Yoga Relaxation Techniques: They're Not Interchangeable

by Nina

Patterns in the Sand 2, by Brad Gibson

Okay, I admit it. It’s probably my fault. I’ve been going around saying that you can trigger the Relaxation Response (see The Relaxation Response and Yoga) using any of the following: restorative yoga, inverted poses, Savasana, pranayama, meditation, and yoga nidra, etc. as if all those practices were somehow interchangeable. This has led to questions like the following comment left on a Friday Q&A: Yoga Nidra, Restorative Yoga, Meditation and Savasana:

It is very helpful to read the distinctions between these four practices as I try to practice all of them, but it's hard to find the time. I'd be really interested to get your thoughts on whether it's important to do all four? For example, if you do restorative while listening to a nidra CD, do you also need to meditate? I'm interested to know what the various benefits are of these four practices, or are the benefits all the same?

Let me start by saying that what I said previously—that you can use any of these practices for stress management—still holds true. And it is also true that you can choose whichever techniques you prefer to trigger the Relaxation Response. However, these practices each have different roles to play in a balanced yoga practice.

The role of meditation in a balanced yoga practice is particularly important. That’s why I asked Timothy to write an article on the purpose of meditation (see his absolutely wonderful post Is Meditation an Essential Par of Practicing Yoga?). Basically, although you can use meditation for stress reduction, its role in classical yoga is to quiet the mind to allow union with the divine or “liberation”:

1.2 Yoga is the cessation of movements of consciousness.
1.3 Then the seer dwells in his own true splendor.

— from Yoga Sutras, trans. B.K.S. Iyengar

Meditation is also, as Timothy mentions, a “fabulous tool to study your mind and slowly gain more control over it.”

Pranayama is also an important component of classical yoga, which precedes meditation as one of eight steps on the path to samadhi (union with the divine). It is considered an instrument to “steady the mind” and a gateway to dharana (the first phase of meditation).

“Pranayama removes the veil covering the light of knowledge and heralds the dawn of wisdom.

Its practice destroys illusion, consisting of ignorance, desire and delusion which obscure the intelligence; and allows the inner light of wisdom to shine. As the breeze disperses the clouds that cover the sun, pranayama wafts away the clouds that hide the light of intelligence.” — Sutra 2.52 trans. by B.K.S. Iyengar

On the other hand, the two types of asana I recommended for triggering the Relaxation Response, restorative yoga and supported inversions, are brilliant 20th century inventions, mostly developed by B.K.S. Iyengar, which are designed specifically to maximize physical relaxation and reduce stress. Judith Lasater, one of the most renowned teachers of restorative yoga, writes in the introduction to her book Relax and Renew:

“The antidote to stress is relaxation. To relax is to rest deeply. This rest is different from sleep. Deep states of sleep include periods of dreaming which increase muscular tension, as well as other physiological signs of tension. Relaxation is a state in which there is no movement, no effort, and the brain is quiet.

"Common to all stress reduction techniques is putting the body in a comfortable position with gentle attention directed toward the breath.”

Likewise, yoga nidra is also a 20th century invention (though you may see some claims to the contrary) developed by Swami Satyananda Saraswati. The first sentence of his book Yoga Nidra defines the practice like this:

“Yoga nidra, which is derived from the tantras, is a powerful technique in which you learn to relax consciously.”

In yoga nidra, you lie in Savasana while the voice of a teacher (or a recording) guides you through a physical and mental relaxation process. So, like restorative yoga, yoga nidra is specifically intended as a relaxation technique, and as such does not replace meditation or pranayama in a balanced yoga practice. This would be true of any form of Savasana in which an external voice is providing instructions and/or imagery for you. Unlike other relaxation techniques, yoga nidra includes a sankalpa (an intention) that allows you to influence your subconscious (or so it is claimed). For example, “I will awaken my spiritual potential,” “I will be a positive force for the evolution of others,” or “I will be successful in all that I undertake.” So this may be something you wish to take into consideration when choosing your relaxation practice.

Unlike the modern restorative postures, Savasana is a much older pose. Based on what I’ve read about the original practice, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Savasana is a reclining form of meditation. For some traditional yogis, it was a meditation on death, hence the literal translation of the name Savasana is “Corpse pose,” and it was sometimes even practiced alongside actual corpses. To practice Savasana properly, however, you must actually do the work of meditating while you are in the pose (and make sure you don’t fall asleep). If you don’t actually meditate while in Savasana, then, well, you are simply relaxing. But that's okay, too, if that is what you are after.

