You're Our Only Hope

photo by alex adams

Yesterday, I wrote about how much of the pain that we are seeing in the world this year is the result of things dying, and how other pain we are experiencing is often the birthing pains of what’s coming.

One thing that is being born in this moment is a global movement of individuals and institutions becoming more conscious. Despite how broken the world seems to be, we are more capable than we can imagine to make things right. This global movement of consciousness is about learning how to set things right by setting yourself right.

But I’m only one person, how can I make a difference?

This summer we were practicing some extreme social distancing by going on a secluded river trip with a very small group down the down San Juan River in Southern Utah. As we floated downstream, “Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream …,” beers nestled in hand, we spent long hours simply staring up at the breathtaking landscape of the canyon walls. I couldn’t take my eyes off the canyon walls, specifically the patterns of erosion: enormous, almost perfect squares the size of elephants, and rectangles the size of semi-truck trailers, all with very straight lines, that had sometime in the last several thousand years detached themselves from the canyon wall and were now being washed in the lazy current of the San Juan. It looked as if some giant was playing with the canyon walls, carving each perfect shape out, and plopped it into the river.

A couple on our trip were environmental scientists with a passion for geology and I asked them how these large rocks could be shaped so perfectly with what looked like chiseled corners and almost perfect lines. One of the scientists offered her best SWAG, (scientific-based wild-ass guess) and proffered that perhaps the microscopic, individual particles of the principal mineral in the rock were shaped in squares and rectangles so the larger stones merely reflected the composite of the smallest possible elements. Fascinating!

This SWAG resembles the old hermetic saying, “As above, so below,” and vice versa. In other words, the whole is represented in each of its parts. Since the world is the composite of individuals, the best and only way to change the world is from within. You must change yourself, and when you are whole the world becomes whole.

There’s a critical mass of those who are waking up to their highest beings. This critical mass, along with the winds of change, has eroded the old and weathered facade and those who are waking up are breaking from the old. We are rolling toward the living waters of a more just, prosperous, and sustainable existence.

We are the epitome of rock and roll.

Yes, there’s a movement that is underway and it’s begging you to join. It's calling to you to wake up from the illusion of being a limited, powerless being and wake up to the unimaginable power that is already inside of you, to fertilize the seed of your birthright and majesty, so you can be a crucial cell in this organism of consciousness that is changing the world.

We cannot wait for someone else to save us. Our purpose is to save ourselves.We must be the change of the world because the solutions to the world’s problems only lie within.

Like Alice Walker said, “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”

Tomorrow, I can’t wait to share with you a very powerful resource that I’ve created that will help you realize your innate wholeness and will help you to make the world whole.

The Reckoning

This has been a really, really, really tough year. It’s been Covid-19 with 1.42 million deaths around the globe, also causing world-wide financial disruption and disaster. It’s been George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and scores of others fueling Black Lives Matter and sending millions to streets to march against oppression. It’s been a bitter and divisive fight between Trump vs. Biden, right vs. left. It’s been natural disasters ravaging the US with massive hurricanes, wildfires, and earthquakes. And all of the global disasters have felt like gasoline poured on the fires of our regularly-scheduled personal crises. I am feeling the toll of a very difficult year stacked on top of the recent passing of my sweet mother after a 3-year fight with cancer. It was an honor to be with her as she died. I know I’m not alone, we have all felt the oppressive pain and pressure of a truly unforgettable year.

But as we are getting ready to tell 2020 to shove off (a nicer word than I’d normally use considering the year we’ve had), it’s important to remember that just like many forest fires, we will grow back after these personal and global disasters. And when we do, we will be much stronger because of it. In fact, some trees actually require the inferno of a wildfire to break open their cones and seed a new generation. Some of the pain we are feeling this year is the necessary fire we need to seed a brighter future. Other pain we’re feeling this year is the pressure of new things now being born. One of these things is a global movement of consciousness. We can no longer stand by and watch to see what happens for our future. There is a reckoning happening. There is a global movement being born and the world is calling on you to join this movement, to wake up to your potential, to step up your Awareness or to step out of the way. The world needs you to seed the future.

As a world, we are waking up to our potential and purpose, causing many old paradigms and institutions to disintegrate under the strain of this change in global consciousness. Right before our eyes, we are watching armies demobilize, countries working together more than ever before, and institutionalized racism, bigotry, sexism, and disregard for the environment begin to crack and crumble. As a world, we are recognizing those things which are fundamentally opposite of our highest potential, and in the immortal words of Twisted Sister, “We’re not gonna take it … anymore!” You can be sure that at many of the funerals for some of the old ways of the world, you will see me dancing on the pews, and singing this refrain.

But despite the joy in the passing of some old and broken institutions, we are nonetheless in the dying process of old ways of being and we all feel the pain of that revolution. We feel it in the form of collective rage, disgust, and an uneasiness or confusion of what the future will bring.

All this death reminds me of the Hindu goddess, Kali. In representations of her, she looks like she could be the lovechild between Gene Simmons and a pirate. She has wild eyes, a skirt made of severed arms and heads, a threatening sword raised above her head, and blood dripping off her long, serpentine tongue. Yet, Kali is regarded as a compassionate deity. That’s right. She’s the one who says, “Enough, already!” and severs what needs to die. In truth, what she represents is killing our unconsciousness, putting asunder our old self so that we can be resurrected as our most conscious beings. Still, blood is blood and even though some things do need to die, this year has shown us that even necessary deaths can still hurt.

While some of the pain we feel this year is from things changing and dying, it’s also true that some of the pain we are experiencing is actually birthing pains. Whether we asked for it or not, we are being born into something new. After the death of what didn’t serve us any longer, it’s normal to feel the pressure of confusion about how to reinvent ourselves. We have identified as that old and broken thing for so long, we don’t know who we’d be as something else. Though we are being born into something new, we may experience the pressure that comes with that newness.

Yet, in truth, there are powerful resources that can be a tremendous asset in times like these, such as a robust internal sense of empathy, a broad perspective over life’s purpose and problems, and a ready capacity to be present with what is. When we can draw upon our ability to be compassionate, responsive and not reactive, empathetic, and loving to self, we can better access the greater love that is available outside the chaos or trigger.

But even with the world waking up to Awareness, who’s going to clean up this messy world?

What have you discovered about yourself during this year and what has helped you to resource your best self to manage this difficult year?

I want to keep this conversation going so over the next few days, I'll be sending you information about a new offering you can use to help you step up to the challenges of the world as the person that you were destined to be.

Be safe. Be well. Talk Soon.

The Many Paths of Yoga Nidra

People often inquire about my Yoga Nidra Teacher Training and wonder why I don’t teach in this way or that way and I remind them that just like there are many ways to teach asana, there are many ways to teach Yoga Nidra. Instead of being dogmatic about one particular style, I train teachers to understand the essentials of the practice, what it’s pointing to so that they can eventually teach powerfully from their own assimilated experience and not as a rote version of their teachers.

It reminds me of the beginning of my yoga journey, as I was just discovering this incredible practice. I used to be fundamentalist about the way I thought that yoga “aught” to be taught. If I went to a yoga class and it didn’t have certain poses or wasn’t conducted in a certain way, I would leave complaining, “That wasn’t yoga!” Have you ever done this? It’s natural. I think that this mind set is common when we are learning a new discipline—we want to try to understand it so we narrow its definition to distinguish it from other practices. But very often, with any subject, once you try to analyze it in depth, the definition of it tends to open up to be exponentially more expansive than you can imagine. One of my earliest yoga teachers said, “If you understand one thing all the way down to its root, you will understand everything.” What he meant was that everything is pointing to the same thing, Source. This conversation inspired me to write an article posted in Conscious Life News.

Just like in yoga asana schools, in Yoga Nidra there are many different approaches to practice setting the same condition for the same end. I approach my trainings with this essential principle: if you understand the big picture of Yoga Nidra—what it is, how it facilitates your own relationship to understanding Self, know some of its history, and the essential elements of why it works—then I believe you will use the principles, tools, and tactics that suit your teaching style the best to be the most effective for the individual needs of your students. That way, you will powerfully impact your students through the power of your own experience and voice and not a rote version of your teacher. As I'm sure you agree, there's no one "right" way to teach Yoga Nidra. That's why I think it's important to understand Yoga Nidra at its root to understand how each principle (like the using the koshas, for example) may effectively lead students to experience the benefits of Yoga Nidra.

What is Yoga Nidra?

I define Yoga Nidra like this: Yoga Nidra is the yoga of sleep: its goal is samadhi, experiencing yourself as Oneness and achieves this through a method of entering the Nidra mind state, the hypnagogic, in-between state, of waking and dreaming, through systematized relaxation and layered Awareness. Yoga Nidra is the meditative process of learning to identify yourself as Awareness itself. By layering your Awareness systematically through the maya koshas, or layers of illusion— what we typically identify as “us” such as body, emotions etc.— we come to experience our infinite Self, our True Self, that of Awareness itself.

Online Yoga Nidra Teacher Training

There are many ways that a teacher could facilitate Awareness through Yoga Nidra. My Yoga Nidra training approach is to leverage the koshas heavily as perhaps the most effective way to disidentify as ego and identify as Awareness itself. I teach myriad approaches to bring awareness to each kosha. For example, in the Anamaya kosha, one could use the 61-points of awareness in the body, or explore Awareness through the body by following the pattern of the homunculus, the parts of the body which have a ready access to the brain or in other words which those spots which are the most accessible for Awareness. After all, the Anamaya kosha is but one of the filters through which to practice experiencing yourself as Awareness. Also, I understand that the body is a powerful conduit for Awareness and can help to anchor other things like thoughts or emotions in a way that makes the information you may be aware of more salient and available. For example, one might inquire into an emotion and become curious to it in Awareness by also exploring which part of the body seems to resonate with that emotion.

As for the application of the body scan, in the beach paradise meditation I used a basic body scan to help relax the body while bringing awareness to the Anamaya Kosha. As you pointed out, this is a meditation that uses the Anamaya kosha and Vijnanamaya kosha (both implicitly rather than explicitly) to gain a great sense of relaxed alertness. It's not a typical Yoga Nidra practice that I might teach in a class.

Yoga Nidra in Your Voice

I am confident that even if you don't think your voice is all that awesome, YOU have a special knowledge and approach to Yoga Nidra that people need to hear. There's only ONE of you and the world needs your approach to this vital practice. You will impact students in a very unique way that only you can, with whatever voice the Universe has given you. I'm sure your voice is awesome but in my training, I do go into depth how to use your voice as a tool to facilitate Awareness, you know avoiding serial gerunds, upturns, and sounding like the hold music at the bank 🙂. Yes, you can certainly work on your voice in my training there's a module that assigns you some voice work to practice. Also, one tip to help you cultivate your voice, starting with simply recording yourself teach (even reading a script) and listen to the tone of your voice.

Below is a Yoga Nidra which I think you might enjoy. While not all Yoga Nidra practices need to explore each kosha to facilitate Awareness, this practice is a little more indicative of my regular way of teaching, one that employs using all the kosha. I hope you enjoy it. You can listen directly or download it to your computer or smart device.

Brand New Yoga Nidra Trainings!

I’ve got some really exciting news!

Short back story …

So, a long time ago, I was that kind of depressed person who was afraid of emotions so I just turned them off. Consequently, for the space of about a decade, I didn’t feel happiness, sadness, grief, or loneliness. I didn’t feel anything. I remember during that time thinking that I couldn’t remember what it felt like to have fun.  

After about 10 years of feeling like this, I discovered Yoga Nidra, or the yoga of sleep. This is the guided meditation where you lie down, get very relaxed, and follow the facilitator’s words as you become increasingly more aware of the different layers of your being. 

During one of my very first Yoga Nidra sessions, I had a life-changing experience. I became very, very relaxed and began to experience myself as pure Awareness. I know, what does that even mean? For me, it felt myself flying through the cosmos, outside of time and space. I felt as if the Universe and I were one and the same. I felt that though this thing called “Scott” had a finite body, emotions, and thoughts, and that my true identity was something so much more immense, complete, and beautiful than any of those other parts of my being. 

