136: Yoga Nidra: Community Conversations with Caroline Wybar

Most of us have heard of, and even practiced, Yoga Nidra. But it holds a certain mystique that means we might not know as much about it as we think.

Today host Rachel dives into this topic with returning guest and 1000hr Yoga Medicine Therapeutic Specialist Caroline Wybar. Caroline unpacks some of the misconceptions around Yoga Nidra and offers her tips for both students and teachers of this guided relaxation practice.

Listen in for more on Caroline’s upcoming Online Yoga Nidra Teacher Training, to learn about relaxation-induced anxiety and hear tips for staying awake during Yoga Nidra… if you want to!

“There is next to no reference to Yoga Nidra as a technique itself, but rather as a state of consciousness.” – Caroline Wybar

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“If we seek to link this practice to the yoga tradition, it is more about accessing a certain state of consciousness than it is about following a set sequence of techniques and that in fact not burdening ourselves with all of those techniques may allow us to go deeper in the practice.” – Caroline Wybar

Show Notes:

• Is Yoga Nidra it an ancient practice? [2:58]
• Does “authentic” Yoga Nidra require a set sequence of techniques? [8:13]
• Can Yoga Nidra replace sleep? [12:09]
• Must Yoga Nidra be done in Savasana? [14:59]
• Can Yoga Nidra cultivate Delta brain waves? [17:06]
• Yoga Nidra frees us from the pressures of time [20:47]
• How Caroline found her way to Yoga Nidra [28:03]
• Challenges for Yoga Nidra students [34:34]
• Who is Yoga Nidra for, and not for? [38:31]
• Teaching Yoga Nidra: script or no script? [42:06]
• Teaching Yoga Nidra: leaving space for silence [49:03]
• Upcoming Yoga Medicine Yoga Nidra training live online [50:32]

Links Mentioned:

• Watch this episode on YouTube
• Yoga Nidra Teacher Training
• Yoga Medicine Podcast Episode 68: Approaches to Anxiety
• Birch, J., & Hargreaves, J. (2015). Yoganidrā: an understanding of the history and context. The Luminescent. https://www.theluminescent.org/2015/01/yoganidra.html
• Connect with Caroline Wybar:

Facebook | Instagram | Caroline Wybar Yoga | Yoga Medicine® Online Guest Teacher

“The one essential component of Yoga Nidra is that it leads to some experience…that doesn’t involve relaxation by doing, and that involves just an experience of pure being.” – Caroline Wybar