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.

How the Power of Creation helps with low confidence

The Power of Creation is one of the three elements of natural wellbeing.

The Three Elements are the Power of Creation, the Power of Presence and the Power of Wisdom.

The Power of Creation can help with our psychological wellbeing, particularly in relation to low confidence and anxiety.

This approach is based on the understanding that all of our experiences come through the filter of our mind. Whether that be our thinking, our feelings, the way we express ourselves, our behaviour, what we see and how we respond to others – all experience comes from our unconscious seed ideas based on our particular origin story or original wound. And we give life to these ideas through our beliefs.

So, if your main experience of everyday life is one of anxiety, of always being worried and concerned and having physical symptoms related to these worries that affect your body, in this approach, we understand that it all comes from our thought.

In this context, “thought” is different from thinking. We could describe “thought” as a seed idea and thinking as the end result. Thinking is mental activity. It is the effect of a seed idea or it is the form of the seed manifested.

So, thinking can arise in the form of a voice in your head telling you that you need to be worried or that you need to protect yourself.

Thinking can arise in the form of mental imagery or flashbacks showing you pictures in your mind of things that went wrong for you in the past and that could potentially go wrong for you again.

You can also imagine worst case scenarios and have that play back in your head in the form of mental imagery.

Now, there are many different seed ideas or thoughts. But let’s take, for example, the seed idea that means a person feels that they’re not good enough and that nothing they ever do is right.

So, this would create an experience for them where the internal chatter in their mind - the end result of this seed idea - would be negative mental chatter, constant criticism of the self, negative self-talk and continually insulting and berating themselves.

We also have a little movie archive in our brain. So, in the case of our person who doesn’t feel good enough, their mental imagery would be composed of all the movies in their archive of past events in their personal history where they believed they messed up and this provides evidence for the belief that he or she isn’t good enough.

Another example would be where a person feels that they can’t trust anybody in their life. So, their invisible seed idea would be, “Nobody can be trusted. I have to protect myself.”

If we were to use the example of feelings instead of thinking, then this would create an experience of always feeling fearful and having to cautiously watch other people in anticipation of getting stabbed in the back. They would always be anticipating and seeing evidence of people letting them down because what we focus our attention on tends to manifest in some way in our lived experience.

So, using the Power of Creation, we can transform our seed ideas and then this creates end results where our thinking, the way we express ourselves, the way we behave and the way we see life, automatically transforms naturally once that initial origin seed idea changes.

When we cut off the root of the unhelpful idea that has been planted in our mind, then its flowers which are the resultant thinking, behaviour, speech patterns and emotions will all transform in correspondence with the new seed idea.

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.

Why Use Spiritual Solutions to Manage Stress and Anxiety

The 12 Stages of Serene Empowerment is a process that I’ve developed which helps to ease the anxiety that sometimes stops us from performing or functioning effectively at work, socially or at home.

As the pressures of modern life increase, finding healthy ways to deal with our anxiety and stress is more vital than ever.

Anxiety doesn’t just stop us from enjoying life or from performing effectively but it can also be exhausting, draining, paralysing and unfortunately, totally addictive.

At its worst, ongoing anxiety can lead to mental health problems and, of course, it’s well known that stress is one of the biggest causes of physical ill health and disease.

A holistic and spiritual approach to addressing our issues of anxiety and stress is often the crucial missing piece or missing peace.

But by spiritual, I don’t necessarily mean religious. This is spirituality in the sense of having a deep connection with the Natural Source of Our Being. The innate essence of strength, healing, power and wisdom that’s within us but which usually lies dormant and forgotten.

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.

The 12 Stages of Serene Empowerment has been inspired by the 12 Steps of Alcoholic Anonymous. But because the focus is on easing anxiety, it adopts a slightly gentler approach.

It’s also based on universal spirituality and it’s a simple path designed to reduce anxiety and stress levels one day at a time.

With the 12 Stages of Serene Empowerment, you focus on a single stage for say a day, week or month. As you choose.