This one Yoga Nidra experience dropped some massive and cosmic clarity into my lap. It helped me to understand my human existence with all of its vicissitudes is nothing to avoid, but rather to live out to the fullest. And just like that, I felt safe to feel emotions again. It was like a miracle healing because that night I went home and the floodgates of emotions opened. Oh, the boxes of Kleenex that absorbed more than 10 years of emotions! From that moment forward, I’ve bravely met every emotion that has come my way. I love and have fun again! 

Yoga Nidra does so much more than help you heal from emotional repression. The most common benefits of Yoga Nidra include less stress, better sleep, decreased anxiety and depression, increased self-confidence, lowered blood pressure, increased production, creativity, and learning. Mostly what Yoga Nidra does is help you wake up to your innate power and perfection and it does it in the most relaxing way imaginable. It’s seriously like napping your way to enlightenment. 

In addition to my own transformation, I’ve seen countless other people who have benefitted in large and small ways through this accessible and non-dogmatic practice of deep and relaxing mindfulness. Therefore, I decided to devote much of my life to this fascinating and transformative practice. So, for the previous dozen or so years, I’ve been practicing, studying, and teaching Yoga Nidra. I’ve been featured in podcasts about Yoga Nidra, written a blog largely devoted to the subject, written countless articles, and even written a book about Yoga Nidra. I host regular Yoga Nidra classes, workshops, courses, and I’ve traveled all over the world offering Yoga Nidra trainings.

While teaching a live Yoga Nidra training, it dawned on me how much the world needs more Yoga Nidra and to do that how much it needs more qualified Yoga Nidra teachers. So I began to make the recordings of my trainings available as a digital download on my website. I was proud of this training product but it was very DIY. Before long, though, people around the world were learning my method of Yoga Nidra. 

During the few years since my training went global, something thrilling started happening. Graduates of my program began sending me their original Yoga Nidra recordings in their native languages of Spanish, French, German, Chinese, or Thai. I began to see that this Yoga Nidra training is bigger than me. Truly, my training was spreading across the globe and deserved an upgrade. So, I began to revise. 

After two years of growing, learning, and updating my curriculum, I still felt miles away from building the new program. Then, in July of 2020 I caught wind of a Product Creation Boot Camp hosted by Eric Edmeads and Speaker Nation. If you don’t know him, Eric Edmeads is an absolute force of nature. He is one of the world’s most successful speakers, entrepreneurs, business and health coaches and an absolutely phenomenal online product creator. He created perhaps the world’s most successful health program called Wildfit. He works in the company of powerhouses like Richard Branson of Virgin Records and Virgin Airlines, and Vishen Lakhiani of Mindvalley, and Tony Robbins of, well, Tony Robbins. I absolutely love Eric’s stuff and I really trust him as a guide and so when I heard about this Product Creation Boot Camp, I felt it was exactly what I needed to give my current online Yoga Nidra training the wings that it deserved. 

A few weeks later, I holed up solo in a friend of a friend’s house in Moab, Utah for a week with little or no distractions so I could engage with this roughly 60-hour live, intensive course production training. I’m glad I did because it gave me the time and space to learn volumes, not only about how to offer my new online Yoga Nidra training in a way that it deserved, but I also had many eureka moments about the practice itself, not to mention great illumination about myself. 

But we all know that learning and doing are very different things. One of the things that makes Eric Edmeads such a remarkable facilitator of online courses is his ability to inspire people to follow through and finish the damn thing! This Product Creation Boot Camp course was no different. He promised that for anyone who could finish their project by October 15th, they would be entered into a contest to win 1 of three spots on an Instagram Live event to help bring a broader audience to their project. 

I wanted one of those spots badly, so I immediately came home from Moab and got to work. I spent weeks completing and fine-tuning my 120-page outline and working on the course details. I soon realized that it was waaaaaay more work than I had anticipated. 

About 10 days before the October 15th deadline, my wife and I were sitting outside early one morning during our daily coffee date when my wife asked, “Are you going to make your deadline?” With a pang of disappointment I told her that I thought it would be too difficult to complete in time: I had to film, edit, and compress about 35 hours of lectures, record 25 Yoga Nidra recordings, create multiple PDFs—oh and build a site and upload all of my content on Teachable, a site for online courses which I had never used before. So, no. This project was too big. I could finish in a month or two maybe, just not in time for the deadline. 

She looked at me in the eyes and in not so many words essentially told me to get my ass inside and get to work. So I did. 

Something you need to know about me is that I’m stupidly optimistic. Despite my unrealistic hope for the impossible, completing this project seemed beyond even my warped conception of possible. Regardless, for the next 10 days I put my head down and cranked out 12 to 18-hour days working on this project. During the process, I’d get a momentary glimpse of hope, that maybe, just MAYBE, I might be able to finish. Then, that hope would fade as new issues or problems arose. I’d continue to work through those issues and hope would return, then fade, and return … all the way to the date of the deadline. I was a wreck!

To qualify for the chance to have an IG Live spot with Eric I needed to submit my completed project by 10pm on October 14th. At EXACTLY 10pm on the 14th, I pushed send and submitted my project. Done. It was a fucking miracle, the product of raw, stubborn, and dumb persistence. Thanks to my wife who could see something inside of me that I couldn’t see myself. 

I took a day or so to rest and be a dad again. 

Then, a few days later, to my complete astonishment and surprise I was informed that I was one of the three chosen to be featured in Eric’s Instagram Live feed!!! I did the happy dance until my legs were exhausted. I’m still doing the happy dance. Mostly, I am thrilled to have been pushed by something to finish what I feel is a worthy and much-needed project, one that ended up being much bigger than I had expected but which I feel is to the scope that it deserves. 

So, what’s in this new course? 

There’s something for everyone, regardless if you want to teach Yoga Nidra. One of the things that Eric taught me to offer in all courses was to answer the questions, “what,” “why,” and “what if,” as well as “how.” I believe that to be a good teacher of any subject, you need to deliver the message from your own assimilated experience and not as a rote version of your teacher. I believe that you gotta learn for yourself the “what” and “why” before you learn the “how.” That way, you’ll eventually find your own way to do it and when you do you’ll be more impactful. 

By addressing the “what” and “why” of Yoga Nidra separate from the “how” to teach it, I realized that I actually have not one but TWO courses— one for those who are interested in receiving the vast array of benefits from the practice including healing from stress, sleeplessness, and self-limiting beliefs as well as learning about Yoga Nidra’s power to help you to source the power that is already inside of you to live an extraordinary life, and another vast course for those who wish to take the information of the first course and leverage it to learn how to expertly share it with the world. 

The first course is called Waking Up with the Yoga of Sleep. This go-at-your-own-pace course is about waking up to who you really are. It uses Yoga Nidra to help you remember and experience your birthright of infinite power. Waking Up with the Yoga of Sleep helps you to deeply relax while you gain a universal perspective about your life to experience it as miraculous, extraordinary, and rich. In this course, you will learn about waking up from the beautiful and necessary illusions of body, emotions, thoughts, beliefs, and circumstantial happiness. It guides you to wake up to an eternal joy that is fundamental to your being and helps you arrive at a cosmic perspective of life’s problems. This course helps you to truly experience yourself as Oneness. In addition, you’ll also be receptive to the vast other possible benefits of the practice including but not limited to less stress, better sleep, decreased anxiety and depression, increased self-confidence, lowered blood pressure, increased production, creativity, and learning. This course is about creating some YOU time for yourself. It is relaxing, illuminating, empowering, and fun.

Contained in Waking Up with the Yoga of Sleep is a curriculum of relaxing Yoga Nidra practices, energizing breathing practices, and focusing mindfulness practices before and after fun and engaging teaching lectures. You get a copious library of resources to support your journey including: Yoga Nidra recordings, breathing practices, mindfulness practices, gentle yoga videos, links, PDFs, podcasts, blog posts, and more. 

The second course expands greatly on the first and is called Facilitating Transformation with the Yoga of Sleep. This follows up the foundational “what” and “why” of the first course with essential information with the “how” of to teach it. This course uses Yoga Nidra, pranayama and mindfulness practices, PDFs and detailed lectures to lead you step-by-step toward not only how to create your own effective Yoga Nidra classes and scripts, but how to so with your OWN voice to truly facilitate Yoga Nidra as an expert in only the way that YOU can. 

In this course, I share the essential tools, tactics, and roadmaps to guide you to being a truly effective teacher, not as a rote version of me but with your own voice. In this course, I teach:

• The role of the teacher and how to create an effective teaching container.

• The Yoga Nidra Roadmap: how to create an engaging, relaxing experience that meets the specific needs of your students. 

• 15 essential tools and tactics to teach effective Yoga Nidra classes and write Yoga Nidra scripts.

• How to connect the dots to build a Yoga Nidra class or write scripts using your own voice.

• Onboard and leading 1:1 led and dyad practices and even teach you how to self-practice. 

• The science and magic behind how Yoga Nidra facilitates healing so you can benefit the needs of yourself and your students.

But it doesn’t stop there… Most yoga and Yoga Nidra courses only instruct you how to teach a class. Not this one. As a career yoga and Yoga Nidra instructor with almost 20 years of experience, a former yoga studio owner, and the owner of a registered Yoga School that has taught graduated hundreds of yoga and Yoga Nidra students, I recognize the unfair gap between someone who is new or newer to the industry and someone who has 2 decades of experience. I want to share what’s taken me thousands of dollars of personal and business coaching and the blood, sweat, and tears of almost 2 decades of trial and error in this industry to help you catch your stride in a fraction of the time it took me. This course gives you the actionable, practical, and real-life information about how to really go out and share Yoga Nidra with the world like a boss. 

This is why after learning how to teach Yoga Nidra effectively, I also offer and several additional modules about how to: 

• Generate interest for Yoga Nidra in the yoga studio, community, and online. 

• Format and price classes, workshops, courses.

• Teach online with easy, effective and inexpensive tech, Zoom classes and workshops, audio recordings, etc. 

• Conduct private 1:1 and group sessions and courses.

• Organize and execute fun and engaging yoga retreats. Give yourself a paid vacation and make a huge impact for your students

• Make Yoga Nidra accessible to your students with non-racist non-sexist language, in teaching and marketing

• Support your students with added value of recordings, follow up, and integration tips. 

I even provide a video series with 5 career-building tools that you can start using today to build your own “Mechanism of Influence” that allows you to make a global impact while also making a great living. These are tips that I usually reserve for my 1:1 mentor students which have helped make my career. In truth, the tuition for the course is worth just this module alone!

In both courses, I feature something really remarkable. While taking Eric Edmead’s course, I realized something extraordinary about the way that I teach Yoga Nidra. It was so intuitive and behind-the-scenes to my own experience that I didn’t even recognize that it was happening. Through a mental exercise, I realized that I get the same calming and cosmically-illuminating  experience whether I’m practicing, writing about, or teaching Yoga Nidra. I realize that after putting in the more than 10k hours to become an expert in this subject, I have developed a unique ability to teach Yoga Nidra while in the very state I’m facilitating for my students. I’ve had some incredibly beautiful and illuminating revelations while teaching. This is huge! 

So, in both of these courses, I teach you how to use the Yoga Nidra state of mind to facilitate your learning of the subject. In the teachers course, I even teach you how to get yourself into state while teaching Yoga Nidra so that you can lead the experience from the place you’re inviting your students to experience. In such a state, you cannot teach a bad class. This technique is revolutionary and I can’t wait to share it with you!

My stuff is going live and I can’t wait for you to check it out. Regardless if you are interested in these courses, I’d be honored if you would please tune in to watch my interview with Eric Edmeads on Thursday, November 12th at 8:30 am MST (10:30 am EST). 

I hope you’ll also check out my two courses which I am so so so so excited about. I’m confident that you will love them while also gaining much needed relaxation and learning volumes about yourself and the Universe in the process. 

Yoga Nidra: What and Why, Training and Scripts

What Is Yoga Nidra and Why Practice It?

Yoga Nidra is the yoga of sleep. It’s goal is samadhi, experiencing yourself as Oneness and achieves this through a method of entering the Nidra mind state, the in-between state of waking and dreaming, through systematized relaxation and layered Awareness. I offer online Yoga Nidra trainings to help people learn to write their own Yoga Nidra Scripts and make a powerful impact in the world through this transformational practice.

