What is Yoga Nidra?

Yoga nidra is simultaneously described as a holistic practice, a meditation process or a state of consciousness, depending on the context.

It is an ancient practice which takes care of all layers of the self including:

• the biological, physiological body

• our energy levels and our vitality

• our psychology, our mental and emotional processes, our personality

• our spiritual health, spiritual connection and spiritual wellbeing.

Yoga nidra was originally used as a path for Self Realisation or for Union with the Divine.

In fact, the term ‘Yoga’ can be translated as Union with the Divine.

Another rarer translation for the word Yoga is ‘Awakening to All That Is’, ‘Awakening to the Interconnectedness of All Things’. *And then the word ‘Nidra’ is usually translated as ‘deep sleep’.

So, it’s like a play on words:

Awakening through the practice of deep sleep.

And in the practice of Yoga Nidra, you lie on your back with eyes closed, although this position can be modified if you have some kind of injury or health condition which prevents this.

But traditionally, Yoga Nidra is practised lying supine and you simply close your eyes and listen to the voice of a guide who takes you down through the layers of the self into a state of deep relaxation where your brainwaves slow down and replicate the state of deep sleep.

However, during the practice of yoga nidra, you are actually still awake. Or at least, that is the intention.

The body is put to sleep. The mental activity is put to sleep, the thoughts and emotions and the personality are put to sleep. But we remain awake.

Because it replicates the state of deep sleep, sometimes in the beginning, people tend to fall asleep whilst practising yoga nidra. This is usually sleep that they really need if they’re in a sleep-deprived state. But with continued practice and perseverance, we learn to stay awake.

So, why would we want to stay awake as we take ourselves down into a state that resembles deep sleep?

Well, that is where we usually encounter, what is described in ancient traditions, as our True Nature.

According to these traditions, our True Nature is a state of deep happiness and unshakable peace. And we usually encounter this state of bliss every night during deep sleep. (Not REM sleep or light restless sleep, but deep sleep).

The only problem is, when we wake up afterwards, we re-encounter all our worries, all our anxieties and all our physical ailments.

Everything that we forgot while we were in the state of deep sleep, we remember in the so-called waking state and we forget the deep happiness and peace that we enjoyed in deep sleep.

So, yoga nidra is a way of staying awake while we encounter the happiness that we usually enjoy in the state of deep sleep.

When our ego personality is put to sleep, we are able to awaken within the Divine.

It is like these two parts of the self cannot co-exist.

We often can’t remember what it’s like to be happy when we are in our egoic state.

And similarly, we can’t remember our misery when we’re in that deep sleep bliss state.

So, the practice of yoga nidra is a way of cultivating the happiness and peace of deep sleep whilst still awake and bringing all that healing and rejuvenation that we get in deep sleep with us into our waking life at a conscious level.

And it has enormous benefits on the physiological level, and the psychological level, in terms of rewiring the brain's habitual negative programming and in terms of soothing the nervous system.

So, it helps to regulate our body’s processes in all ways, whether that be hormonally or in relation to our brain chemistry or our nervous system or psychologically and spiritually.

You can find guided Yoga Nidra meditations on my YouTube channel, Spirit Restorative:

https://www.youtube.com/@SpiritRestorative

If you haven't practised yoga nidra before, you may like to try out the guided meditation in this video.

The Three Elements of Psychological and Spiritual Wellbeing

The 3 elements of natural and psychological wellbeing are Creation, Presence and Wisdom.

So, let’s first look at Creation.

This is the power to create through thought.

When we think, we receive ideas and we invest in the ideas that we believe in. We invest them with our energy, we bring them to life and then we see them outpictured in the world around us.

Now, this creative power of thought, as the name suggests, can manifest as our actual thinking, as the words we hear in our mind, or as mental imagery, and as memory and imagination.

But the Power of Creation can also manifest as our emotions and as bodily sensations, as a direct result of receiving and believing in these ideas.

The Power of Creation via thought can also manifest as the appearances of what we see around us and what we choose to pay attention to or focus on in our immediate environment.

The ideas we receive and believe can also manifest in our behaviour and in how we react and respond to other people.

These ideas also impact how we see ourselves and how we view others.

So, one seed idea can create, for us, an entire reality (or pseudo-reality, depending on its validity).

We could look at these ideas as seeds. We could look at beliefs as the water that nurtures the seeds. And we could view the mind as the soil in which the seeds blossom or fester.

Ideas can spread like weeds if they are very negative and we can descend down a rabbit hole of associated unhelpful, unconstructive and destructive ideas.

Alternatively, positive, life-affirming ideas can bloom and blossom likes flowers and contribute to, and enhance, our wellbeing and mental health.

