‘’YOGA NIDRA: as a Mindfulness Practise for Stress Reduction, Wellbeing and Peak Performance. ‘’

‘’YOGA NIDRA: as a Mindfulness Practise for Stress Reduction, Wellbeing and Peak Performance. ‘’

Just over a few weeks ago, I have been asked to run three 20 minutes each yoga nidra sessions for the students participating at the IC Hack. IC Hack is Imperial College's Annual Hackathon. In a nutshell, it is a 48hours annual event where students from various universities, often without any sleep, work in teams in order to create software. This year’s event was sponsored by the NextJump

among other sponsors such as Microsoft, Bloomberg and Thales. I have been working with the NextJump almost a year now delivering daily lunch time yoga nidra or the ‘yogic sleep’ classes at their London office. They are truly one of the leaders of the culture of the deliberate development at the workplace. I think if I wasn’t working with them, I’d love to work for them. In addition, as one of the Hackathon sponsors’ they have offered free yoga nidra sessions for over 300 students participating at the yearly event to demonstrate how the NextJump team disengage and recoup in order to be more productive and focused at work. Out of those students about 70 attended the ‘yogic sleep’ sessions, which as I heard making them more popular than Microsoft talk! Well considering they had so little sleep and so much to do in those 48 hours that if that was me I would have opted for the ‘sleep class’ too… 

After each session, I have received quite a few questions regarding the practise and an increased interest in this ancient yogic practise has led me to writing the blog on the origins and the actual benefits yoga nidra practise brings to people’s life, which also have been backed up by the latest scientific research.

Yoga nidra has been labelled ‘sleepless sleep’ since it teaches one to enter the state between sleep and wakefulness without losing awareness. Thus, it is often defined as a deep relaxation practise. This is, however, just the tip of the iceberg of the practise dating over couple of thousands of years back. Texts on yoga say it belongs to the Tantra yoga tradition, meaning the yoga of dissolution, and

defined as the practise of pratyahara, or the withdrawal of the senses. Therefore, it is important to mention that it is not a practise of hard concentration, but rather a practise of mindfully bringing awareness to the present moment. Mindfulness which is a buzz word nowadays comes from the Buddhism Tradition practise. The pioneer of mindfulness in medicine and a creator mindfulness-based stress reduction program (MBSR) Professor Jon Kabat - Zinn defines mindfulness as:

‘’Mindfullness – the awareness that arises by paying attention on purpose in a present moment in a non-judgmental way.’’

From the definition above we can see that yoga and mindfulness practises are closely interwoven and essentially there is a fine borderline between the two if at all. But that is for another blog. Yoga nidra practise is a therapeutic practise that goes beyond deep relaxation, however, in this article, I will focus on the effects and benefits of the Yoga Nidra or the ‘yogic sleep’ practise as a mindfulness

practice for stress reduction, wellbeing, and peak performance.

Stress is a major pervasive health issue in globally. In the modern fast paced environment and the increase of the external stressors such as technology, which can greatly benefit our lives, but also work as a fantastic attention deficit which only leads to further stress levels; one may feel continuously overwhelmed. The constant need to rush, to compete, to achieve combined with problems of the daily life can leave a person feeling unequipped to deal with the gradually cumulative feelings of stress. Yes, a certain level of stress is part of the normal life and it can in fact facilitate energy to produce results faster. However, anything above that level of stress produces allostatic load, the name given to the long-term overactivation of the stress response.

Following are just some examples of the outcome of this physiological wear and tear on the body:

- Increased inflammation

- Hardening of the arteries

- High blood pressure

- High blood glucose

- Osteoporosis (thinning of the bones)

- Loss of brain cells (particularly the parts of the brain responsible for the executive functioning)

- Growth of the amygdala (fear and stress centre of the brain)

Research demonstrates that mindfulness might just be the most important skill we ought to learn to deal with the stress response and facilitate wellbeing as well as performance at work. Majority of us spend most of our time on a default mode, whether worrying, condemning, judging or day dreaming. Prolonged ruminating of what has happened or hasn’t happened yet, for example thoughts of ‘how will I succeed if at all’ paired with the multitasking and we have an attention deficit and feelings of anticipation. Furthermore, anticipation or the ‘’analysis paralysis’ eventually turns to procrastination, which results in the interrupted communication, loss of time, poor performance, and increased levels of stress.

The good news is that attention can be trained and this is where the yoga nidra a mindfulness practise steps in. Evidence shows that yoga nidra practice may reduce symptoms of perceived stress, worry, and depression and increase mindfulness-based skills. By mindfully bringing awareness to the present moment whilst focusing on, for example, the breath as an object, which is repeatedly

done throughout yoga nidra practise, effects prefrontal cortex – a CEO of the brain. Prefrontal cortex is a part of the brain responsible for the executive functioning such as the attention, planning, decision making, directing working memory, emotion regulation, self- awareness etc. 

Mindfulness is not about ‘tuning out’ or ‘switching off’ which is a common misconception. It is not about pushing away unpleasant thoughts, emotions or feelings and embracing the pleasant ones. It is about ‘tuning in’ and curiously exploring and accepting all of them as part of the human condition as they are now. In the present moment. Therefore, mindfully ‘tuning in’ and activating prefrontal cortex is not only a way to reduce stress levels, but also help us to perform at our best at a given moment. Associate Professor at the Monash University, Craig Hassed comments:

‘’People who perform at their peak such as being in the zone don’t describe stress about the future

outcome but are immersed in the present process. Paradoxically, they achieve the outcome far

better.’’