What Is The Goal of Yoga Nidra?

Yoga Nidra is the meditative process of learning to identify yourself as Awareness itself. By layering your Awareness systematically through the maya koshas, or layers of illusion— what we typically identify as “us” such as body, emotions etc.— we come to experience our infinite Self, our True Self, that of Awareness itself.

Source is Awareness— the fundamental Grand Singularity of the Universe. It’s what’s all around us, it’s in everything, it’s our origin. It’s where we came from before we were born and where we go after we die. Yoga Nidra is a relaxing method of exploring all the things we might be aware of, to feel them pointing us to experience our innate purity and consciousness, to Awareness itself.

Since Source, Awareness itself, is omnipotent (can do anything), omnipresent (all present), and omniscient (all knowing), with practices such as Yoga Nidra, when you align with your True Self, that of Awareness itself, you experience your birthright of your own fundamental and innate wholeness, the wholeness of Source. This wholeness is not dependent on time, events, circumstances, or conditions. It just is. Therefore, the byproduct of experiencing your fundamental wholeness through Awareness practices like Yoga Nidra, is healing in body, mind, and spirit After all, wholeness is synonymous with healed. Mostly importantly, what heals inside of us is the fundamental human malady—one which transcends all civilizations, time, and technology— which is the false notion of being separate from Source.

Gayatri Mantra suggests that if we were to understand that everything comes from Source, we’d understand that we are no different than the very thing we seek.

Up-leveling Your Consciousness: Waking Up with The Yoga of Sleep

Yoga Nidra is a process of leveraging your mind state and to evolve your stages of consciousness to achieve this understanding as mentioned in the Gayatri Mantra. Its systematic relaxation and method of layered Awareness helps to down-regulate your nervous system providing deep rest while simultaneously accessing certain brainwave states which can put practitioners into a flow state. Mostly, Yoga Nidra puts people into the Nidra state (low alpha, high theta) which acts like a secret doorway to experience the part of you that exists beyond your rational, linear thinking. It’s the doorway into your infinite Self.

Though Nidra means sleep, it’s more about learning to wake up. Yoga Nidra helps us wake up from the illusions of our false identities, and helps us wake up to the truth, that we are Source itself that what we are fundamentally is Awareness.

Unlike other forms of meditation, Yoga Nidra encourages relaxation—indeed it’s the driver for this expansive state of consciousness. Unlike other forms of meditation, practitioners are not trying to focus the mind at the exclusion of other stimuli. Instead, in Yoga Nidra one learns to welcome each object that arises into one’s field of Awareness, recognize it for what it is, and merely be the witness of it. These objects could arise either by the facilitator’s suggestion or may occur spontaneously. Objects can be internal or external, physical, mental, or emotional, and each exists as another yet beautiful pointer, constantly pointing to this moment, enticing Awareness to know itself through all that it can be aware of.

Ultimately, we have the pleasure and responsibility to apply the Awareness we reveal during practices like Yoga Nidra into the day-to-day reality of our human lives. With this greater Awareness it feels as if the colors have been turned up in our life. With this greater Awareness we become more present to the miraculousness of even the mundane. With this greater Awareness, we see everyone and everything around us as a constant reminder to wake up to the truth: that we exist inside the eternal pocket of perfection.

One of the great things about Yoga Nidra is that you gain the benefits of this profound and transformation practice regardless of whether or not you’re seeking to “wake up.” Yoga Nidra is such a powerful practice because its benefits are so readily available, even if you’ve never experienced meditation, mindfulness, or yoga. All one has to do is lie down, close their eyes, relax, and practice witnessing whatever arises into one’s field of attention. You don’t even need to call it yoga or Nidra or anything. Call it guided napping!

Benefits of Yoga Nidra

Both empirical studies as well as countless anecdotal stories point to the benefits of Yoga Nidra. The benefits of regularly experiencing Yoga Nidra and the systematized and prolonged state of Awareness, include but are not limited to:

• Better sleep

• Concentrated rest: for all of us but especially the chronically under-rested

• Managing emotions—stress, depression/anxiety

• Eliminating compulsions & addictions

• Healing self-limiting beliefs

• Reprogramming the unconscious mind

• Lowering blood pressure

• Calming the mind

• Building confidence

• Improving your mood

• Healing trauma

• Managing grief

• Clarity and perspective over problems

• Massively increased learning, creativity, and productivity

• Spiritual advancement

• Healing physical, energetic, emotional, and spiritual maladies

As facilitators of Yoga Nidra, we have a great opportunity by sharing this practice: we get the chance to wake up to our own innate perfection while helping others do likewise. Through many years of practice and teaching, I realize that facilitating the practice is itself a deep practice of Awareness, replete with all the same benefits. Again, regardless if enlightenment is on your radar or not, the world desperately needs the aforementioned benefits of the practice…and whether practitioners are looking for it or not, they’ll get the enlightenment part too.

While practicing YN is easy, learning to teach it effectively and skillfully is difficult. I’ve dedicated the last 12 years of my life to exploring this fascinating and crucial mode of self-discovery. I’ve written and published a book, I offer regular trainings, classes, and workshops around the world as well as online, I write about Yoga Nidra in online journals, magazines, and my blog. I practice Yoga Nidra regularly and I’m thinking about Yoga Nidra ALL. THE. TIME.

Yoga Nidra has taught me more about myself and the Universe than any other practice and I’m thrilled for the opportunity to sharing some of my experience and knowledge with you.

Yoga Nidra Training: Learn to Make Your Own Yoga Nidra Scripts

Over the years I’ve learned a few things about Yoga Nidra and today, I’d like to explore some of the key elements to this fascinating practice to help give you some of the tools to create your own transformational practices in the form of Yoga Nidra scripts, both for yourself and others.

My intention for doing Yoga Nidra trainings to help you find YOUR voice as you facilitate powerful transformation for yourself and the world through Yoga Nidra classes and scripts.

Reading someone else's script can be good, sometimes even great. I’ve created a book of Yoga Nidra scripts. But your true power lies within your ability to facilitate this practice with your own voice. I want to teach you some of the tools and tips to access your true power of transformation through the fascinating practice of writing Yoga Nidra scripts.

I can tell you from experience that by crafting well thought out scripts, you’ll find yourself also transforming in the process.

Yoga Nidra for Stress

Want to find an easy, effective, and enduring solution to stress? Perhaps you’re even interested in helping others reduce the stress in their lives? Well, tonight, I’m offering a live online Yoga Nidra class devoted to stress and this weekend, I’m hosting a workshop on how to write your own Yoga Nidra scripts to help people with stress, sleeplessness, grief, or any other topic.

Stress. We all have it. What to do about it … that doesn’t involve avoidance techniques such as binge watching Netflix, drinking, and eating Ben and Jerry’s by the truckload?

Yoga Nidra, the yoga of sleep, is a great alternative to mind-numbing dumbness and, potentially, Type 2 diabetes. Yoga Nidra is a form of guided meditation that uses layered Awareness and systematic relaxation to put you into a mind state called Nidra, the space between waking and dreaming consciousness.

Yoga Nidra for Stress

What world-renowned psychologists like Joseph Wolpe discovered is that you cannot be stressed and relaxed at the same time. Furthermore, getting comfortable with the ability to regularly enter the Nidra state, helps to strengthen your ability to practice merely witnessing what would otherwise be a stressor. Over time, such practices help you become increasingly less triggered by the same stimulus that would otherwise send you straight for Netflix and diabetes.

It’s easy to do. All you have to do is show up, close your eyes, and I’ll take it from there. Practicing it doesn’t require any previous experience. In truth, you don’t even need to stay awake for it to be effective. Besides, I always make a recording so you can practice at home and perhaps catch anything you missed on your subsequent meditations.

It’s nice to have a resource like Yoga Nidra recordings on your phone that you can tune into whenever you wish.

Please join me tonight for Yoga Nidra for Stress Zoom 6–7:15 pm MDT. Even if the time doesn’t work for you to join live, you can still watch/listen to the recordings later.

Yoga Nidra Training

While practicing Yoga Nidra is super relaxing and easy, guiding others through this transformative practice can be difficult. That’s why I offer a Yoga Nidra online training, and am also offering a LIVE YOGA NIDRA SCRIPT WRITING WORKSHOP this Saturday, 9–11 am MDT on Zoom. Again, I’ll be recording it so you can watch it later if you can’t make it live. Learn to write your own scripts! Click here for details.

I hope to see you tonight and/or this weekend for some great Yoga Nidra instruction!

Yoga Nidra Script Writing Workshop

Yoga Nidra Scripts Workshop

Yoga Nidra Script Workshop

I hope your week is starting off well, full of opportunities, broad perspective, and loving the world. 

We all have different ways of loving the world. One of the ways I love the world is by teaching Yoga Nidra. Yoga Nidra has changed my life. It's made me understand the world and MYSELF to such a deep and profound way, I believe the rest of my life will be dedicated to this practice. 

Yoga Nidra is a mindful inquiry to know your deepest being through the practice of layered Awareness and relaxation. While it acts as a pathway to awakening, the practical applications and benefits are extensive. Even if you don't speak "Awakening," Yoga Nidra is an excellent resource to manage stress, get better sleep, support emotions, and to give you a beautiful perspective on your life. 

Practicing Yoga Nidra is easy—all you do is lie down and listen to a teacher help you pay attention to all the parts of your being like body, thoughts, emotions, etc. to see that while you have those elements, what you truly are is much bigger than those elements. Ultimately, the practice is a profound and relaxing way of understanding yourself as Awareness itself. 

While practicing Yoga Nidra is easy, teaching this transformational practice is complex. It requires a deep understanding of the underlying principles and tools to effectively facilitate transformation. This is why I’ve created my online Yoga Nidra teacher training program and why I’ve written over 100 pages of scripts, to help teachers lead effective Yoga Nidra classes. 

One of the biggest requests I get from people who want to offer Yoga Nidra is to learn how to write their OWN Yoga Nidra scripts. People across the globe are hungry to learn how to use the principles, tools, and philosophy of this ancient practice to help create specific transformation for others. 

Yoga Nidra Script Workshop: When & Where

So, this weekend, Sat. 31st, 2020 9–11 am MDT , I’ll be hosting an online workshop all about how to create your very own Yoga Nidra scripts, using the tools and format that I’ll show you to capture your own voice to make a lasting impact with this fascinating practice. 

I’ll be recording it so if you can’t make the time, you’ll be welcome to watch it later. 

In this interactive, fun, and informative workshop, we will explore the key elements of writing your own Yoga Nidra scripts including:

• How to create scripts for healing, performance, presence, and peace.

• The Yoga Nidra Roadmap

• The magic words that guide Awareness

• Which words to avoid and why

• How to structure your script for general purpose

• Pace and rhythm: ow to use the rhythm of your voice  to facilitate mind state change (Nidra state)

• How the Koshas act as destinations for Awareness

• How and when to use visualizations

This workshop will happen over zoom. You’ll receive essential materials about the key principles of Yoga Nidra and how to use those to write an effective Yoga Nidra script.

If you’re interested in Yoga Nidra, I think you’ll find this workshop very beneficial. I’d love to have you join me. 

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Yoga Nidra Teacher Training

Fascinated with Yoga Nidra? Consider my instant access digital download Yoga Nidra training! You’ll love the discussions, the practices, and the deep dive into your True Being! Do this for YOU. This is a solid training. And, if you’ve ever thought of learning this incredible science and art, now’s the time. I’m putting the finishing touches on my ALL NEW program that is going to be so much MORE incredible than my already wonderful training. For everyone who purchases my existing program they will get the new, more amazing one, for FREE, and save hundreds of dollars.

You may register and pay for the training here. When you do, you will receive an immediate download to access the course and start your journey today. You’ll love how versatile this course is. You’ll also love the informative and helpful manual which is 60+ pages instruction, tools, links, discussion points, a Yoga Nidra road map for teaching, chants, and even some supportive mindfulness and pranayama techniques that you can print off and give to your students. PLUS, you’ll receive over a 100 pages of Yoga Nidra scripts so that you can start to study and practice teaching effective and helpful Yoga Nidra practices right away. The scripts in addition to the audio/video course which explains what Yoga Nidra is and how to effectively teach it, will set you apart as a Yoga Nidra facilitator, able to teach authentically from your own voice according to the essential principles of the fascinating and expansive practice of Yoga Nidra.