So, that is the Power of Creation that produces our moment-to-moment experience. And you can therefore see, with problems such as low confidence or anxiety, how our seed ideas and beliefs can then contribute to our experience and affect how we see and react to, and interact with, the world around us.

The next fundamental element of natural wellbeing is the Power of Presence.

By Presence, we mean our True Self. The True Self is our identity that extends beyond the physical body and beyond our surface personality.

We could also call it the Soul. But it is a Universal Soul.

Presence could be described as Life itself. It is the animating spirit or what some cultures refer to as the Great Spirit that is the source of all living things.

The Power of Presence is the source of our healing. It contributes to our natural wellbeing because it is beyond the limitations of the physical body, personality and our individual psyche, emotional baggage and hang-ups.

This Eternal Presence existed before we were born and it is what we will eventually return to when our individual consciousness leaves the physical body at death.

And then finally, we have the Power of Wisdom.

This is the innate intelligence of the Great Spirit.

Wisdom is the Voice of the Great Spirit that we receive internally as intuition, clarity and guidance. It includes the wisdom of the ages, the sages and the collective intelligence of all Life.

So these are the three elements of natural wellbeing and psychological and spiritual healing.

And when you understand, access or merge with the Powers of Creation, Presence and Wisdom, they can elevate your wellbeing and expand your sense of Self and be an ever-present source of healing and guidance in your everyday life.

Overview of Stages 1 - 6 of the Serene Empowerment Process

Girl at Mirror by Norman Rockwell, 1954

The first six stages of the Serene Empowerment process for alleviating anxiety and managing stress deal with our most important relationship – the one that we have with our self.

It’s our most important relationship because the way that we perceive our self influences and affects the way that we perceive other people in our life, our society and the world.

Additionally, the way that we perceive our self affects everything we do, every decision we make and influences what we think is possible for us in life.

The way that we see our self can increase our anxiety and stress or it can enhance our power and maintain our strength.

The overarching theme of the first six stages of Serene Empowerment process is serenity – that state of being peaceful, calm and untroubled.

Each stage has a truth statement. They also each have a quality that we can cultivate or embody. So here is a brief overview of the first six stages of the Serene Empowerment process.

Stage 1

Truth Statement:     
We accept that there is a powerful Source within us that can provide us with guidance, wisdom, comfort and peace.

Quality:                      
Awareness

Summary:
We are never alone because we have a Source of Wisdom within us that can guide and help us with the stresses that we encounter in our daily life.

We learn to become aware of and connect with this Source of Wisdom through relaxation and through accepting our negative feelings exactly as they are in order for them to be transformed into resources that can help us.

Stage 2

Truth Statement:     
We turn our daily life over to the care and direction of this Source of Wisdom.

Quality:                      
Trust

Summary:
Once we have become aware of our Source of Guidance and Wisdom as a Living Presence in Stage 1, in Stage 2, we learn to cultivate the habit and practice of turning our daily life, our decisions, our problems and our worries over to the care and direction of this Creative Intelligence and Healing Source of Wisdom. We learn to allow our life to unfold under its direction.

Stage 3

Truth Statement:      We accept that our Original Authentic Self was created in the True Nature and Spirit of this Source of Wisdom and that we are still this Original Self, no matter what we have done or what we have failed to do as an ego personality.

Quality:                      
Self-Recognition

Summary:
We have made an image of our self that is based on what we believe to be our core identity.

This identity could be based on our physical appearance or a health condition or our religion or our nationality or our job title or a mental health diagnosis or a relationship role such as a parent or spouse.

This self-image is also composed of all the things that we think we’ve done wrong or the things that we think we have failed to do. This self is a cluster of beliefs, perceptions and judgements about who we think we are.

However, in Stage 3, we become aware of our Original Self that was here before we were born and that will continue to be present after our body has expired.

This Original Self is not the same as the ego personality that we think we are. It is a source of power and freedom from the limitations and suffering of the ego personality.

Stage 4

Truth Statement:     
We recognise that what we think creates our perception and, therefore, our experience of reality.

Quality:                      
Non-judgement

Summary:
Thought is the vehicle through which we experience life. We only see what’s going on in our own mind.

We don’t experience reality; we experience our judgements, opinions and interpretations about reality.

Our thoughts are the origin of our anxiety and stress and thus they dictate our responses and behaviour.

Stage 5

Truth Statement:     
We commit to continually forgiving and releasing our self from our past errors knowing that our power and healing lie in the present.

Quality:                      
Self-forgiveness

Summary

This stage involves releasing our selves from guilt and setting ourselves free from the prison of the past. We focus on conscience (another word for wisdom) rather than guilt. We also explore the four universal laws of inner peace: surrender, release, gratitude and love.

