Part 1 Yoga Nidra Introduction Ever wondered why Western schools flinch at the idea of incorporating practices like yoga nidra and meditation into their curriculum despite their immense benefits? Join me, Yogiray, as I ponder this conundrum and shed light on how these ancient techniques can reduce anxiety and boost a child's learning capacity. This episode is brimming with fascinating insights from my studies in an Indian ashram and personal experiences, giving you a glimpse into yoga nidra's roots and its journey to the Western world.
Discover how yoga nidra provides a deep state of physical relaxation while maintaining mental awareness, and the major role auditory recall plays in our learning and memory. Let's celebrate the gift of yoga nidra that bolsters memory, stimulates the integration of brain hemispheres, and preserves children's natural creativity. Parents, teachers, and children alike can benefit from this enlightening journey. So clear a quiet, comfortable space to join me, Yogiray, on this magical adventure into the world of yoga nidra.
Part 1 Yoga Nidra Introduction Ever wondered why Western schools flinch at the idea of incorporating practices like yoga nidra and meditation into their curriculum despite their immense benefits? Join me, Yogiray, as I ponder this conundrum and shed light on how these ancient techniques can reduce anxiety and boost a child's learning capacity. This episode is brimming with fascinating insights from my studies in an Indian ashram and personal experiences, giving you a glimpse into yoga nidra's roots and its journey to the Western world.
Discover how yoga nidra provides a deep state of physical relaxation while maintaining mental awareness, and the major role auditory recall plays in our learning and memory. Let's celebrate the gift of yoga nidra that bolsters memory, stimulates the integration of brain hemispheres, and preserves children's natural creativity. Parents, teachers, and children alike can benefit from this enlightening journey. So clear a quiet, comfortable space to join me, Yogiray, on this magical adventure into the world of yoga nidra.
Feedback at soulshangout@gmail.com
Speaker 1:
Welcome to when Souls Hangout. This is the show that connects you to inner and outer peace. I'm Yogi Ray and today we have a my Souls meditation episode specifically for children. Well, adults actually get a lot out of it as well. So maybe join your children, or they can do it on their own. This episode I'll cover yoga nidra for children and how this form of yoga practice called yoga nidra reduces anxiety, and it's also been proven to increase a child's learning capacity. So just relax, prepare and allow the magic of yoga nidra to improve your child's moods and abilities. This is where souls hang out.
Speaker 1:
During the last few decades, scientific researchers investigated the benefits of yoga nidra. There's loads of research out there praising all the positive benefits of yoga nidra and meditation as well. So the benefits are enormous, and I'm a bit unsure why the schooling system in the West don't seem to want to adopt anything like yoga nidra or meditation as part of the curriculum. But, as some schools out there, they're getting great results from different types of meditation. If they move more into yoga nidra, they'll find benefits For the children. The children seem to like yoga nidra a little bit more than meditation, and that's through my experience anyway. But just because in the West the schooling system won't adopt yoga nidra. It doesn't mean that you as a parent, or me as a yoga teacher and a yoga therapist, it doesn't mean that we can't pass this on to our children. If you think about the benefits of yoga nidra and meditation, you would want your kids to be doing this all the time, and the thing about it is they love it. You'll find that kids just really enjoy doing this sort of process. It doesn't go for so for too long. It's around about 15 minutes or so, and you can even cut it short if you like. So let me tell you about some of the benefits of yoga nidra. It increases memory, which is quite important, particularly for a child growing up in the schooling system and having to memorize as part of the curriculum. Also, the integration of the two hemispheres of the brain, which is vital. It's known now that when a person is in a state of depression or anxiety, they're stuck in the left hemisphere of the brain. It takes away their ability to be creative, to move through any issues that they're going through at that point. So yoga nidra opens up the right side of the brain or the other side of the brain that they're using and they end up communicating with each other, which is normal, also increasing psychological well-being, which, in today's day and age, with what we went through, what we've been through in the last three or four years in the world, is very important, and it preserves and enhances the natural creativeness in children and adults, which is something that we're all after. Is that creative edge? Do yourself a favour and look up meditation for kids and adults, and also yoga, nidra, and you'll see there's a plethora of positive feedback from years of research.
Speaker 1:
In around about October 2015, I was studying my yoga therapy diploma at an ashram in India. It was my first day at the ashram, first day in a six week stay. I've already been in India for about six months, so I was very tired from all the travel and getting around India. I was told that we had to meet in the hall for some yoga and idra and I actually thought that it was a yoga class and I thought we'd be doing poses and flows and stuff and I wasn't really looking forward to that. It was held straight after lunch, which I thought was quite odd to be doing a yoga class straight after lunch, twisting and turning and moving, but surprisingly, once I got in the hall I found out that it's an hour long session of shavasana or laying on your back. Wow, I just thought this is what I need. I need some sleep, that's for sure. But at the end of that hour I was just mesmerised by the feeling. I went from feeling tired to becoming totally invigorated. I just felt clear. I just felt astonishing. I felt like I was myself. So I went straight to the ashram library. There was no internet so there was no googling there as we had no reception. So I was off to the hard copy books just to find out a little bit more about this yoga nidra.
Speaker 1:
Yoga nidra's origins go back many centuries, way back to the Upanishads. However, it was Swami Satchinanda Saraswati in the early 70s that helped introduce nidra to the West, and the Swami believed that all children want to learn. But some children have weak or unreceptive conscious minds. But through yoga nidra they can absorb the knowledge directly through their own conscious mind. So our auditory faculty, our auditory system, is making continual recordings of every sound that reaches us. We're unaware of this fact personally, and these sounds are stored as an impression in the cerebral cortex or the gray matter. If we don't recall these impressions. In a waking state they were lie dormant. So, for example, if an adult hears a particular tune or melody, this activates memories from this particular event from the past or a time that they may have even forgotten. These memories come flooding back through the auditory recall. These memories were originally imprinted in a waking state, so the subconscious mind can activate or reactivate.
Speaker 1:
Yoga Nidra is a state of being aware and awake mentally. However, physically, you are completely relaxed, physically, physically relaxed, but mentally aware. This allows the conscious mind to operate in a very deep, deep and stable conscious state, a deep learning state. Yoga Nidra is equivalent to being around about four hours sleep as well. The meditation and yoga nidra are vital in today's world. Why don't you give your child this gift? Plant this seed of control, conscious learning and behavior? Give yourself this gift too, and practice regularly together with your child. Make it a regular process and have fun with it. You'll see the results quickly if you use this regularly. Once part one is finished, just go to part two. All you need to do is find a comfortable, safe place where you won't be disturbed and explore the magic of yoga nidra. If you have any questions or feedback, just send them to soulshangoutatgmailcom. This is where souls hang out, and I am Yogi Ray. Enjoy you.