During yoga nidra practise the attention is being paid to attention. That is what really matters here – the attention, not the attendee. Only when the attention is being brought to the experience of moment to moment, the feelings and emotions can be easier defined and therefore accepted, which accordingly aids executive functioning of the brain and, thus overall performance too. David Rock’s, author of ‘’Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long’’ explains:

“To reduce arousal, you need to use just a few words to describe an emotion, and ideally use

symbolic language, which means using indirect metaphors, metrics, and simplifications of your

experience. This requires you to activate your prefrontal cortex, which reduces the arousal in the

limbic system. Here's the bottom line: describe an emotion in just a word or two, and it helps reduce the emotion.”

In addition, in yoga nidra practise we deliberately explore the pairs of opposites heavy/light, pleasant/unpleasant) describing them vividly and this way not only accepting them but also increasing brain’s resilience to the dual nature of life. 

During the ‘yogic sleep’ as a mindfulness practise all the ‘big four’ cognitive aspects of mindfulness (perception, acceptance, non- attachment and presence of mind) are being cultivated.

Yoga nidra session can be anything from 15 minutes to an hour or even longer if you’re an adept practitioner. A typical beginner’s yoga nidra session lasts about 20 minutes and involves the following steps:

1. Settling down

2. Breath awareness

3. Sankalpa (personal resolution)

4. Rotation of awareness

5. Breath awareness

6. Pairs of opposites

7. Visualisation

8. Sankalpa

9. Externalising

Settling down: Attendee/es come to a laying down position, important to find a place of comfortable

stillness. Bringing awareness to the body resting on the floor the senses are explored such as: touch,

smell, sounds from the environment.

Breath awareness: breath is used throughout this practise as one of the mindfulness meditation

objects as well as as a tool to facilitate the attendee to stay present/ helps externalise and

internalise the mind.

Sankalpa: A very important part of the yoga nidra where one sets his/her personal resolution,

resolve to fulfil his/her potential. It is like an affirmation and is always repeated at the beginning and

the end of the practise. It is significant to make a conscious intention here and not just be dragged to

a resolution or your brain gets no reward for that. UCLA neuroscientist Alex Korb says:

“Actively choosing caused changes in attention circuits and in how the participants felt about the

action, and it increased rewarding dopamine activity. Making decisions includes creating intentions

and setting goals — all three are part of the same neural circuitry and engage the prefrontal cortex

in a positive way, reducing worry and anxiety. Making decisions also helps overcome striatum

activity, which usually pulls you toward negative impulses and routines. Finally, making decisions

changes your perception of the world — finding solutions to your problems and calming the limbic

system.”

Rotation of awareness: The neurosurgeons have demonstrated that each part of the body is linked

exactly to the parts of the surface of the sensory motor cortex of the brain. During the rotation of

consciousness, a practitioner starts at the other end of the nerve pathway and this way relaxes the

brain by relaxing the body. This neuronal map of the physical body within the cerebral white matter

has been named the motor homunculus or ‘little man’:

Pair of opposites: this part of the yoga nidra practise brings into simultaneous operation nerve

circuits in the opposite hemispheres of the brain (normally never operating at the same time). As a

result, a new neuronal circuit is made, enabling practitioner to overcome the conventional human

sufferings based on the duality of nature of life experiences; and, hence, developing emotional

control, which is again extremely important

Visualisations: Rapid images or storytelling is being used here to provoke a reaction in the

unconscious parts of the mind. All the limitation of the physical body in life drop away here and

various problems and phobias that were stored in the mind can be addressed through images and

visualisations.

Externalising: A practitioner is gently guided out of the deep relaxation whilst his mind is being

externalised using senses and attention is drawn to the surrounding and all the sensory impressions.

Research has established that we have an innate negativity bias and estimated that we need an average five positive things to override one negative thing. Psychologist Rick Hanson defines this as our brains being “Velcro for negative experiences and Teflon for positive ones.” Therefore, it is so important to practise mindfulness techniques for not only stress reduction, but overall wellbeing as well as peak performance which is associated with a quiet but insightful mind and a tranquil body.

To sum up the practise of Yoga Nidra as a Mindfulness technique brings about the following benefits to an aspiring practitioner:

- Helps to cope with the anxiety, panic disorder, stress; prevention of depression relapse and emotional regulation and sleep

- Structural and functional changes in the brain, generation of new brain cells (neurogenesis) predominantly in the memory and

   executive functioning centres, reduced activity in the amygdala

- Pain management, symptom control, reduced allostatic load and metabolic benefits, hormonal changes, improved genetic function

   and repair and possibly slower ageing

- Improved performance (e.g. sport, academic, leadership)

Sources:

Korb, A. Phd, 2015: ‘The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time’.

Rock, D., 2009: ‘Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long’.

Bear, F. M; Connors F. Barry and Paradiso A. Michael, 2006: 'Neuroscience - Exploring the Brain'.

Swami Satyananda Saraswati, 2003: ‘Yoga Nidra’.

Hanson, R., 2011: ‘Just One Thing: Developing A Buddha Brain One Simple Practice at a Time’ 

A pilot study measuring the impact of yoga on the trait of mindfulness:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19751539

iRest yoga-nidra on the college campus: changes in stress, depression, worry, and mindfulness:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24165520

Hassed C. Dr. : Paper on ‘The Health Benefits of Meditation and Being Mindful’