Stage 6

Truth Statement:     
We make a joyful inventory of all the blessings, gifts, abundance and miracles that we receive in our daily lives.

Qualities:                   
Gratitude and receptivity

Summary
This stage is a celebration of all the good that we have received. It is also a celebration and an acknowledgement of all the insights and inspirations we have received during this process as well as throughout our life as a whole.

What we focus on expands so the more we focus on being grateful, the more we are gifted with things, people and blessings to be grateful for.

The Serene Empowerment process is a gentle and positive pathway.

The book, Serene Empowerment: Spiritual Solutions for Managing Stress is currently available at Amazon and in other online bookstores. The book provides an introduction to all 12 stages and some practical exercises to help to reinforce the understanding of each of the stages.

FAQs about the 12 Stages of Serene Empowerment

What are the 12 Stages of Serene Empowerment?

The 12 Stages of Serene Empowerment, which is a holistic program for reducing stress and alleviating anxiety, is inspired by the structure of 12 step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous.

The Original Six Steps of AA

The first 12 step program, pioneered by Alcoholics Anonymous, was originally just 6 steps. These were:

1.         We admitted that we were licked, that we were powerless over alcohol.

2.         We made a moral inventory of our defects or sins.

3.         We confessed or shared our shortcomings with another person in confidence.

4.         We made restitution to all those we had harmed by our drinking.

5.         We tried to help other alcoholics, with no thought of reward in money or prestige.

6.         We prayed to whatever God we thought there was for power to practise these precepts.

These 6 steps were later broken down and expanded into 12 steps.

Although the 12 stages of Serene Empowerment are similar in format to the 12 steps, the content and context are somewhat different.

The first 6 stages of the Serene Empowerment program are about healing our relationship with our self. Stages 7 to 12 concern, amongst other themes, our relationship with others.

Why treat conditions like anxiety and depression as if they are addictions?

We normally define addiction or addictive behaviours as having a compulsive need for a habit-forming substance such as alcohol, nicotine or heroin, for example.

We also may define addiction as having a compulsive need to perform a particular activity such as gambling, online gaming or shopping in order to get some kind of high.

We don’t normally define anxiety as an addiction because it’s not a guilty pleasure or indeed any kind of pleasure at all. It doesn’t bring you to a high and there is no short-lived payoff.

However, we can also define an addiction as something that we just can’t stop doing, no matter how hard we may try. So, if you can’t stop worrying or having anxious thoughts, for example, then in that sense, anxiety can be described as a kind of addiction.

As I said in a previous blog post: Why are negative thoughts and emotions are addictive:

“Just as our body becomes accustomed to the taste and flavour of certain foods and craves more of the same, our body also becomes accustomed to the “taste” and “flavour” of certain thoughts, feelings and moods – even those that we view as being negative.

The body/mind complex can become addicted to certain feelings - pleasurable or painful - and then the cells of the body cry out to be fed with more of that emotion…”

Why is it called 12 stages and not 12 steps?

Steps, States & Stages

Steps are like instructions. They can make up a formula or a recipe. You follow each step and hopefully attain a successful outcome.

A state of mind is usually temporary or fleeting. For example, you can be in a peaceful state of mind for a few days when you’re on holiday or on a retreat. Then when you get back home and have to return to work, you may enter an anxious state of mind which may last until the weekend when you have a couple of days off.

I see stages as being more permanent. A stage can be described as an understanding that you come to embody. It is a continual and ongoing way of being rather than just being a temporary mood or state of mind. The 12 Stages aim to bring about sustainable transformation.

The statements for the 12 Stages are not instructions or steps in the sense of being a recipe for success. The statements are also not really affirmations. They are more like realisations that you move into as you progress with each stage of development.

The titles of each stage are more like Truth Statements. Truth statements can be described as something that we already know to be true or that we are committed to bringing into our experience.

Read the truth statements for the 12 Stages of Serene Empowerment in full.

Why use spiritual methods to deal with stress and anxiety?

The 12 Stage program of Serene Empowerment is not affiliated with any specific religion and it’s not a religious process.

However, it is a spiritual program in the holistic sense. This is spirituality in the sense of having a deep connection with the Natural Source of Our Being, the part of our consciousness that existed before we were born and that will continue to exist after our body has expired.

Just as we have a physical, emotional and mental part of the self, we also have to include our spiritual self as part of who we are. This Essential Original Spiritual Self has never been hurt, never been scared, never been traumatised and can be a reservoir of wisdom and healing when we learn how to connect with it.

Just as we need food to nourish our bodies, we need our spiritual resources to nourish our minds and give us an innate sense of wellbeing.

When we ignore or neglect the spiritual part of ourselves, we’re ignoring the most important part, the part that gives us strength, power, innate wisdom and inner healing.