Yoga Nidra for Dreams, Shadows, + The Dark

Nurture yourself with potent yoga nidra during this season of darkness. It's also a season which can become hectic and over-scheduled with holidays and cultural expectations that are not realistic.

So come and lie down....you can hit the pause button and nourish yourself with my nidra classes, full of poetry, crystals and optional journaling. Consider it your gift to yourself.

Yoga nidra is a guided meditation that takes you to the parasympathetic state, where deep rest and healing can happen.

My upcoming nidras can be taken as a series or you can drop-in. Choose your adventure. Register here.
Read on to learn about my varied offerings this season....

October 3rd & 10th offer nidras for dreaming.

These sessions will also come with suggestions for crystals that can support dreams and sleep.

November 21st offers a nidra for the shadows.

I will share a card from the gorgeous oracle deck Wisdom of the Shadow. The nidra will be unique, as students can co-create it by sharing words that resonate for them, as well as what the oracle card inspires. After the nidra there will be time to integrate with journaling or visual art of your choosing.

December 5th & 19th offer nidras for winter rest

Slow down and connect to your breath with beautiful seasonal imagery and optional distant reiki.

Full-series participants: Along with the 5 weekly livestream yoga nidra classes, you get access to nidra recordings for your home practice until January 1.

Drop-in students are welcome, please register for the specific session you wish to join. Drop-in students do not receive access to recordings.

These items are recommended for optimal comfort during the practice:

• A comfortable place to lie down

  • If on the floor, consider softening it with a blanket under you.

• A pillow to prop up your head and one for your under your knees if you're lying on your back

• Comfortable layers and have an extra blanket on hand in case you're cold

• Eye pillow or scarf to block out the light

• A warm herbal tea or bottle of water and a light snack to help ground after the class ends

• Journal or paper, pencil. Colored pencils if you would prefer to draw, instead of writing.

• Cell phone turned off

Dates / Times / Format

5 Thursdays sprinkled throughout Fall and Winter season

• Oct 3rd & 10th

• Nov 21st

• Dec 5th & 19th

7:00pm - 8:00pm PST

Livestream

Investment

$100 for series

** Please pay directly through myVenmo account: @Rita-Jimenez-4 or via PayPal: @ritaj65 **

Rest is resistance - new nidra series this September - registration is open now

 I am excited to announce a unique nidra offering using the framework of rest as a liberatory act of resistance from the amazing book "Rest is Resistance."   If you haven't read it yet, highly highly recommend it!  Register for my series here.  

In this 4-week series, I will infuse key themes and quotes from the New York Times’ bestseller Rest is Resistance by Nap Bishop Tricia Hersey.
One of my favorite quotes is, “A community call toward rest as a form of activism is a call to slow down and listen and care. It is an empowered place fueled by the shared goal of becoming more human. We are not machines. We are not on Earth to fulfill the desires of an abusive system via our exhaustion.”

After each nidra I will offer a journaling prompt from Hersey's Rest is Resistance book club guide. Journaling after nidra is a potent way to tap into your own intuitive wisdom and integrate your experience. Everyone is encouraged to read Rest is Resistance, but the class is for all, whether you have read it or not.

This series will be recorded and available for replay until October 3rd.
The details:

4-week series; Thursdays in September

September 5th, 12th, 19th, & 26th

7:30 - 8:30pm PST

Livestream

Investment

$90 for series

** Please pay me directly through Venmo account: @Rita-Jimenez-4 OR her PayPal: @ritaj65

If you are of African heritage and the class fee is a barrier, please contact me via email at ritaj65@gmail.com.
If you would like to donate to support African heritage folks in taking this series, please reach out via ritaj65@gmail.com.

Schedule changes coming - Thursday evenings are in our future

Starting in August I will be offering nidra on Thursday evenings!  I have been holding space on Monday evenings for a few years, so I am hopeful that my faithful students will migrate to Thursday with me.  

My August series will continue with short nidras for sleep, offered later in the evening, where I don't guide students back to the waking state.  

Are you curious about taking a class with me?  What to learn more about nidra?  Start with listening to this podcast, where I talk about nidra and offer a short nidra practice at the end of the interview.  

Here's what some of my students say about my offerings:

Yoga Nidra with Rita Jimenez was a completely enriching experience. The thoughtfulness and intention within the class structure as well as the devotion to employing our individual exploration made this practice uniquely satisfying. I felt very supported throughout the process and am excited to deepen my practice steadily!

Rita leads yoga nidra with a sweet and clear voice. She guides each session with kindness and understanding, taking time to explain and educate us on the importance of rest and restoration. Rita also ties in stones, plant medicine and books/teachers to learn from making the experience multi-dimensional and whole body. Thank you Rita!

 

Summer nights nidra series coming in July

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.”

New mini series starts May 6 - nidra and exploring liminal shadows

I am in the midst of taking a deep online class with two yoga nidra teachers whom I deeply respect, Uma Dinsmore-Tuli and Nirlipta Tuli of the Total Yoga Nidra Network.  This immersion is a prerequisite for their teacher training offerings, and that is one of my bucket list items…one step closer.  

I am offering a mini series in May that I am so excited about, because for the first time I will be spreading my nidra teacher wings and weaving in what students bring to co-create the nidra. One thing I have seen Uma do is co-create nidras with her students, which I just love…so here I go!  

This May’s mini series is Yoga Nidra and exploring liminal shadows, where you get to rest and enjoy me pulling a card from the gorgeous oracle deck “Wisdom of the Shadow.”  Exploring our shadows in the liminal space of yoga nidra is a nourishing combination.  After the nidra there will be optional time to integrate what the nidra and oracle card communicates to you through journaling or visual art of your choosing.    

Registration is open here.

• You will receive:

• 2 weekly livestream yoga nidra classes 

• Access to yoga nidra recordings for your home practice during the series until June 10. 

• Dates and Times:  May 6, May 13 from 7-7:40 pm PST 

• Cost:  Payment for the series is $40.  Venmo @Rita-Jimenez-4

Yoga nidra and distant reiki series coming soon

I love yoga nidra, and I love reiki, so of course I dreamed up a way to combine them.  I think of this series as a gentle powerhouse of rest, relaxation and healing.  You the student simply lie down and rest, allowing me to guide you to a deep state of awareness, while receiving the healing energy of reiki.

My 4 week series, Yoga Nidra and distant Reiki starts on April 1.   In each class I will guide you through a sweet and seasonal nidra.  To amplify the healing I will send distant reiki to students (either present at the Livestream or listening to the recording). Reiki is an energy healing practice from Japan that nourishes me with its gentle power.  I love sharing it with those in my circle.  

• You will receive:

• 4 weekly livestream yoga nidra classes 

• curated list of resources on yoga nidra and reiki

• access to yoga nidra recordings for your home practice during the series until May 6. 

• Dates and Times:  April 1, 8,15, 22  from 7-7:45 pm PST 

Click here to register. Your investment is $75.