Santosha and Valuing Perplexity

Everybody has problems. We all struggle with what we don’t know about our own complicated lives. Of course, we want solutions to our problems tout suite, and if we could gain those solutions as painlessly as possible, that would be great. Consider, though, that our problems actually help us to become the people we are meant to be. So, how do problems, the yogic concept of Santosha, Yoga Nidra and learning to sit in the darkness sometimes, help us to do this essential growth?

Problems Can Give A Push

Sometimes, it is only by questioning, wondering, or struggling, that we are driven to understand an otherwise hidden part of ourselves and our potential. Our questions and problems fuel us to open our hearts, to seek for inspiration, to perform the necessary work, and more profoundly, to abandon our will to the grander wisdom of the divine. The Divine knows how easy it is to be anesthetized by easy and numbed out by normal. Comfortable can sometimes get in the way of us becoming the greatest version of ourselves.

Light Creeping In

Like the late, great Leonard Cohen says in his song, "Anthem":

“Ring the bells that still can ring;
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything;
That’s how the light gets in.”

— Leonard Cohen

Even the rhyme is broken! He's pointing to the idea that it's through our brokenness, through our problems that we find the avenue toward the light.

Yoga Nidra and Observing Problems

When faced with problems, we must at once be willing to seek and do, and also we must sometimes learn to simply sit comfortably and be with what we don't know or with what doesn't feel comfortable-happily resolved with the phrase, "I don't know." And sometimes to get real answers we must be willing to sit in our own darkness for a while. One way to learn to do this is through Yoga Nidra, the yoga of sleep. Yoga Nidra is a practice of guided meditation that leads you through layered awareness and deep relaxation to practice learning to simply witness whatever is presented to your attention, be that emotions, problems, physical sensations or whatever. It helps you to practice experiencing yourself as Awareness itself, as Source, which has no needs, problems, or issues. Then, when this awareness is married back to you every-day life, the part of you that feels like it does have problems, you have such an incredible perspective over your life’s problems. Yoga Nidra is one of the ways that you can cultivate the power to be able to sit with your problems without allowing them to feel like they control your life.

This human tendency for control occurs regularly in our yoga practice as many of us strive to either know everything there is to know about yoga or try to perfect our poses; we usually eagerly fill in whatever blanks present themselves in our life's scripts.

Instead, let us practice the yoga principle of Santosha, or contentment, by learning to sit with and even value perplexity, knowing that it's molding us into our highest being.

Sitting in the Dark

The following poem by David Whyte seems to speak directly to learning from the darkness, instead of running from it.

Sweet Darkness

When your eyes are tired

the world is tired also.

When your vision has gone

no part of the world can find you.

Time to go into the dark

where the night has eyes

to recognize its own.

There you can be sure

you are not beyond love.

The dark will be your womb

tonight.

The night will give you a horizon

further than you can see.

You must learn one thing:

the world was made to be free in.

Give up all the other worlds

except the one to which you belong.

Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet

confinement of your aloneness

to learn

anything or anyone

that does not bring you alive

is too small for you.

~ David Whyte ~

Yoga: Playing With The Metaphor

Since my first yoga class ever, I’ve been asking the question, “So what. What is yoga, how does it help me discover who I am? Why is it beneficial, and what does it have to do with a regular guy?” I asked myself, "Is this just another heath program? Is it meditation in motion? Is it maybe a physical rite on the way to spiritual end?” These are the questions I’m still asking and what I try to answer in my Yoga Nidra Trainings.

And 20 years later, I realize that it’s all of these and much more. I suppose that all these years later, I'm still asking that same question, “What is this?” Over the years, when I think that I’ve maybe got a handle on what yoga is, when I’ve think I’ve figured it out, I experience or discover something new about yoga and I have to expand my definition to include something bigger.

Yoga Nidra is yoga. It feels like a relaxing guided meditation but it’s yoga. How come it’s considered yoga? Well, I think according to the definition of yoga it is a practice that helps to move us toward yoga’s end: to connect body, mind, and spirit and as we “cease the fluctuations of the mind,” definition as per the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Instead of moving the bod to be aware of the bod, we are simply aware of it as sensation. No movement necessary.

I believe that everybody must have their own definition of yoga. My current working definition (subject to change):

Yoga is the processes of understanding who I am through the method of listening.

That’s it. It’s pretty stripped down. You may notice that I didn't even say anything about asana. Of course, one of the ways I “listen” is by feeling and becoming aware of my body.

There are many ways to understanding what and who I am. I think understanding myself begins with understanding the grossest levels of awareness. The Yoga Sutras suggest how I treat other people and the ways I choose to organize my life is perhaps the first way of understanding myself. Then, I get to apply that same sort of attention and organization to something practical and close to home: my own physical body. If I'm paying close attention to my body in my poses and how I take care of myself, it might help me become more sensitive to more subtle parts of myself like my energy body. I will then discover how my body and energy dance together.

By the way, I'm convinced that the body isn't merely something to transcend on our way to higher understanding. The body is one of the most practical ways of feeling and experiencing my own divinity. After all, if you've ever seen someone who is extremely physically adept, like Michal Jordan or Mikhail Baryshnikov, it looks like you're witnessing God. And indeed to some degree you are. You're witnessing someone so developed in that line of understanding that they are reaching a sublime state of being.

Our physical body gives us such immediate and practical information about our being. And, because this is the vehicle, the container, of heart and mind, it makes sense to not only learn from it, but to also keep it healthy so that it can take us where we want to go. Besides, it's fun. It feels good. What could heaven possibly be but some variation of those two things. Even when I experience love, I can only do that through the nuts and bolts of this body. When my heart feels like it's going to grow bigger than my chest and burst out of it, or like it's being stepped on and smooshed black, it's still within the container of my body that I experience and understand that.

Yoga Nidra Training

In a Yoga Nidra practice, one way I use my body to cultivate greater Awareness and come to “cease the fluctuations” of my mind, is to do a Sanctuary Practice. The Sanctuary Practice uses visualization and an incitement of one’s senses to evoke the feelings one has in their most favorite place. This use of one’s senses to evoke one’s personal inner-sanctuary acts like a metaphor to help someone experience the way they most naturally feel as an expression of the Oneness. Whether there in real-life or visualizing the sanctuary, each acts as a metaphor for how one’s most natural comportment.

Similarly, the body acts as a metaphor for us to help understand that eternal part of us that cannot be defined by something so limited and finite. Nonetheless, it’s a great tool to bring context to something that is otherwise perhaps unknowable.

As I think about this question of ‘what is yoga and how does it help me understand who I am’ when I’m doing yoga and Yoga Nidra. Please enjoy my free Sanctuary Practice which you can download/listen to below.

Someone who understood this beautifully is Mary Oliver in her poem about this discovery of who we are through listening and how the body plays a vital role in that discovery. I'm convinced that Mary Oliver is a yogi but who works with a pen rather than a mat. Check it out.

POEM (The Spirit Likes To Dress Up)

The spirit

likes to dress up like this:

ten fingers,

ten toes,

shoulders, and all the rest

at night

in the black branches,

in the morning

in the blue branches

of the world.

It could float, of course,

but would rather

plumb rough matter.

Airy and shapeless thing,

it needs

the metaphor of the body,

lime and appetite,

the oceanic fluids;

it needs the body’s world,

instinct

and imagination

and the dark hug of time,

sweetness

and tangibility,

to be understood,

to be more than pure light

that burns

where no one is –

so it enters us –

in the morning

shines from brute comfort

like a stitch of lightning;

and at night

lights up the deep and wondrous

drownings of the body

like a star.”

― Mary Oliver, Dream Work

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Yoga Nidra Dyad

Yoga Nidra Dyad

What’s a Yoga Nidra Dyad, why can’t you make a Yoga Nidra script for a dyad, and why are Yoga Nidra dyads so transformational?

Yoga Nidra: The Yoga of Sleep

Yoga Nidra is called the “yoga of sleep” but don’t let the name fool you, it’s actually a pathway to waking up. What you wake up from is the illusion that your life is ordinary, predictable, and broken. What you wake up to is the magnificence of your True Nature, that of Awareness itself. This “waking up” not only makes for transformational personal and spiritual growth, healing, and wholeness, but most satisfyingly helps you to live your current life, rich with joy, clarity, and presence.

Yoga Nidra is a pathway to inquire into and cultivate a tangible relationship with your most eternal and perfect Self, that of Awareness itself. To rediscover your essential Self, one must cultivate greater Awareness by first dis-identifying as all illusory parts of our being, our ego. The ego in this context is any finite, limited, or changeable part of being, e.g., body, energy, thoughts, etc. In other words, your ego is anything that’s not your eternal Self, the part that comes from Source. In Yoga Nidra, another name for the layers of your ego is the maya koshas, a Sanskrit word meaning “the sheaths of illusion.”

Maya Koshas: The Layers of Illusion

Yoga Nidra uses the maya koshas, the sheaths that obfuscate your True Nature of pure Awareness, as the essential tools to illuminate Awareness. This happens because through all the things you can be aware of, you illuminate Awareness itself. Yoga Nidra leads you to be aware of your body, your emotions, your thoughts, etc, the shows you that what those all have in common is that you’re aware of them. Essentially, instead of identifying as the costumes, the changeable and illusory elements like body emotions, thoughts, etc., Yoga Nidra helps you understand yourself as the thing that underneath the costume, Awareness. BUT, since the costumes are part of our existence, we get to put on the costumes again but with increased clarity, purpose, and perspective. Yoga Nidra is an incredible practice that helps you live more fully because you’re more sure of your True identity.

“Great, I’m Awareness. That that still doesn’t explain how one practices Yoga Nidra.”

Well, most often Yoga Nidra feels like a guided meditation where the practitioner invites you to relax and helps you do so by layering your Awareness. In other words, the facilitator invites you to be aware of your maya koshas which are (but not limited to) body, energy/emotions, thoughts, beliefs, and even bliss. Practitioners are invited to merely witness whatever arises in their field of attention (so long as it feels safe and doesn’t trigger trauma), whether by the facilitators suggestion or if it arises spontaneously.

You’ll often start a Yoga Nidra practice with an intention for practicing called a Sankalpa, establish an inner-sanctuary through a brief visualization, then the facilitator will invite you to be aware of your maya koshas by leading you through something like a body scan, then onto your prana layer, emotions, thoughts, etc. all the while practicing merely welcoming, recognizing, and witnessing whatever arises in your Awareness.

This gets a little meta but hang with me …

How Opposites Reveal the Oneness

Throughout the practice, a facilitator may invite the practitioner to be aware of opposites—feeling right hand then left hand, for example. At first, the facilitator invites the practitioner to merely witness the two objects as separate sensations. Then, the facilitator may have the practitioner experience them simultaneously. The part of you that can witness two seemingly opposite things is that which does not exist in the realm of opposites. The part that can feel both simultaneously is the part of your that is the Oneness, Source, Awareness itself. See where I’m going with this??? This action of holding opposites overrides the rational thinking mind, one of the most pernicious koshas—great for studying for the bar exam, terrible for experiencing the realm of Oneness.

The maya koshas such as the mind are illusions because they are changeable, here one moment gone the next. They exist in a realm of binaries, one of this or that, have or have not. What ancient wisdom teaches and what Yoga Nidra helps you to experience (not just theorize about) is that the part of you that never changes is Awareness. It’s also Source itself. So, Yoga Nidra helps practitioners identify as unchanging Awareness rather than the changeable koshas. Read more about how opposites reveal Oneness

Awareness is your True Nature, that which is aligned with and as Source. It’s your most natural way of being. It’s just that we naturally tend to identify as all the stuff that we can feel, touch, see, think, emote, etc. The problem is that all that stuff is changing all the time and can never be the eternal, most real part of our Being, the part that always is. But don’t despair because those parts exist as the best tools we have to illuminate what we truly are, Awareness itself.

