Non-sleep deep rest, or yoganidra, allows individuals to enter a deep state of relaxation, explore emotions, thoughts, and the self, and can lead to changes in brain plasticity.
Practicing non-sleep deep rest, or yoganidra, offers psychological breakthroughs and insights, helps in the exploration of fears and challenging emotions, and provides a context for engaging with psychological content in group settings.
Deep dives
The Power of Non-Sleep Deep Rest
Non-sleep deep rest, also known as yoganidra, is a practice that allows individuals to lie down and enter a deep state of relaxation. By emphasizing the being part of meditation over the doing, this practice invites the body to relax and interrupts the active mind. It creates an in-between state, between waking and sleeping, where exploration of emotions, sensations, thoughts, and the self takes place. Research suggests that yoganidra can lead to changes in brain plasticity, accelerate learning, and reset dopamine levels. It can be guided or self-guided, allowing for psychological exploration, healing, and inquiries into non-dual consciousness.
The Benefits of Non-Sleep Deep Rest
Practicing non-sleep deep rest, or yoganidra, has various benefits. It can lead to psychological breakthroughs, profound releases, and significant insights due to its somatic nature. People have reported experiencing deep relaxation, exploring fears, and working through challenging emotions. The practice provides a context for creative engagement with psychological content through active imagination and dialoguing with different aspects of the self. It can be experienced in group settings, offering the opportunity to witness and learn from others' experiences.
Personal Journey and Resources
Kelly Boys, a practitioner and teacher of non-sleep deep rest, shares her personal journey with the practice. She highlights its role in working with anxiety, facing fears, and integrating spiritual insights. Kelly offers free resources on her YouTube channel, TikTok, and Instagram, where she provides recorded meditations and practices. She has also published a book titled 'The Blind Spot Effect.' Additionally, her work can be found on various meditation apps and platforms, such as Simpl Habit and Mindfulness.com.
Host Michael Taft speaks with meditation teacher and author Kelly Boys on the practice of non-sleep, deep rest—a modern name for the ancient practice of yoga nidra, using liminal states as gateways to profound meditative experiences, finding ways to let go more completely, how this practice relates to nonduality, and the transformative power of embodied practice.
Kelly Boys is a mindfulness trainer and author of The Blind Spot Effect: How to Stop Missing What’s Right in Front of You. She co-developed the Peace on Purpose mindfulness and resilience program for UN humanitarian and development workers, training UN staff in the Middle East, Central Asia and beyond. She has worked with veterans with PTSD in the VA system and in San Quentin State Prison as part of the Prison Yoga Project. She directed a teacher training for the Search Inside Yourself Institute, bringing facilitators from around the world together to learn the emotional intelligence and mindfulness curriculum as taught at Google. Kelly is the founding advisor for the Simple Habit meditation app. She is passionate about engaging in the inner and outer work of antiracism. She holds a degree in Intercultural Religious Studies and has trained in yoga nidra in the nondual yogic tradition of Kashmir Shaivism