I pursued Level 1 and Level 2 trainings with Richard Miller, and intensive mentoring and study under the iRest Yoga Nidra Teacher Training Certification Program (which I hope to finish in March!). Yet he could also talk to me about philosophical underpinnings and histories of yoga and meditation just as easily.įlash forward to 2014 and I had become fully immersed in my daily iRest Yoga Nidra practice and further study. He was able to describe to me quite clearly and scientifically what was happening at the level of my brain during iRest Yoga Nidra and how it helped people like me (and many others) to heal. He spoke to my science side and my spirit side equally. His sessions were nothing short of remarkable and I learned more in a couple days with him that I had in years of meditation. I decided to go and take some classes at a Yoga Journal conference with Richard and to pick his brain about my experience. ![]() I felt a sense of wholeness in my own Self that not even a decades long yoga habit had brought forth. Even more interesting to me was that I wanted to practice with his recordings every day. As I began to use his recordings of iRest Yoga Nidra (as he calls it) my healing accelerated. I was so curious that I began to research this methodology called broadly “yoga nidra.” I came across a wealth of studies, information and recordings from a man named Richard Miller – the founder of the Integrative Restoration Institute. Something amazing happened: my symptoms from the head injury started getting better – rapidly and, as my neurologist said, “for no apparent reason.” After all, what I had added was simply a short 30 minute nap to my day where I fell asleep to some lovely words. ![]() I was having difficulty focusing with my head injury and difficulty sitting/standing/moving, so I decided to give the yoga nidra recordings another chance. I had enjoyed them, but like every other meditation style they somehow fell to the wayside as a second thought. I had first learned yoga nidra from a couple of Rod Stryker courses I had taken over the years as a yoga teacher. Then in 2008-ish when I suffered a pretty massive blow to my head and ensuing brain injury, I was re-introduced to the practice of yoga nidra – a supine form of guided visualization and meditation. Why couldn’t I be physically comfortable and meditating? There was something useful and interesting about each of these many methodologies I passed through – no doubt – but for some reason I just could not connect with them as a regular ongoing practice for very long. ![]() My Zen Buddhist teacher used to prod us with a long wooden pole if we didn’t sit up board straight which always felt strange. ![]() Transcendental Meditation made me feel like something was missing about me that I needed to reclaim in order to meditate well. They all had one thing in common for me: not a single one stuck with me no matter how hard I tried.īreath meditation was useful to help with my anxiety but I never kept up with it and it just seemed to put a lid on the simmering pot of my emotions. From simple breath meditation to mantra based lineages like Transcendental Meditation and a Vedic Lineage to Zen Buddhism and so many others. I have passed through many different types of meditation styles over my 20+ years as a meditation practitioner.
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