With the book, Serene Empowerment, you can follow the daily guide which takes you through one stage a week. Each stage focuses on one particular topic. Each day revolves around an exercise, thought for the day or a recommendation to keep you focused and on track.

The ultimate aim of the 12 Stages of Serene Empowerment is to help reduce anxiety. Your life may still be busy. You may still have pressurising deadlines. You may still have to face challenging family circumstances but you’ll gradually gain the inner resources, strength and power to deal with these situations as they arise. The circumstances of your life may or may not change but you will be transformed and better able to deal with it through a renewed connection with your Self and your own inner resources and authentic power.

The 12 Stages of Serene Empowerment offers a complete and structured path to guide you back to your native sense of wellbeing. Plus, it’s a path that you can follow at your own pace and fit around your lifestyle and commitments.

If you’re inspired to dive into the Serene Empowerment process right away, it’s available in paperback or as an eBook in most online bookstores.

See book in store.

The Story of Ego: The Rebel Without A Cause

This is the story of Ego from a spiritual (and mythical) perspective:

There is a Creator, a Source of Unconditional Love that created joy, peace, oneness and freedom, and created spiritual beings and a world in which to enjoy and extend this joy, peace and freedom.  

Then there is the Ego, who wanted to create independently of the Source, to make up its own world of joy, peace and freedom. But creating independently of the Source of Love means that you create everything that the Source is not.  So instead of creating an experience of Oneness and Unity, the Ego made a state of aloneness and separation.

The Ego needed an environment in which to experience this state of aloneness and separation so it made a world that was the mirror image of the Source's world of joy, peace and freedom.  But because this world was separate from the world of the Source of Love, the Ego's world was a place of sorrow, war and restriction.
  
The Ego needed a vehicle through which to experience the world that was made, so the body was made for the Ego to experience the world.  The vehicle had eyes - all the better for the Ego to see the world with.  The vehicle had ears - all the better for the Ego to hear the world.  The Ego's vehicle had a nose in order to smell its world and the Ego's vehicle had hands in order to feel and touch its world.  

Because the Ego's world is a back-to-front, upside down version of the Source's world, things work in exactly the opposite way.  Instead of looking inside to experience happiness, peace, power and freedom, the Ego has to look to physical things outside of itself to supply happiness, peace and freedom. Abundance and power is symbolised by money.  Happiness is symbolised by conditional love and circumstances meeting conditional expectations. Instead of being and experiencing Love, the Ego has to try and get substitutes for Love to make up for the emptiness inside.

The Ego's goal is to be independent of the Source of Love.  But to be independent of love is to be without love and to find yourself in a world of pain.   

The Ego is the original rebel without a cause.  Because the Original Cause is Love.

Amazing Peace

Sometimes we tend to think of "peace" just as quietness, calm or boredom.  We tend to equate peace with the absence of excitement or with simply being relaxed.  Or we tend to equate peace with death as in RIP.

But there are other meanings of peace.  

Peace is not just a case of deep relaxation or being in tranquil surroundings.  Peace can be a state of mind.  

You can be at peace in the middle of tumultuous surroundings, chaos, noisy environment, a war zone, if you are connected to your inner peace.

This state of inner peace is not just a case of feeling supremely “chilled out”, deeply relaxed, mildly detached from everything or indifferent apathy.  

This Peace with a capital P is not only the absence of anxiety, stress and turmoil but the Presence of Love, Confidence and Trust, a transformative Peace that generates power and strength. 

It is a Peace where you feel safe to be your Self, no matter what you are doing or where you are or what circumstances you find yourself in.  You feel completely safe to express and radiate the Presence of Power and Love.  And therefore those who come into your presence for those moments, let down their defences and feel safe to be who they are.  

It is a Peace that is not only the absence of war and conflict, but a Peace that will give us a sense of purpose and direction, be the centre from which we operate and be the Guiding Star in our lives.

To sum up, Peace is power.  It is a state of grace, confidence and trust.  

Peace is also our stepping stone to experiencing happiness and well-being that is not dependent on our circumstances.  

The best and deepest type of happiness is happiness for no reason.