So there you have it. Which of these practices you decide to adopt really depends on what your goals are as well as your preferences. If you’re just after stress management and better health, it doesn’t really matter which you chose. However, if your goal is the “liberation” that is yoga’s ultimate aim, both pranayama and meditation are essential steps along the path.

Sorry if I caused any confusion!

Ultimate liberation is when the gunas, devoid of any purpose for the purusa, return to their original [latent] state; in other words, when the power of consciousness is situation in its own essential nature. —Yoga Sutra 4.34 trans. Edwin Bryant

Anxiety, Meditation, and Yoga Nidra

by Baxter

I couldn’t help but feel a kind of traveling yoga teacher kinship with Timothy as I read his post from yesterday Autumn, Healthy Aging and the Ayurvedic Dosha Vata!  My September and October are so packed with stuff (mostly all good and exciting, but just a lot!) that I have found myself feeling ungrounded as well. On my recent teaching weekend in Montana and Wyoming (big, dry, windy places!), I would even say a bit of anxiety crept into my mind and body. In addition, a 6:00 am flight had me feeling pretty tired at the start of things as well. I considered doing my usual asana practice, but then my intuition suggested another path: sitting meditation. So I did just that. For the next four days, I meditated for 20 minutes, twice a day. And quickly, I began to feel more rested and mentally grounded than I had for weeks. 

But there have been other times when I have been so wiped out and frazzled that even sitting meditation seemed like too much energy to expend. Fortunately, I had another tool in the old yoga toolbox for just such an occasion: yoga nidra! 

We’ve introduced this practice before, but this seems like a good time of year to re-introduce it and remind you of its possible benefits for anxiety. One hallmark feature of an anxious mind is the tendency to have urgent, repetitive thought patterns full of worry and fear that are hard to turn off. This leads to difficulty concentrating on normal everyday tasks or anything else for that matter, trouble focusing on communication with others, and perhaps most troubling, difficulty relaxing mentally and physically enough to get good rest.

Enter yoga nidra. In the yoga nidra practice, you are encouraged to set yourself up in the most supportive and delicious Savasana (Relaxation pose) you can put together, so that your body talk does not interfere with the yoga nidra process. Since most of us confronted with anxiety are searching desperately for help, the beginning of the yoga nidra guided rest offers us the opportunity to formally set an intention or resolve, known as the sankalpa.  It is stated by the swami who developed this relatively modern yoga practice that the resolve you set at the start of yoga nidra can lead to significant transformation in your life. Let’s hope so!

Marsh by Brad Gibson

From there on out, your only job is to follow along with the guiding voice that is taking you through the yoga nidra practice, while making a commitment to staying gently alert and awake for the journey. It’s recommended that you not use an eye pillow, which tends to trigger a reflex in the eyes that make you too sleepy. My friend and yoga teacher teacher Sharon Olson uses colorful bandanas as eye covers, as they are light enough to avoid that reflex. By setting your focus on following the exterior voice of the teacher closely and being guided through a series of sensing exercises and visualizations, you effectively short-circuit the constant stream of your everyday mind. In fact, it is likely that your brain wave patterns shift from the daytime active ones to the patterns associated with meditation brain states, such as alpha and finally theta waves. (I have yet to see research to support this, but techniques similar to yoga nidra have been used in other fields of inquiry with such results.)

And even though you are trying to stay awake in yoga nidra, if you do fall asleep for part or all of the session, you get a well-deserved nap. The more regularly you do the practice, the more likely you are to stay lightly awake and reap the benefits of the “relaxation response” we have written about elsewhere. Usually, yoga nidra is taught live by a teacher who guides you or a class through the 20-45 minute practice, or you can find many recordings of yoga nidra that can serve the same purpose. I have two loaded on my smart phone (from Richard Miller and Rod Stryker), so I can do yoga nidra anywhere I happen to be, including on an airplane, despite having to do it sitting up!  And for those who may have forgotten or did not know, we have a short yoga nidra available for you to try right here on the blog (click on the Audio Tracks tab at the top of the page).

And to my lovely student, Bobby, in Redlodge MT, I will do my best to record a full-length yoga nidra this fall for all of you try.

