Most people come to a yoga class to discover an altered state. Nothing too mind-bending usually (!), but a more relaxed mind and body, a break from our perpetual inner talk, a positive outlook, and so on: and these are all gentle changes in consciousness. When we feel ‘better’, which usually means more relaxed, our brain waves slow down, moving from beta waves to alpha waves (which are generally associated with relaxation and receptivity), even slowing to the deep sleep wavelengths of theta and delta waves during certain deep relaxation practices and meditation (see below). We are very likely to experience these changes as profound, gentle and very positive alterations to our usual state of awareness. Moreover, once we know this state – and many of us do not at all before we are taught! – it is easier to return to it.
When we talk about altered states in yoga we can of course go much further. The word yoga means union and if any of us ever aspire for that experience – union with universal consciousness, becoming ‘self-realised’ – we have to be prepared for immense shifts in consciousness and all manor of altered states en route, including visions, psychic perception and so on. None of which are, or should ever be, be the aim of your average yoga class!
But whatever our intention when we practice yoga, feeling better or the ultimate union of self-realisation, the starting point has to be the same: relaxation! Relaxation, real relaxation, is a very profound experience in it’s own right and one many of us do not know too well before we discover a good yoga class and teacher. It almost goes without saying that real relaxation is hugely beneficial for pregnant women and their unborn babies, as well as for parents of young children (and everybody else of course!).
What is relaxation?
When do you feel relaxed? How do you go about relaxing? Most of us are not taught how to relax. When we are stressed we put the TV on, call friends, search the internet, have a drink or two, perhaps resort to sleeping pills or anti-depressants. We have no idea what it feels like to really let go. We are often under pressure from outside (such as from our bosses, our workload, our partners and so on); and under pressure from the inside, from past experiences (perhaps the expectations our parents had for us, things our teachers said, and a whole lot more). We may feel the need to prove ourselves all the time, feel in competition with one another and we don’t know how to fully trust ourselves, each other or the benevolent universe. So we are very, very tense!
An experience of being really relaxed changes all that. Real relaxation is what makes even the most habitually angry and defensive person, such as some of those we have worked with in prisons, sit up with a beaming smile and use words like lovely, happy and peaceful. It is what allows a tired and stressed mother to rediscover feeling joyful and loving and ready to carry on caring! It is what allows us to unlock our creativity, feelings of happiness and want to connect to one another again. It is a big change in perception and it’s inexpensive to learn, free to practice and healthy!
Sleep is good, but it doesn’t always go as deep as real relaxation. We can wake up still feeling tense and tired. Real relaxation is when we let go of our busy, critical intellect and allow other layers of our personality (the subconscious and unconscious) to spontaneously express themselves. It is a very creative state: discoveries and realisations occur. We get perspective: the things we were worried about suddenly seem small and manageable, even irrelevant, and can be let go of. We also access deeper layers of our personality and in this creative state effective personal transformation can begin. In a deeply relaxed state we can even perceive deeper spiritual truths that can profoundly change our relationship with our self and our life.
So how do we do it?
Yoga Nidra
Over sixteen years ago, I was very lucky. I experienced a sudden spontaneous moment of very deep relaxation that completely changed my life. I was in an unusually open and receptive, relaxed state (unusual for that time, believe me!) when someone I was with very skilfully invited me to accept myself. Very suddenly I changed! I experienced waves of energy leaving my chest and after this a new joy and acceptance settled upon me. Life seemed – permanently – much better, as if I had suddenly entered a new universe in which trust and connection were possible. After this experience I sought out a spiritual path and eventually became a yoga teacher.
The practice I found which has helped, more than any other, to preserve this positive state of mind is called Yoga Nidra. At The Yoga Home we are so happy to be trained to teach this amazing practice, which has its origins in ancient Tantric texts and was brought to the modern world by Swami Satyananda. He describes the practice as ‘the science of relaxation’. We teach Yoga Nidra in our pregnancy and general classes and our workshops (and in optimistic snippets in the postnatal and toddler classes!) It is probably our most popular practice!
Yoga Nidra is a deep relaxation technique, practiced from lying down, which takes the practitioner swiftly (within 30 minutes) into an altered state of consciousness. Sometimes it is compared to the state of hypnosis, though it has differences, most notably in that in Yoga Nidra the teacher never makes suggestions and has no interest in altering the character or habits of the student.
The practice is designed to release muscular, emotional and mental tension. Muscular tension is related to our body and nervous system, emotional tension is accumulated through the repression of feelings, and mental tension is the product of our mind’s fantasies and confusions. When we feel sad or angry for example, it is not usually because of some superficial cause that we may blame at the time, but an accumulation of mental tensions based on various experiences we have had over a lifetime.
Using a practice like Yoga Nidra to let go of our tension is a very profound process of transformation. Sometimes we feel very happy and blissful after practicing, other times we may acknowledge certain feelings or experiences we had buried. Almost always we feel better than we did before – because each time we practice we release a little more of the tension that prevents us from feeling really happy. We let go of our critical intellectual conscious attention and get in touch with the deeper layers of our personality; we rediscover our creativity, and remember how to feel peaceful and at ease.
Learning to relax is a very important and life changing start, but it is just that, a start. What comes along as we learn to relax and let go is the beginning of a much deeper journey of self knowledge which has the power to release our full potential. What we bring to yoga classes inside ourselves doesn’t matter; any starting place is good. We can then begin to experience the power of relaxation and the change this can bring into our lives.
You can download our pregnancy yoga nidra from itunes (see link on homepage); and watch this space for more yoga nidra recordings coming soon! To buy good yoga nidra recordings you can visit www.sycnottingham.com or www.syclondon.com