Yoga Nidra Journey
This upcoming Yoga Nidra Journey provides a restorative experience, activating deep peace - the best antidote to our fast-paced lives.
Yoga Nidra Journey - Sunday 11 May
Another 9-Stage Yoga Nidra Journey is being held on 11th May in Poneke/Wellington at the beautiful Wellington Meditation Centre.
WHEN: Sunday 11th May
TIME: 10.30 am - 12 pm
WHERE: Wellington Meditation Centre
COST: $40.00
Yoga Nidra Journey - Saturday 26 April
Bringing another Yoga Nidra Journey back to Anahata Yoga Studio, Petone : )
WHEN: Saturday 26th April
TIME: 3 pm - 4.30 pm
WHERE: Anahata Yoga Studio, Petone
COST: $40.00
BOOK ONLINE THROUGH ANAHATA YOGA STUDIO
During these Yoga Nidra Journeys, you can expect to be led through the following:
Easeful yoga asana flow to warm up the body, and activate the subtle energetic fields
Simple Breath practice/Pranayama to get connected to how you are feeling
9-stage Yoga Nidra Journey guided extended 9-stage practice including ‘Story’.
Sound experience to feel and enable your connection back into the day
Yoga Nidra is suitable for all levels. It is the most powerful tool to shift yourself
into a natural state of peace, and calmness, release tensions, and cultivate contentment and creativity.
Some unique benefits of a Yoga Nidra Journey include:
1. Deep Rewiring of Subconscious Patterns
Unlike regular meditation, Yoga Nidra taps into the subconscious and unconscious mind, helping to release deep-seated emotional patterns, limiting beliefs, and stress responses stored in the nervous system.
2. Supports Brainwave Shifts for Healing
Yoga Nidra guides you from beta (thinking state) to alpha, theta, and even delta brainwaves, where deep healing and cellular repair occur. This state is often associated with enhanced creativity, intuition, and neuroplasticity.
3. Enhances Emotional Resilience & Facilitates Trauma Relief
Regular practice of Yoga Nidra has been shown to reduce PTSD symptoms and
stored trauma by gently allowing suppressed emotions to surface and integrate without overwhelm.
4. Mimics 4 Hours of Sleep in Just 45 Minutes
Because Yoga Nidra slows brainwave activity and deeply relaxes the body, it can provide the restorative benefits of up to 4 hours of sleep in just one session, making it powerful for sleep-deprived professionals.
5. Strengthens the Endocrine & Immune System
Yoga Nidra supports hormonal balance, immune function, and post-menopause well-being by reducing cortisol (stress hormone) and activating the parasympathetic nervous system.
6. Enhances Learning & Memory Retention
Since the mind is in a highly receptive state (theta brainwaves), Yoga Nidra can improve memory, focus, and information retention, making it great for lifelong learners and professionals.
7. Activates the Body’s Natural Anti-Aging Process
Deep relaxation boosts the production of human growth hormone (HGH), which supports cellular regeneration, skin repair, and longevity.
8. Balances Left & Right Brain Hemispheres
By activating both hemispheres of the brain, Yoga Nidra promotes cognitive clarity, emotional balance, and a sense of wholeness, making it a powerful tool for decision-making and intuition.
9. Enhances Spiritual Awareness Without Effort
Because Yoga Nidra takes you into a borderline sleep state, it naturally creates a gateway to expanded awareness, deep insight, and even mystical experiences,
without requiring extensive meditation training.
10. Deepens Your Connection to Sankalpa (Intention Setting)
The relaxed yet aware state of Yoga Nidra supercharges affirmations and intentions, making it one of the most powerful practices for reprogramming habits, behaviours, and life direction.
A Yoga Nidra Journey—Coming Home to Yourself
If you long to feel more at ease, more connected, and more you, a Yoga Nidra Journey offers a space to recalibrate. You’ll leave feeling deeply restored, with a renewed sense of inner peace and clarity.
Each session is a unique experience, yet every journey guides you through a blend of ancient practices—gentle movement, breathwork, and deep sensory withdrawal—leading seamlessly into a soundscape designed to ease your return to daily life.
Yoga Nidra is more than relaxation; it’s a powerful gateway to self-discovery.
You access a state where transformation happens effortlessly through guided visualisations and story-based meditation.
Stress patterns held in the body and mind begin to dissolve, allowing you to return
to your natural state of balance. If you’ve been carrying mental tension, emotional overwhelm, or physical discomfort, this practice helps awaken your body's innate healing intelligence.
