no matter what you do to get out –  GET IN TOUCH!

HEAL your FLAME program is designed to help you UN-INFLAME every layer of your being, from innermost to most outward. Simply reply to this email or schedule a time to talk here