“Ok, cool. I can experience myself as Awareness by layered awareness and by negating opposites. What is a dyad again?”

So, a Yoga Nidra dyad is essentially doing what Yoga Nidra is so good at doing, coming to know your True Self (Awareness) though all the objects you can be aware of, but instead of following a facilitator’s suggested layering of objects to be aware of, the practitioner instead indicates what they are aware of in the moment and the facilitator helps them to simply witness those things. In this way, instead of the facilitator leading the practice, I like to think that it’s the practitioner who is directing the show.

Why Dyads Are So Effective

The facilitator’s role is to inquire the practitioner what the practitioner is aware of, invite them to merely welcome, recognize, and witness whatever that is, and track the changeability of those objects. Perhaps the facilitator’s most important role is to keep reminding the practitioner that they are Awareness itself experiencing themselves in the form of whatever they are aware of.

This process of reflective awareness provides an incredible clarity and perspective about any objects which present themselves in a practitioners life, from emotions, events, physical or energetic or spiritual ailments. Essentially, when one knows themselves as Awareness itself—pure, whole, and complete—life’s problems seem to have a finite context. Great insight, healing, and transformation comes readily when someone is presented with their whole and complete Self. This process of clarity happens more readily because the facilitator can help the practitioner follow that which is most present in their field of Awareness, that which is actually calling the practitioner to wake up and pay attention.

Each object in your field of attention is actually inviting you to do one thing and that is to wake up and pay attention. Each object is arousing your capacity for Awareness. A dyad is so powerful because instead of inviting the practitioner to accept this or that into their field of awareness (as organized and deliberate as that method is to promote awareness), instead, the facilitator follows what is naturally and most poignantly asking the practitioner to wake up and pay attention to.

This is huge! It shows us that whatever we’ve been looking for in life is right around us at all times. It’s like having a massive wake-up moment, like a near-death experience or something, where you see the purpose of it all, then go back into your regular life and see all the same stuff but with new eyes. Certainly, not everyone comes out of every session having, “seen the light,” but it’s remarkable how many people experience incredible and lasting transformation from their very first session, either in a commonly led Yoga Nidra experience and especially in a Yoga Nidra dyad.

Why You Can’t Have a Yoga Nidra Script for a Dyad

You can’t make a script for a dyad because there’s no way you could predict what would arise in the practitioners awareness. It takes a broad perspective and understanding of Yoga Nidra as well an intuition and sensitivity to skillfully and compassionately lead a practitioner through a Yoga Nidra dyad.

Would you be interested in learning how to facilitate Yoga Nidra dyads? You can join me Saturday, September 26th from 9 am to 12 pm MDT for a training and practice of doing just this. The workshop will be recorded so you can watch it later in case you can’t make the live session.

You’ll learn:

• Why dyads are so effective

• How to practice them safely with your clients

• The essential guide to dyads, The Yoga Nidra Dyad Roadmap

• How to ascertain your student’s needs in the pre-screening

• How to use the koshas as tools to affect transformation

• The art of reflective Awareness

• How to ground and navigate your student’s awareness

• How to manage and facilitate emotions

• How to help your students process and integrate the experience

• Helpful professional, logistical, and tech tips.

This will be a virtual and recorded workshop via Zoom. You’ll have the opportunity to practice dyads with each other in breakout rooms. You’ll also have the opportunity to ask specific questions to your experience after your practice.

The world needs expert Yoga Nidra teachers. Become a masterful Yoga Nidra facilitator by learning Yoga Nidra dyads

Each person who registers will receive a recording of the workshop so even if you can’t make the time work for you, you may register and watch the training at your own convenience.

Counts as continuing education with Yoga Alliance!

Change is In The Air

First day of fall. School has started (Zoom kindergarten is a blessing and a curse). Schedules are changing, becoming more busy, even despite the pandemic. The crescendo of political, social, and global noise is getting louder.

Leaves are changing.

Things are always changing. I don't know about you, but for me it's easy to get caught up in the momentum of this motion of change to the degree that it becomes impossible to avoid feeling constantly rushed, out of time, and strained. Ever find yourself asking, "When can a person take a breather?!"

I think once we realize that there is a possibility of stillness IN the change, we will find our mooring against the tides of change. We can skillfully navigate all the vicissitudes of life by creating a grounded seat from which all this change may happen around us without making us lose our center.

With a grounded relationship to change, you'll find yourselves not only able to navigate change but even thriving with change.

Here are a few ideas to help us stay grounded amidst change.

Simple Meditation Technique

Find a quiet place where you can possibly be undisturbed for a few moments (sometimes this is sitting in your car). Sit comfortably and set a timer for 10 minutes. Close your eyes and begin to count your exhales. If your mind wanders or you lose your count, start over with the counting. The objective is not to count to some outrageously high number, but rather to continue to come back to center when you leave. We all wander so there's no judgment when you do. Try doing this every day. You may want to extend the time to 15, 20, or 30 minutes.

Get Outside

Make a point to go on a gentle walk and leave your phone behind. Find the joy in walking for the sake of walking. Inform yourself of the natural world and notice the trees, sky, flowers, etc. Wallace Stevens said, "Perhaps the truth depends upon a walk around the lake." When placing yourself in nature, you often remind yourself both of life's natural cycles as well as your own belonging to this beautiful and complex world.

Find an Online Yoga or Meditation Class

Find an online yoga class to class or roll out your mat and begin to move and breathe. I teach a few classes a week (including one today at 12 pm MDT) which you can join virtually and/or watch the recordings later. I also teach one class a week at Mosaic Yoga (Mon. 5:30 pm) where you can join live with a responsible socially-distanced protocol.

If you're practicing poses on your own, match your breath with the poses that your body seems to crave. If you’re practicing on your own, don't worry about practicing for a certain amount of time, just practice whatever feels the most natural. Allow your body the pleasure of gently warming up then release tensions with some long, slow, deep stretches. Give yourself several moments to rest in savasana and then go about your day.

With some help is keeping us grounded, we'll find ourselves ready to meet the changes that are unfolding.

Your Brain On Mindfulness

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An 8-week course to help you dissolve stress.

My friend and fellow-teacher Rachel Posner is going to be offering her incredible course Your Brain on Mindfulness: 8 Weeks to Dissolve Stress, Build Resilience and Thrive. I love Rachel’s work. She’s an incredible teacher, really knows her stuff, and I think will get a great course if you register.

Rachel and her family just spent two years in Spain during the same time that me and my family were living in France. Rachel and I even did a workshop about reducing stress for the holidays together.

I wanted to help her spread the word about her course and would encourage you to take a look.

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Your Brain on Mindfulness: 8 Weeks to Dissolve Stress, Build Resilience and Thrive

A course by Rachel Posner

This is the online course for people who want to permanently reduce stress.

Launches on September 28th, 2020

Register before Saturday and type earlybird  when it asks you if you have a coupon and get $200 off!

Does This Sound Familiar?

I often feel stressed and overwhelmed.

I lose patience with myself and my friends and family more than I want to admit.

I beat myself up for not being or doing “enough”.

I know there’s a lot of good in my life and a ton to be grateful for, but I’m too stressed to pay attention to any of it.

You deserve to feel calm, present and happy in your life. Your Brain on Mindfulness is what you've been looking for.

Your Brain on Mindfulness is a comprehensive online course designed to completely shift your relationship to the stressors in your life. We'll work with evidence-based practices that help you feel calm, even when life is chaotic. These mindfulness techniques will create lasting change and support you in feeling more calm, present and happy.

Your Brain on Mindfulness

• www.rachelposner.com

• Dashboard

Your Brain on Mindfulness: 8 Weeks to Dissolve Stress, Build Resilience and Thrive by Rachel Posner

Buy for $695

Buy for 2 payments of $350

Your Brain on Mindfulness: 8 Weeks to Dissolve Stress, Build Resilience and Thrive

This is the online course for people who want to permanently reduce stress.

Launches on September 28th, 2020

Are you ready to find calm amidst the chaos?

Make Real Change

Commit to your own well-being

Enroll Now

Does This Sound Familiar?

• I often feel stressed and overwhelmed.

• I lose patience with myself and my friends and family more than I want to admit.

• I beat myself up for not being or doing “enough”.

• I know there’s a lot of good in my life and a ton to be grateful for, but I’m too stressed to pay attention to any of it.

You deserve to feel calm, present and happy in your life. Your Brain on Mindfulness is what you've been looking for.

Your Brain on Mindfulness is a comprehensive online course designed to completely shift your relationship to the stressors in your life. We'll work with evidence-based practices that help you feel calm, even when life is chaotic. These mindfulness techniques will create lasting change and support you in feeling more calm, present and happy.

"It’s not stress that kills us, it’s our reaction to it."

- Hans Selye

Lots of people teach classes to help you relax. Relaxation techniques are definitely important, but they’re not enough.

I’ve spent the last 20 years helping people reduce stress and be more happily engaged in their lives and I know what it takes to truly change your stress response. If you want to create lasting change, you need to approach stress from a variety of angles.

The solution isn’t to get rid of stressors, but to change the way we respond and relate to those stressors.
I’ll teach you techniques to rewire your brain to handle stress differently so that you stop paying so much attention to what isn’t working and instead focus on what’s already great in your life. 

Truly the nicest thing I’ve done for myself in this lifetime.

"Your Brain on Mindfulness was like a curated tour through my brain that allowed me to stop and re-wire synapses along the way. Rachel’s presence created a safe place for me to laugh, cry, discover and nurture my best self. Truly the nicest thing I’ve done for myself in this lifetime."

Corbin / Musician

Have you said any of these things lately?

• I yelled at my daughter in the grocery store yesterday and then felt totally embarrassed and ashamed.

• I’m burned out and I’m tired of taking care of everyone else. What about me?

• Lately I feel nervous or even scared for no good reason.

• If one more person tells me to take a deep breath, I’m going to scream.

• I feel like nothing I do is good enough.

• I really wish I hadn’t said that to my husband last night. I just lose my temper so quickly and it’s like I don’t have control over what comes out of my mouth.

• I just can’t catch up. It feels like there is never enough time in a day. 

• On a stress scale of 1-10, I wake up at a 3 or 4 and by the time I get to work, I’m already at a 5 or 6.

• I’m just not as patient as I used to be.

• I feel like I’m always behind and can never catch up.

• I’m so tired all the time. I’m always up late trying to get stuff done but when I lay down, I either can’t fall asleep or I can’t stay asleep. It seems like as soon as I close my eyes, there are a stream of worries bombarding me.

"No matter how educated or wealthy you are if you don’t have peace of mind, you won’t be happy."

-Dalai Lama

Find more ease in your life

We all have stressors in our lives - in fact stress is at an all time high and America ties for #4 on the list of the worlds most stressed-out nations. In other words, our exposure to stress isn't going to change. But how we experience that stress can change. The practices in this course will help you:

Feel Calmer

• Decrease your stress and anxiety levels 

• Feel safer and more at peace

• Breath better

• Wake up in the morning feeling more rested and less stressed

• Be less reactionary and have more control over you temper

• Stay calm even when life gets intense or chaotic

Feel More Compassionate

• Take better care of yourself

• Feel less self-judgement and self-doubt 

• Feel more self-compassion and self-confidence

• Be more patient with yourself and others

• Feel more compassionate and less angry towards others

• Feel less “burn-out” - drained by the pain of others and the state of the world

Feel More Joyful

• Feel more connected to yourself and others

• Notice life’s small but beautiful moments throughout the day

• Pay more attention to what is wonderful about your life and focus on nourishing and growing what you love.

• Embrace all of it!

By decreasing stress we are able to grow what we love about our lives and change what no longer serves us.

Rachel’s offerings are an indelible resource to longtime practitioners as well as the newbie.

"Rachel’s course synthesized information for me in a way that made complex and challenging material accessible. Her depth of knowledge shines through experiential activities thoughtfully assembled and presented with warmth and authenticity. Rachel’s offerings are an indelible resource to longtime practitioners as well as the newbie." 

Steve / Psychotherapist

Join Me

Enjoy learning from the comfort of your own home.

Enroll Now

So how do we do it?