If sleep challenges disrupt your life, Yoga Nidra can offer the equivalent of 2–4 hours of deep sleep in just one session. And if you already feel at peace in your world, this practice amplifies inspiration, creativity, and emotional resilience.
With regular practice, you’ll uncover deeper insights, expand your creative potential, and experience a profound sense of wholeness. By weaving the power of Story into deep relaxation, this approach nurtures your imagination, enhances problem-solving, and supports emotional processing in a safe and nourishing way.
Yoga Nidra is an invitation to rest, to listen, and to reconnect with the essence of you.
NZSpirit Festival
Thursday, 23 January - Sunday, 26 January 2025
Te Wai Pounamu - Orton Bradley Park,
Charteris Bay, Banks Peninsula
Orton Bradley Park
I will hold a Yoga Nidra Journey at this final instalment of the South Island NZSpirit Festival - Friday 24 January, 11.30 am.
Message me to register your interest.
What is Yoga Nidra?
Simply put, Yoga Nidra is "a systematic method of inducing complete physical, mental and emotional relaxation". Modernised by Swami Satyananda, Yoga Nidra is designed to help us thrive in our current lifestyles.
Living our best, fast-paced lives, we are all constantly in an activated state of 'fight or flight' even at lower levels - and we have become somewhat numb to this phenomenon, as our super busy lifestyles require us to be 'on' a lot more than we are naturally adept to be.
This overstimulated state, of being in the sympathetic nervous system response, is indicated as a contributing cause to a variety of health challenges including but not limited to; chronic stress disorders, fatigue, immune issues and many emotional and socio-behavioural issues, that we have normalised to cope with life.
Yoga Nidra is accessing 'the state of deep relaxation with inner awareness'. It is simple to undertake and offers profound changes to the physical, mental and emotional body.
The yogi lies or sits comfortably and keeps a light awareness on the instruction of the yoga guide.
It can be practiced by anyone, it has many benefits (to be showcased in a longer talk/blog) and is well supported by science and research.
The Four Essential Stages of Yoga Nidra
There are four essential stages of Yoga Nidra. The system has been developed to work with the somatosensory cortex, enabling the most effective relaxation outcomes.
If you have participated in a Yoga Nidra class or online offering, and if these stages weren’t provided, then you would have been practising a guided meditation, not Yoga Nidra.
Four additional stages can be included in different ways to develop intentions, create deeper states of relaxation, and enable the processing of feelings and emotions. Visualisation stages release symbolic elements from the subconscious, enhancing our well-being and the release of emotional, mental and physical tensions.
Depending on the type of practice, such as 4-stage or 8-stage sessions, Yoga Nidra can help release unconscious tensions, activate visualisations and symbolic release of past impressions, enhance abilities to manifest your reality, and to process emotions. For spiritual seekers, a regular practice that increasingly taps into the visualisation aspects can provide insights into the superconscious mind (turiya).
Suppose you have experienced Yoga Nidra in other classes, online or apps and have not been conscious of moving through specific stages. In that case, you most likely were experiencing a guided meditation, not an authentic Yoga Nidra practice. Not to detract from guided meditations; they are also very beneficial and powerful. But they aren't Yoga Nidra.
The four essential stages of an authentic Yoga Nidra practice are:
SETTLING - INTERNALISATION - Bringing awareness inward, preparing the mind for relaxation and developing a ‘witness’ awareness.
ROTATION OF AWARENESS - Systematically moving awareness through different parts of the body. relative to the homunculus (or her/homunculus) aiding in deep relaxation
BREATH AWARENESS - More relaxation is achieved by focusing on the breath, calming the nervous system, further developing ‘witness’ awareness
and activating subtler energies at the cellular level.
EXTERNALISATION - The gentle process of gradually bringing conscious awareness back to the external environment.
Teaching Yoga Nidra
An authentic lineage connection enriches my Yoga Nidra teachings. I had the privilege of learning directly from Swami Karma Karuna, who trained extensively with Swami Satyananda, the creator of modern Yoga Nidra.
Living at Swami Karma Karuna's retreat for eight months provided me with an immersive experience where I absorbed many teachings, both consciously and subconsciously. This unique training has allowed me to bring the genuine essence of Yoga Nidra to my students.
Through these teachings, I offer the traditional Yoga Nidra practice that transitions the mind through various brain wave states. This practice is deeply rooted in wisdom, research, and dedication.
I feel the responsibility of my gained knowledge and am passionate about sharing these transformative teachings with others.
Read more: Yoga Nidra: A Journey to Deep Relaxation and Beyond