I had a wonderful trip to Arizona and Oregon, where I had a chance to teach a Spanish language yoga nidra class in person to the community health workers that I taught during the pandemic. Here’s a photo of this beautiful group of humans. It’s the first time I’ve taught them in a yoga studio (first time was in a park!), and only the second time we’ve done nidra together in person. What a treat...My next nidra offering is a new one I created to support sleep and starts on July 1 for three Monday evenings. Many of us don’t allow enough time to sleep (thanks to capitalism and also long lush summer days in the PNW, for those of you who live there.)
I’ve created a series that starts an hour later than my usual 7 pm PST start time. This July series starts at 8 pm Pacific Standard Time. The twist is that I will not guide you out of the nidra, i.e. you get to stay resting or sleeping, ideally for a long night’s rest. So if you need some support in getting more hours of sleep, this series is for you. Register here. You will get access to the recordings to practice on your own.
I am almost done with the amazing Total Yoga Nidra Network nidra immersion training. I learned some interesting facts about sleep being segmented, i.e. most humans don't sleep a solid 8-10 hours without waking up. These facts help frame what I am doing in the July nidra series, creating space for you to get enough time to enjoy all the healing segments of sleep.
Here’s an excerpt from some of my course reading.
“Much of this is due to strange ideas we have acquired about what sleep is and about how it works. Although in contemporary society we are primed to expect from ourselves eight hours uninterrupted sleep each night, this is not how we are 'wired'. Sleep occurs in a series of ninety minute cycles, and we are likely to wake up periodically during the night after each cycle of sleep. What happens is that we might wake, feeling a need to pee, or to listen out for an unusual sound, or perhaps have a drink of water. We are then very likely to go back to sleep easily and deeply and are probably not going to remember this in the morning - it’s as if there is a built in amnesia in our sleep pattern.
These nocturnal awakenings have an obvious evolutionary benefit: to ensure that our environment is free of predators, intruders, fire and other dangers and that we and our loved ones are safe. Think about how we have become the dominant species on the planet. If we lay asleep when a pack of wolves came prowling around we most likely wouldn’t: we’d have been supper!
For most of our existence we practiced a pattern of 'segmented sleep' which naturally accommodated these awakenings. The first part – the first two or three sleep cycles - was where deep sleep was concentrated. This is the part of sleep that is what the body needs, and is essential for rest and recuperation. And then we would naturally awaken for a while, and then we would return for our 'second sleep', where we slept lightly, and dreamt. This is the sleep for the mind, and is where the psychological processing occurs.”