How do you embrace your life so that you can both address your stressors and challenges head-on AND keep growing what’s already good? The answer is not one-size fits all.
Sometimes we need to build our stores of self-compassion, sometimes, we need to work with practices that take us out of our fight/flight/freeze response and calm our nervous system and sometimes we need to track the underlying patterns that got us here in the first place.

Your Brain on Mindfulness is a unique approach to mindfulness that takes YOUR mind/body/brain into account. You’ll explore a comprehensive range of practices that will help you gain understanding and perspective so that you can get grounded, build resilience and thrive!

Rachel Posner MA, C-IAYT, ERYT-500

This course is the culmination of my 20 years of teaching yoga, practicing yoga therapy and counseling, and designing and guiding wellness courses and retreats. 

With so many courses out there, what makes this one different?

1. I excel at taking complicated information from yoga, mindfulness, neuroscience and psychology, and presenting them to you in a way that is easily digestible and actionable.
   
   
   

2. I’ve created a unique blend of evidence-based practices that will rewire your brain to handle stress differently so that you can focus on growing states of calm, presence and joy.
   
   
   

3. You’ll learn the “why” and “how” of the practices. When you understand why a practice works, it increases your belief and confidence in the practice itself. The mind is extremely powerful and studies show that when we believe in something, it works better. YOUR understanding and belief in the practice will make it more effective and the change more significant and long lasting.
   
   
   

4. I’ve been teaching this course live for years and can say with absolute confidence that it works!

Curriculum

Module 1

Your Brain on Mindfulness:The Big Picture

Module 2

Finding Your Center:
Practices To Turn Off Your Fight / Flight Response

Module 3

Deep Calm: 
Reversing The Negative Effects Of Stress 

Module 4

Self Awareness:
Grounding In The Power Of YOU

Module 5

Self-Care:
The Art Of Paying Attention

Module 6

Compassion:
The Neural Networks that Build Happiness

Module 7

From Compassion to Optimism:
The Neuroplasticity Of A Cup 1/2 Full

Module 8

Where Do We Go From Here?

What does it look like?

• Every Monday morning you'll receive a new module filled with the exact lessons, tools and practices you need to start changing the way you deal with stress.

• You'll receive additional emails throughout the week with reflection questions, poems, articles, bonus practices and inspirations.

• Online does not mean unsupported. Through office hours and email support, a private facebook group, live chats and optional add-on sessions I'll be here to guide you through the process. 

I am full of gratitude to Rachel for being my mentor, my guide and my brain’s best advocate.

"I have enjoyed the physical and psychological benefits of a yoga practice for over a decade, but it was Rachel Posner’s “Your Brain on Mindfulness” class which brought into sharper focus, the latest neuroscience research available to enhance my practice, calm my mind and enlighten my interactions in the world. Rachel shared the latest scientific evidence showing how one can actually create new “grooves in the brain” to interact in this increasingly chaotic world in a more complete, calm and healthy manner. Through examination of the research, class interaction and practice, Rachel shared how it is possible to consciously change our brains through meditation and mindfulness in order to create a more open, accepting, positive and joyful frame of mind. I am full of gratitude to Rachel for being my mentor, my guide and my brain’s best advocate."

Sally / Retired Librarian

Is this course really for you?

Changing your relationship to stress takes commitment. If you don’t think you are ready to carve out time each day this is not the course for you. I recommend you:

• Take 15-20 minutes a day to explore mindfulness meditation practices.

• Turn practice into action by consistently implementing what you are learning throughout your day with 3-5 minutes "practice pauses".

I want to be clear that without actually practicing these techniques, you won’t likely see results. Please make sure that you are at a time in your life that you want and are ready to commit to a regular mindfulness practice, so that you can create the changes you desire.  

REFUND POLICY

I believe this course is highly effective and am committed to offering you with a valuable and positive experience. That said, I know that it may not be for everyone. Therefore a full refund is available if you notify me via email, rachel@rachelposner.com by October 5. After that deadline no refunds will be permitted. No exceptions. Before requesting a refund, please go through the module 1 lessons and practices to ensure that this course is not the right fit for you.

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Register before Saturday and type earlybird  when it asks you if you have a coupon and get $200 off!

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Healing with Yoga Nidra

Yoga Nidra is like a guided meditation that leads people through deepening layers of Awareness through a very relaxing process of listening. Different from many other forms of meditation or mindfulness, Yoga Nidra does not insist a person focus on any one thing at the exclusion of others. Rather, the direction in the practice is to relax and simply welcome into your Awareness whatever arises, to acknowledge that object for what it is and without assessment, then to merely be the witness of it. Such a practice helps you to dis-identify from the things you might be aware of and find yourself aligning as Awareness itself. You become Awareness itself trying all the things you may be aware of like a costume. The effect of this expansive Awareness practice is not only very illuminating, it’s also incredibly relaxing. What’s even more interesting is that Yoga Nidra can be extremely therapeutic and has been known to facilitate broad-spectrum healing of body, mind, and spirit. 

Practitioners regularly assert that Yoga Nidra has helped them heal from myriad issues and maladies including, insomnia, anxiety, high blood pressure, grief, and even trauma. How does this practice which acts like a relaxing guided meditation help practitioners to arrive at greater wholeness in body, mind, and spirit? 

To discover the ways in which this fabulous and relaxing form of mindfulness heals, it’s important to understand the essential purpose of the practice. The purpose of Yoga Nidra is to dis-identify with what we typically and erroneously feel is us—our body, emotions, thoughts, etc.—and learn to align yourself with your True Nature which is Awareness itself. Truly, you are Awareness in the form of all the things you can be aware of, such as body, emotions, thoughts, etc. You are the beautiful marriage of infinite consciousness married to the finite form of your body and suchness of your life. Yoga Nidra is an easy, practical, and enjoyable way to develop a tangible relationship with that marriage of consciousness and form. 

Yoga Nidra leans on ancient wisdom (Tantra) which suggests that everything in the Universe, including and especially ourselves, comes from Source. Source is whole, full, complete, and rests in a state of boundless equanimity, a quality that feels like an eternal love—one big, fat YES! from the Universe. This ancient wisdom also suggests that our True Nature is synonymous with Awareness. If you are Awareness, the more you lean into your essential being by practicing prolonged states of attention and by welcoming, acknowledging, and merely witnessing whatever presents itself to your Awareness, you gain a cosmic perspective about the current circumstances in which you find yourself. This alone has the almost magical power to lift you out of the cyclical hamster wheel of emotional turmoil. Furthermore, it gives you the wherewithal to respond rather than react to your circumstances, grounded from a place of practiced presence, one of deep and loving compassion. Once you know who you are, you start to align your life in the direction that befits such a noble and divine being. 

Another way that Yoga Nidra has the power to heal is that once you align with your True Nature, that of Awareness itself, you lean into that part of you that is already whole, complete, and healed. You know how you start to act like the folks you hang around with? Well the more you are in the presence of wholeness, it’s incredible how you simply stop entertaining all those parts of you that don’t serve your highest being. With a regular exposure, to wholeness you start to align to your own most natural way of being, your Source Nature, and feel yourself healing in body, mind, and spirit.

Here’s the thing: yoga, meditation, and Yoga Nidra don’t give you anything you don’t already have. They simply take off some of the conditioning, the layers, or forgetfulness we have around our already perfect self. 

Well, can Yoga Nidra cure acute, chronic, or even terminal diseases and conditions? I’ve heard my students tell me how Yoga Nidra has helped them cure everything including: sexual dysfunction, insomnia, heart disease, high blood pressure, depression and anxiety, substance abuse/dependency, stage fright, trauma, and serious emotional abuse. Moreover, what Yoga Nidra helps you to heal is the fundamental human malady which is feeling separate from Source. When you know that you are fundamentally whole, despite any finite condition you may have in body, mind, and spirit, you live your life richly and fully knowing that each thing that presents itself to you is an opportunity to lean into witnessing, into presence, into experiencing yourself as Awareness. So yes, Yoga Nidra can help you heal in the traditional way of healing and it can also help you experience a level of wholeness that extends beyond what any regular physician would deem as whole. 

And at the end of the day, one of the superpowers of Yoga Nidra is that it offers you concentrated rest. They say that 30 minutes of Yoga Nidra is the equivalent in rest as a solid 2-hour nap. The entire mode of Yoga Nidra is to use relaxation to enter into the “Nidra” state of mind, which is like a daydream state. This state acts as a special pocket of consciousness wherein you can gain incredible insight, rest, and healing. Rest is the first order of operations for any kind of healing in body, mind, and spirit. Just by the fact that Yoga Nidra is restful in nature, it helps facilitate healing. If you or someone you know is convalescing due to any circumstance, try doing some Yoga Nidra. At very least you will get a solid bout of conscious rest. I can assure you that you’ll feel better when you’re done. Doing this regularly will be like adding currency to your wellness bank account. 

Once, I was asked to give private yoga lessons to a man who was working with stage 4 colon cancer. On our first session together, I told him that while what we do may or may not help to cure his cancer, our goal was to become as healthy as possible given whatever circumstances and allow the process of healing to unfold as it does. We did very gentle poses, some breath work, and a LOT of Yoga Nidra. Together we had some transcendent experiences, some of the richest and most enlightening experiences of my life. I remember seeing my client-turned-life-long-friend emerge from some of these practices, wide-eyed, and crazy looking and almost shouting, “What was that! It was incredible!” My friend eventually succumbed to cancer but he soaked as much life and vitality as possible with the remaining years we had practicing yoga together. I believe that despite the fact that he eventually died, he experienced a level of wholeness that many people only dream about.

Experience this practice for yourself and enjoy the healing that comes through Yoga Nidra.

Barn's Burned Down

Years ago, Seneca and I had just started dating when she invited me to her birthday party. I was completely smitten by this woman and was thrilled for the invitation. It would be our second date.

The party was at Sonya’s house, her good friend who lived in the Salt Lake City Avenues. Sonya’s backyard was beautiful and lush and adorned with 5 formidable, old pines whose branches reach high into the calm summer evening’s sky.

Strung between two of these beautiful trees was the most alluring hammock whose siren song lured Seneca and me to lay down side-by-side and flirt as we swayed in the easy breeze, drunk on the scent of pines. Unbeknownst to us, we were laying the foundation of an extraordinary relationship, an incomparable love.

Who would have guessed that 5 years later, Seneca and I would be married, with a 1-year-old son, and the new owners of Sonya’s house in the Avenues. Fortunately, the trees were sturdy enough and the hammock large enough to now hold three of us.

Fast forward a few years, we were living in France, renting out our house, and we got a dreadful message from our renter. He said that our beloved pines looked sick. We called the tree whisperers who examined them and determined that all five of them were stricken with bark beetles. All five had to be cut down before they fell down and caused damage to persons or property. The several thousands of dollars to have them cut paled in comparison to the grief we suffered to lose them. They were our elders, our family and they were dying or dead.

When we returned to Salt Lake City in January, right in time for Covid, we moved back into our house in the Avenues. The first thing we did when we came home was to go into the back yard and see the destruction. As we looked over the decimated yard, we were gut-punched. We stood watching the living nightmare that was our yard—a few remaining branches, massive blankets of sawdust, and the scars of five starkly shorn stumps. It was like seeing a family member who had recently lost a limb—five limbs.

We grieved sorely over the loss of our trees.

We knew that after our grieving, eventually we would have to replant and rework our yard. It was going to take a LOT of work to heal the damage. The project became known as “Yardmageddon.” Little did we know that we would have several months of quarantine ahead of us which would afford us pleeeeeenty of time to rework the yard. I ordered another yard waste container from the city.

We would have never chosen it, but given the circumstances, what we were given in this bleak, newly-exposed backyard, empty of its beautiful trees, was a blank slate. We had no choice but to create the kind of space that would suit our family. No longer was it Sonya’s yard, it would become ours.

We planted herbs. We pulled neglected vines. We resurrected the dormant hot tub.

