With Instructor Rachel Jackson LMT, CYI & Certified Level 2 Holistic Aromatherapist.
Dates: Four Fridays in February (2/6,2/13,2/20, 2/27)
Time: 2-3pm on Zoom
NOTE – This series includes 4 therapeutic grade essential oil samples (shipped to you the week before we start) to bring into your practice and work with each week, 4 downloadable yoga nidra recordings to practice with plus a bonus yoga nidra recording for sleep preparation, & downloadable PDFs with Sankulpa (intention/resolution) offerings and guidelines to remedy common elemental stress patterns. All discussions prior to our practice will be recorded and shared via the class Dropbox to download and refer back to forever.
Description: This series of four classes will consist of both an introduction and an in-depth exploration of the power of practicing yoga nidra as sadhana (a daily spiritual practice for transcending limiting beliefs/conditioning). Weaving in sacred aromatherapy to enhance your experience and anchor your Sankulpa (intention/resolution) with scent! Each class will begin with an essential oil to support and enhance the therapeutic benefits of the practice on many levels (essential oil samples provided). I will cover the ways in which engaging our sense of smell can super charge the benefits of our practice! We will have about 20-30min of group discussion where I will share the ways in which yoga nidra can benefit the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual body. I will offer self-reflective prompts for discovering the Sankulpa that will be most liberating for you at whatever life-stage you are at and how to use it effectively. And then we will drop into deep rest and rejuvenation through the practice itself! Each class you will receive a yoga nidra practice that will start off shorter as you are introduced and progressively each week we will practice for a longer segment of the class. I will offer 4 downloadable recordings of the yoga nidra practices shared each week along with a Bonus Yoga Nidra for Sleep Preparation. While there is educational and self-discovery elements to this class, the experience will be deeply rejuvenating and restful in nature. Your seasonal body wants you to rest, to slow down and turn inward, to receive intuitive insight and guidance, to heal and restore. How we “Winter” sets us up to receive all the gifts of the seasons to come more fully. For an hour each week, give yourself the Winter you truly need, one of deep rest, healing and quiet magic from within!
At the end of the four weeks, you will feel confident and rejuvenated by your daily practice and your Sankulpa (your personal intention). Yoga nidra translates as “sleep with awareness”, but it can be much more than that, depending on the intentions of the practitioner. The practice systematically guides you into deeper states of relaxation, meditation, and into deeper states of consciousness. From these places, the practitioner can access more of his/her/their own inner resources for healing, transformation and even manifestation of Dharma (one’s heart-based purpose in life). You might start out using yoga nidra solely for the practical purpose of healing from sleep deprivation and restoring the body’s physical wellbeing (30min of yoga nidra is equivalent to 2hrs of extra sleep regarding its physiological benefits.). Yoga nidra can be useful during serious illnesses, or after surgery for increased healing and recovery. However, yoga nidra can also be used as a therapy for mental/emotional disharmonies like anxiety, self-doubt, self-sabotage, self-esteem issues and other types of trauma response patterns or self-regulation difficulties that are holding you back from your dream life (this is not meant to replace professional help. It can however be a useful compliment to your healing process). We will discuss Sankulpa - the seed that you are planting into your subconscious for positive change. Your Sankulpa is like a personal remedy for that which causes you suffering. It will be personal to you.
I have been practicing yoga nidra for 20+ years regularly, and in my early days of practice I related to it much differently. I began using the practice more when I was pregnant/new mom who desperately needed more rest. I continued to practice and did a workshop many years ago when my son was still a toddler with Yoga Nidhi who taught the Bihar School’s approach to Yoga Nidra. I became more deeply committed to my practice after studying with her and I stuck with my Sankulpa for years, as she recommended, before intuitively leveling up or graduating to a to new one. Then I had an experience 3 years ago that shook me - the place I was dreaming of; this imagined place in my mind that would arrive in my mind’s eye spontaneously as a place for healing during my practice, actualized in my life as home and our private residence yoga studio where I do all my classes, trainings, and healing work such as massage and consultations! It wasn’t as if I were trying to create this image, and it wasn’t as if I longed for it, it was just an imagined place I rested in during my practice. It was as if the place I belonged was able to call out to me and my spirit was able to listen and receive guidance. I remember the first time I laid down in the big open room of our studio to practice the yoga nidra I had been doing for so many years and getting to the place in my practice where I was asked to go to a place that I imagined where “I could rest, relax and enjoy myself”… at that moment of the practice I burst into tears when I realized I was actually in “my place”. I have been reluctant to share my experience before now, as I was still processing the experience and during that time also protecting the sacredness of what had unfolded for me. Now I am ready to share the gifts that yoga nidra really has to offer!
Join me on the journey!
COST: $85
*REGISTRATION CLOSES WEDNESDAY, JAN. 28TH AT MIDNIGHT TO ENSURE YOUR ESSENTIAL OIL SAMPLES ARRIVE ON TIME*
Reach out if you have any questions: Racheljackson.yoga@gmail.com