From the culture we live in, to our early childhood events, all of us have adopted habitual patterns of thinking and behaving that have helped us to cope amidst the life’s uncertainties. However, many of these patterns have also made us rigid and resistant to change.
The good news is that there are practices that can help us respond to life’s ups and downs with more openness and equanimity, and the style of meditation known as “Yoga Nidra” is one of them.
By encouraging bodily awareness and shifting us into the state of observation where we go between wakefulness and sleep, this practice helps us to tap into an inner sense of wholeness that remains with us at all times. This means that whenever we experience challenges or obstacles in life, we can lean into this internal resource to help us confront and be transformed by these events. In fact, it can also lead us into an optimal state of wellbeing - one where we experience more peace, resilience, joy and meaning in our lives.
We even deactivate the part of our brain (Default Network) that is responsible for mind-wandering and negative thinking (Brewer, et al. 2011), while activating the part of our brain (Present Centered Network) that experiences our sense of self beyond time, space and separation (Sheth et al. 2008).
(Adapted from Richard Miller 2017, iRest)
Let’s finish off this year by becoming the most resilient versions of ourselves.