One day at the beginning of the summer, I was hacking away at a jungle of Virginia Creepers when Sylvia, one of our delightful neighbors, kitty-corner to and just above our house, came over to our house to talk through her Covid facemask about our trees. She and her husband moved from England to their current house in the Avenues 35 years ago. Sylvia, too, lamented the loss of our beautiful trees. As she spoke of our trees with such familiarity and affection, it dawned on me that she had known our trees for 3 decades longer than we had. She told me how she missed our beautiful trees, “But,” she added, “it’s the first time in 35 years that we can see the Wasatch mountains from out our back window and there’s nothing like watching the moon rise over those incredible mountains!”

Neither of us would have chosen it. Still, what a gift.

Last week, northern Utah was ravaged by hurricane-force winds, including Salt Lake City, blowing over literally thousands of trees. Our 5 trees had been removed the year before. Otherwise, I’m confident that in their compromised state, they would have all come down causing unspeakable damage. Another hidden gift. They were harvested with the blessing of time and care.

Last week, after the storm died down, that evening we went out on our nightly walk around our neighborhood to see the damage. It was a horror scene. We were dumbstruck to see armies of trees uprooted and felled across lawns, spanning entire streets, and ripped from the ground, leaning on the houses they once shaded as if to die in the arms of those who loved them so dearly. Debris littered the sidewalks, streets, and lawns.

A week later, many homes are still without electricity. Throughout the day, one can hear the constant buzz of chainsaws busy amputating the limbs of these mighty beings so their trunks can be cut into smaller places and removed completely, leaving only the scar where they once grew. People are clearing, replanting.

Whatever storm you may be facing at the moment, it may be difficult to see the gifts embedded in your circumstances. Certainly, Covid has amplified every struggle we endure, struggles we might otherwise take in stride.

It’s important to remember that what’s true is true. What is…is.

I believe it to be our task, what our mindful practices have prepared us for, is to acknowledge what is—including grief, including the hidden gifts of our sad circumstances— and to learn to simply be with the information at hand. Then, from the grounded and real place of observation, compassionately respond with steps forward. Replant. Life is a blank slate.

I’m confident that if we are patient, we will see the gifts of these circumstances on the rise. Perhaps, if you live in Salt Lake City, you may see one of those gifts tonight as it rises brightly over the Wasatch.

“Barn’s burned down—

Now

I can see the moon.”

— Mizuta Masahide

Women's Safety Online

Since COVID hit, many of us yoga teachers have tried to keep the practice going with online, FB live, and Zoom classes. A few of my female colleagues have been recently targeted by creeps online making inappropriate and sexually explicit comments or suggestive comments. And while the sad truth is that this is nothing new, it’s nonetheless COMPLETE BULLSHIT! It agers me to no end that anybody, especially women, are subject to harassment, prejudice, and hate.

As a community of yoga teachers, we are working to find helpful solutions to the problem of pervy trolls commenting or showing up in our online classes but what are some of the things that we can all know to make sure that women are safe online?

Through the help of a great article on Comparitech, I’ve discovered both some alarming statistics as well as some great and helpful information to help keep women safe on the Internet.

Below is an excerpt from the article and encourage anyone interested in reading the entire thing.

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Are women at higher risk to online scams? Online harassment statistics

Ever wondered who is more likely to be targeted by online scammers? We reveal some surprising internet safety statistics as well as easy to follow advice to protect yourself from online scams.

by AIMEE O'DRISCOLL

We use the internet for pretty much everything these days, including connecting with friends, working, banking, entertainment, shopping, dating, and more. With our communication moving more and more online, unpleasant behaviors such as cyberbullying and online harassment are also becoming more common. This combined with online scams can lead to users feeling unsafe. In this article, we’ll explain the most common types of online harassment as well as how to keep yourself safe online.

By discussing a range of studies and statistics we will demonstrate the different experiences of online culture based on gender. We’ll also reveal how attitudes to online harassment can vary between men and women.

What dangers do users face online?

Women face many of the same dangers as men online. For example, things like phishing schemes, ransomware attacks, and various types of online fraud are commonplace for everyone. However, statistics show you are much more likely to experience some types of online abuse if you are a woman. Below we take a look at the online scams which target women more frequently than other genders.

Online harassment

Online harassment is loosely defined as the use of the internet to threaten, harass, or embarrass an individual or group. It can come in different forms and many of the other topics we discuss here such as cyberbullying, cyberstalking, and doxing fall under the umbrella of harassment.

Women tend to encounter sexualized forms of online harassment at higher rates than men. These can include things like sexualized bullying, unwanted sexual requests, revenge porn, and sextortion.

A 2017 study by Pew Research Center found that 21 percent of women aged 18 to 29 had experienced online harassment. The figure for men was less than half of that at nine percent. More than half of women in the same age group had received explicit images that were not requested.

Attitudes towards online harassment differ by gender with 70 percent of women and 54 percent of men believing it’s a “major problem.” And while 50 percent of women say that offensive content online is too often excused as not a big deal, 64 percent of men think it’s taken too seriously. More men (56 percent) tend to think it’s important to speak their minds freely online while women (63 percent) value feeling safe and welcome on the internet.

Source: Pew Research

What’s more, of women who have experienced online harassment, 35 percent say it leaves a strong impression and that recent encounters have been either very or extremely upsetting. The figure for men is less than half at 16 percent.

Cyberbullying

Online bullying involves any type of bullying that occurs in the digital world, for example, through social media networks or forums, or via emails or text messages. Cyberbullying can happen to anyone, but it’s especially common among teenage girls. Female students are three times as likely to be bullied online or via text than male students.

Catfishing schemes

With the increased popularity in online dating, there are a ton of schemes out there targeting unsuspecting victims looking for love. While many men fall victim to dating scams, the majority of victims are women.

A popular tactic used in dating scams is catfishing. This is where scammers create fake profiles that they believe prospective victims will trust and fall for easily. For example, they might create a fake profile of a doctor or member of the military.

These scams typically end up with the perpetrator swindling the victim out of money or property, or in some cases, roping them into some type of illegal activity.

Cyberstalking

Cyberstalking (also called online stalking) may be defined slightly differently according to various countries’ laws, but it generally involves using electronic means to harass, bully or threaten victims.

This crime impacts a surprisingly large number of men and women, but victims are more often female. A Canadian study found that the most likely targets are women in the 15–24 age group.

Source: StatCan

Sextortion

As you can probably guess from the name, online sextortion is extortion involving material (typically images or videos) of a sexual or intimate nature. Sextortion can take a variety of different forms, but the motivation is usually sexual gratification or monetary gain.

A 2019 study found that males are more likely to be targeted when the motivation is financial greed, while the victims in sextortion for sexual gratification crimes are almost always female.

An alarming 2017 study by Thorn revealed that 45 percent of sextortion perpetrators followed through on their threats. The same study found that 40 percent of victims met the perpetrators online.

To Whom Are We Beautiful As We Go?

"I wish I knew the beauty of leaves falling.

To whom are we beautiful when we go?"

Excerpt from "Three In Transition" by David Ignatow

And to whom are we beautiful as we go? I love this poem. This poem seems to point to the fact that even in our failing, even in our demise, there is a part of creation and therefore a part of ourselves that can grant a magnificence to any loss. Such a beautiful concept. Such a bittersweet truth. And perhaps this is why Autumn is so colorful: it is the opulent funeral procession of the death of so much. It is the rush of fireworks before the quiet stillness of winter.

There has been so much that has changed this year, not only because of COVID, but also because life's only constant is that it's in change. Things are meant to pass away, including leaves, including people and including old ways of doing things. There's no business as usual in the roller coaster of life.

Yet this inevitable demise points to something much more beautiful. It may be difficult in the moment yet will unfailingly create the conditions for a new birth in your continual upleveling of consciousness.

Many of the Hindu statues tell stories. The Dancing Shiva is a story-telling icon depicting Shiva, the creator of the universe, and illustrates the five acts of Shiva.

The concept is the same whether you call the creator, Shiva, God, the Universe, or anything else. In this statue (seen in the background of the above pic), these 5 acts are depicted by his many arms, one of which is celebrating creation, another that is sustaining his creation, another is allowing death, and another that is not only inviting things back to life, but to live again with a higher consciousness than before.

This statue reminds us that our job is to allow Shiva to lead in this dance of life, to follow along as we are slowly refined into greater beings. It reminds us that death is a part of life and with a broader perspective, we can, to some degree, appreciate it as a necessary part of the cycle.

Mary Oliver writes about learning to accept death and loss in her poem, Maker of All Things, Even Healings. I love the title of the poem because it suggests that the healing, the bringing back to life for a fuller measure of life as in the Dancing Shiva, comes only after accepting death which she does so humbly.

Maker of All Things, Even Healings
by Mary Oliver

All night
under the pines
the fox
moves through the darkness
with a mouthful of teeth
and a reputation for death
which it deserves.
In the spicy
villages of the mice
he is famous,
his nose
in the grass
is like an earthquake,
his feet
on the path
is a message so absolute
that the mouse, hearing it,
makes himself
as small as he can
as he sits silent
or, trembling, goes on
hunting among the grasses
for the ripe seeds.
Maker of All Things,
including appetite,
including stealth,
including the fear that makes
all of us, sometime or other,
flee for the sake
of our small and precious lives,
let me abide in your shadow--
let me hold on
to the edge of your robe
as you determine
what you must let be lost
and what will be saved.

As we celebrate the coming of fall, may we, too, remember the beauty of leaves falling, the beauty and magnificence of this amazing dance in which we are all twirling, living, growing, dying, and being reborn into something greater.

May you see your journey through many cycles of death and rebirth as beautiful as the panoply of changing leaves.

If you are experiencing grief due to any sort of loss, may I suggest watching/listening to my free Yoga Nidra for Grief practice.

This is a Yoga Nidra (guided meditation) practice by Scott Moore designed to help you mindfully manage any kind of grief. Usually in a Yoga Nidra practice, y...

Yoga Nidra for Sleep

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I’m super happy to have an article published with Yogi Times about the benefits of Yoga Nidra for sleep.

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Click the photo to download this relaxing, 25-minute practice.

a zombie in class

One night a few years ago, a zombie showed up to my Yoga Nidra class. Haggard and vacant, she rolled out her mat on the back row and sat there trying to look like a normal, living person while other students were busy arranging their yoga mats, blankets, and eye pillows in preparation for our relaxing Yoga Nidra session.

As always, I asked the class if anybody needed anything in particular from this Yoga Nidra session. The zombie in the back row, trying her best to look normal, lifted a timid and tired hand, looked at me with dead, bloodshot eyes, and announced that her name was Suzie.

“Please,” she begged, “I haven’t slept—I mean really slept—for almost 6 months. I’m going crazy. Can Yoga Nidra help me?”

“Suzie, you’re in the right place,” I responded enthusiastically. I then explained to her and the rest of the class exactly how Yoga Nidra can help work its magic to promote excellent sleep. To prepare for Yoga Nidra, first I led the students in a few gentle asanas, then some relaxing pranayama, before instructing them to lie down, close their eyes, and relax.

Next, I led them through a 35-minute Yoga Nidra practice, and Awareness practice which acts like a guided meditation, where I focused on helping people achieve deep, peaceful, and nourishing sleep. I made an audio recording of the Yoga Nidra practice and sent it home with the students as homework. Suzie received the recording gratefully.

The next week, Suzie came back to class though I almost didn’t recognize her. The zombie that had come the week before had transformed into a vibrant human being with bright eyes, a warm face, and a wide smile.

Like normal, I asked if anyone in the class needed anything in particular from this Yoga Nidra practice. Suzie raised her hand again and excitedly reported to me and the entire class how the previous week’s Yoga Nidra practice helped her to relax more than she had been able to relax in a very long time. She also talked about how that night she went home and experienced an utterly fantastic night of deep sleep, and that she had been sleeping well ever since. 

(Drop the mic.)

Have you ever suffered from sleeplessness? Of course, you have. Everybody does. In the United States, 50–70 million adults of all ages and socio-economic classes suffer from regular sleep problems (Reference). Before you go get a prescription drug to help put you out, consider Yoga Nidra is an excellent, effective, and completely natural remedy for sleeplessness. Though it’s not addictive in the pharmaceutical kind of way, once you try it, you likely come back for more.

What? How?

I know what you’re thinking: what is Yoga Nidra and why is something like a guided meditation even called yoga? Also, how does lying down, closing your eyes, and listening to someone lead you through a guided meditation help you sleep better?

To understand what Yoga Nidra is, it’s best to start with the definition of yoga. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, (written between 500 BCE and 400 CE AD), says that the experience of yoga is to connect body, mind, and spirit to eliminate the disturbances of the mind and arrive at a state of Awareness called Samadhi, or Oneness. This state of Oneness is synonymous with wholeness. It’s rich. You might need a glass of milk to wash all of that down. And while Samadhi may sound quite lofty, ancient wisdom also says that it’s actually our most natural state because it’s our Source.

Be warned: the practice of yoga is different from the experience of yoga mostly in that the practice merely sets the conditions for the experience of yoga to occur. You can’t “make” Samadhi happen but regular practices of body, mind, and spirit connection can help us remember our Source and achieve regular glimpses of Samadhi. Then one day I guess you piece together all those glimpses to realize that you’re living Samadhi…

Satva: The Goldilocks of Everything

The Gunas

Classical yoga philosophy says that the universe can be described by using three main humors, called gunas. These gunas are Rajas, Tamas, Sattva. Everything in the Universe from hot to cold seasons to hot to cold personalities demonstrates some combination of these gunas. Understanding these principles of the gunas can help you find a yoga practice and live a life that feels perfectly balanced for you.

Fire

The first of the humors is called Rajas and is generally considered the quality of building, full of fire, energizing, active, prone to change, etc. Think of summer as the season with the most rajas—it’s hot, things are growing (building) and thus changing. A stage of life that demonstrates a lot of rajas is the years when you’re learning the most and growing the most or demonstrating a lot of ambition to make your way in the world, the early and mid-adult stage.

Ice

The perfect counterbalance of Rajas is Tamas which is generally known as grounding, calming, and inert. Tamas is demonstrated in seasons like winter when everything is still, cold, and frozen. The stages of life that demonstrates the most Tamas are early childhood (think cubby baby that sleeps a lot) and when we retire from work or start to slow down in our later years.

Rajas and Tamas are not only demonstrated in major periods of life, but also in your day-to-day energy, feeling, and attitude. Regardless of stage of life, you might generally be a very active person but due to a lot of busyness or a heavy workout, you might be feeling a little Tamasic and need to chill out on the couch with some ice cream and Netflix. Other days, you might be feeling gobs and gobs of energy and want to tackle a project. This is Rajas.

Balance

Now, the balance between Rajas and Tamas is called Satva. Satva is the perfect “Goldilocks” of the two extremes. Satva is what we are aiming for in all of our physical, mental, and spiritual practices. Sometimes we must skillfully negotiate our efforts or ease in these practices to find ourselves demonstrating Satva. Satva feels balanced—energized but not spastic, clear and open-minded without being lost in the clouds, energized without feeling out of control.

In the ancient text of the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali the author suggests balancing all of our efforts between effort (Rajas) and ease (Tamas) to find the perfect middle way and to find success in our endeavors. Doing so promotes longevity, productivity, and joy in the practice.

Even after a vigorous asana practice, savasana is the essential balancing act at the end that helps you to walk away feeling Satvic for the rest of the day. Similarly, after a Restore yoga practice it might sometimes helps to go on a gentle walk. Just like Goldilocks, the middle way feels most comfortable, the most like home.

For those of us who love to bliss out on Rajas and train or play really hard, don't worry. Just remember that there is a time to sit and meditate too. Also, those of us who could indulge in Tamas and stay on our cozy meditation cushions all day long and then celebrate with a box of Hatch Family Chocolates, well, maybe you could try at least try going for a walk afterwords.

If you’d like to explore more Rajas in your life, try one of my live, online, and socially distanced vinyasa classes like Monday night at 5:30 pm at Mosaic Yoga, (live or FB livestream) or Tuesday/Thursday at noon MDT (online only), a class I share with Kim Dastrup.

If you could use more Tamas in your life, try one of my live, online Yoga Nidra classes, Wednesdays and Sundays.

All of my weekly offerings can be accessed by anywhere in the world.

Best of luck as you search for your own Goldilocks rhythm of life and practice.

Yoga Nidra Training: Ready to Go!

I love to teach Yoga Nidra trainings. I feel that the world needs more Yoga Nidra and needs more qualified Yoga Nidra teachers.

Something I hear all the time is teachers who don’t want to end up being a rote version of their teachers. Or, that in order to learn how to write their own scripts that they have to wait for and PAY for another training.

I believe that each teacher will be most impactful if they can teach from their own experience and voice and not from a rote script. But teaching Yoga Nidra does require understanding the basics principles of Yoga Nidra. I believe that when you understand the what and why of Yoga Nidra, you’ll know how to use your practice, teaching, and life experience to be not only an effective teacher but and EXTRAORDINARY teacher, able to connect with students in ways that ONLY you can.

It’s like an artist who seeks to find expression on a canvas or a jazz musician learning to improvise—you can’t go out there and just start throwing notes out your horn. By learning the rudiments and principles, the what and why of the underlying form, it actually FREES you to go out and make the music you want to make. The same goes for teaching Yoga Nidra—once you understand the basic principles, you’ll find the freedom to MAKE YOUR OWN YOGA NIDRA SCRIPTS, to be optimally effective for your students.

After you understand the what and why of Yoga Nidra, I’ll take you through a meticulous understanding of how all the elements fit together to teach a class based on your students’ particular needs to facilitate true transformation.

And while I will teach you how to write your own scripts, I’ve provided over 100 pages of Yoga Nidra scripts that you can use, alter, and modify as you’re looking to find your own voice. These will serve you to be able to teach great, impactful Yoga Nidra classes from day one, but also give you a transcript for an effective class which you use to analyze what makes an effective Yoga Nidra script as you learn to write your own.

What’s In My Yoga Nidra Training

I currently have a great online Yoga Nidra training that is a digital recording of 20 hours of a live training, a 60+ page manual with discussion notes, links, mantras, etc., plus, a PDF booklet with over 100 pages of Yoga Nidra scripts.

ALSO, I’m in the process of revamping the entire thing! I’m re-recording audio and video and adding several sections, including some key, breakthrough information about how to teach Yoga Nidra like an expert. Also, I’m including some sections about how to offer Yoga Nidra during times of COVID both for 1:1 students as well as live, online classes, etc. This should be done by the end of August.

I’ll be charging more for this new product because effectively, I’ll be doubling the content. However, I’ll be offering my new training to anyone who has purchased my current training for no additional cost.

If you’re interested in teaching Yoga Nidra, please give my Yoga Nidra training a look. I think you’ll love it.

Click the pic below

Gifted

My good friend John Louviere just wrote a book. It’s a wonderful compilation of his writings, stories, poems, and lyrics. One of the things that I love the most about John Louviere is that he’s a gifted singer/songwriter. As a musician who has worked for many years to find my own voice through the end of my saxophone and clarinet, I really love and relate to this story. I’m offering it here below with his permission.

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One afternoon, while sitting at the piano and tripping through the notes of “When The Saints Go Marching In,” I found myself singing along with my erratic melody. It was at this moment, as my foster mother was walking past me towards the kitchen, that a question involuntarily flew out of my mouth like a clay pigeon, "Do you think I have a good voice?" Being an expert marksman, she didn’t miss a beat. Looking at me with a mixture of shock and perplexity, she loaded a cartridge and quickly pulled the trigger. “No,” she said emphatically, “I do not think you have a good voice.” Her blunt response hit my solar plexus, and I sat back, dumbstruck. Smoke lingered in the air as she left the room, having no idea the impact of her words.

But more long-lasting were the effects of what I did immediately afterward. I lifted myself from the piano bench, walked into my bedroom, closed the door, and knelt down next to my bed. I then placed my elbows on my mattress, pressed my palms together, and out of my mouth came the following prayer: “God, if you give me a good voice, I promise to sing to you for the rest of my life.”

As a fourteen-year-old born-again Christian, my God was a God of miracles and wonders. And in this moment, I was as certain as Elijah on the mountain that I would be returning to the piano with a new and God-touched voice. We’re talking edge-of-my-seat, “I can’t wait to try out my new voice” certain. When I finished praying, I got off of my knees, walked out of my bedroom, and sat back down at the piano. I carefully placed my fingers on the keys and began pushing them through the melody. And then . . . I opened my mouth and began to sing.

Isn’t innocence a beautiful thing? And ignorance—what bliss.

Being able to pinpoint the moment you lose them both—this is not a day for the faint of heart. It is, for everyone, a day of tragedy and a rite of passage. When I opened my mouth to sing, indeed, a miracle happened. I heard something I had never heard before: No matter which keys my fingers played, I could hear only one note coming out of my mouth. I was aghast. Nothing made me happier than singing to God. And yet, I had just discovered that this child of his had the voice of a happy elephant. My sorrow did not last long because spring arrived. And along with it, baseball season. I ran happily back into the familiar, comfortable world I had known since I was a child: recreational sports.

When I was a freshman in college, I decided to sign up for a talent night with a couple of friends I had just made at a campus ministry group. A fellow named Mike and I decided that he should write a few progressions on his guitar and I should try to write some lyrics and sing them. Though I had continued singing like a happy elephant since the day of my prayer, my insecurity and nervousness were profound (after all, the last time I sang in front of anyone, the crowd was pretty rough). But when it was time, our names were announced, and up we went. I held the lyrics in a quivering hand and the microphone in the other, Mike’s rhythm drove us forward, and we finished our short set relatively unscathed. But after the glad-patting and jovial banter, everyone started stacking chairs, making plans for the rest of the evening, and slowly exiting the room. It was then that my friend Janice walked up to me. She had been waiting to talk to me. She said, “I don’t want this to sound weird but . . . I think I just saw what you’re supposed to be doing with your life.”

Two years later, during my junior year, I was walking the mile or so down the road to the same campus ministry group. I had just discovered Bobby McFerrin and could not stop playing rhythms on my chest and body, singing improvisational songs to God. All of a sudden, I stopped in the middle of the road and said another prayer, “God, would you please give me some way to express this rhythm?” I was thinking, in particular, about the drums. But mostly I was just so overwhelmed with my love for rhythmic expression.

Later that week, Melissa, the leader of the music group, got up and declared that she was offering free guitar lessons. Guitar? Hmm, I once had a roommate who played guitar. And I had seen the large group of guitar players that Melissa led each week as we sang devotional songs. But it had never occured to me to pick one up. As she gave her announcement, I remembered Bobby McFerrin and my moment of prayer. I found the sign-up sheet and wrote my name down.

I borrowed a friend’s guitar and arrived at my first lesson to find about fifteen other students awkwardly holding their cumbersome instruments. Melissa showed us three chords and one rhythmic pattern. We were told to come back the following week, show our progress, and we’d be given three more chords and a new rhythm. I spent most of every waking hour that week with my arms around that guitar. As I played chords, I rested my head against the wood and listened to each sound reverberate into my ear. It was love at first strum.

I arrived the next week to find that I was one of the only students to have practiced. Before I left that day, Melissa gave me the master list of all the chords, a chart for creating my own rhythms, and I never went back. In the quiet of my room, I began to write song after song after song. I took the chords Melissa gave me, broke the patterns apart, and made up my own chords. I played rhythms on my body and then transferred them to my guitar.

The only thing that interested me was making sounds that were pleasing and writing words that came naturally. And to my great surprise, what came out of me were rivers and rivers of sorrow. Sorrow as I had never known. Emotions I had no idea were inside me.

I have been writing songs for almost thirty years now and am living proof of the power of music. If you want a good voice, you may just get what you’re asking for. As a child, my idea of a good voice was one that was pleasing to listen to. As a man, my idea of a good voice is one that tells the truth. Music is tricky because it’s a bit of both. It’s a rhythm that requires pressure and time, weight and levity, push and pull, doing it over and over thousands and thousands of times until it is a language you speak fluently.

The great hope (besides love) is that in moments when you’re remembering clay pigeons struck by quick words that left your heartstrings feeling off-key, you will understand more fully—in tones that have been both beautifully and truthfully embedded in your body—that it was all a part of bringing you here, exactly where you were meant to be.

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