New Releases: Yoga Nidra and Deep Physical Relaxation

by Baxter and Nina

Happy New Year, everyone! We've been talking for some time about providing you with a few relaxation tracks that you can stream from our site or download onto your own audio devices. Now, at last, thanks to help from Margy Cohea and Quinn Gibson, we're pleased to release our first two tracks, both featuring Baxter Bell.

We're starting out by providing two shorter relaxation sessions, around 15 minutes each, because we know so many of you have busy schedules or aren't quite ready to commit to a whole hour of yoga nidra. You can play these tracks directly from our blog, or, if you wish to download a track, you can go to our new—gotta love it—Band Camp site (see http://yogaforhealthyaging.bandcamp.com/). Band Camp earns money through the donations you make when you download a track, so if you can afford it, help us support this wonderful site.

The first track is a physical relaxation practice, intended to be practiced in Corpse pose (Savasana). Baxter will gradually guide you, step by step, into a deep relaxation of your entire body and nervous system.
The second track is Baxter's 15 minute version of a yoga nidra practice, which is also intended to be practiced in Corpse pose (Savasana). Baxter will guide you into the state of conscious relaxation that is also referred to as "yogic sleep."
Let us know what you think! And if you have ideas for other audio tracks you'd like us to provide, be sure to let us know.

Yoga for Insomnia, Part 1

by Nina

Paul Weston and his new therapist from "In Treatment"

There I was on Saturday night, doing that thing where you talk out loud to a fictional character on your TV screen. But, really, Paul Weston in Season 3 of “In Treatment” was asking his new therapist for another Ambien prescription. And when he told her that he’d been taking Ambien every night for over a year, I just lost it. I said, “That’s addiction, not a solution! You need to help him wean himself off the pills!” But his therapist wouldn’t listen to me. And then Paul told her that even with the pills he didn’t sleep through the night, but always woke from a nightmare after several hours, and then had trouble going back to sleep, often taking another Ambien to get himself through the second part of the night. He was worried that he might have Parkinson’s Disease. But even though I begged her to offer him an alternative, in the end his therapist wrote him another prescription and said he could come back and talk to her if he wished, so besides the pills all she had to offer him was long-term talk therapy.

Then on Sunday morning I was doing it again because I read an article in the NY Times “Sleep Medication: Mother’s New Little Helper” (see here) about mothers who can’t sleep because they are too stressed out about all the little things they had to do, and instead spend hours in the middle of the night fretting over their “To Do” lists. Both the author of the article and the women themselves seemed to think the only options these women had were sleeping pills or lack of sleep. “Conscious relaxation!” I shouted to the author and the women in the article, but to no avail. It is just part of being a mom these days, they claimed. Some of them even talked about how useful it was to have time to themselves in the middle of the night, when they could get even more work done.

It’s a good thing I can rant in this post today! I do think sleeping pills can be useful on a short-term basis to get you through a short, difficult spell, but they are not a long-term solution because they do not solve the underlying problems (and you do, in fact, become addicted after just two weeks). If you read my first post on chronic stress (see here) you will know that what’s keeping both Paul and the women in the NY Times article from sleeping well is chronic stress. And a different solution to their insomnia could be practicing yoga stress management techniques. So what would I prescribe for Paul Weston?

During the afternoon or evening, Paul should practice calming yoga poses, such as restorative poses, supported forward bends or supported inversions (such as Legs Up the Wall Pose). Seated meditation is another good option for this time of day. If Paul can do Savavana or yoga nidra without falling asleep, these practices would also be effective, but taking a nap won’t be effective. The idea is for him to switch his nervous system from chronic stress to the relaxation response, providing him with time in a state of conscious relaxation. (See here for info on the difference between conscious relaxation and sleep.)

Then when Paul is in bed trying to fall asleep, I’d recommend either yogic breath awareness (or extending the exhalation) or a self-guided Savasana (such as progressive physical relaxation of different body parts) so that when he falls asleep he will be more relaxed (and will hopefully sleep deeper and longer). Even though he has important things to worry about, the key is to keep his mind on neutral subjects when he is going to sleep (he can always do his worrying the next day!).

Finally, if Paul wakes in the middle of the night, rather than getting up and turning on the light to read a book, work on the computer, or watch TV (these activities are mildly stimulating), I’d recommend that Paul stay in bed in the dark, and again do a yogic breath practice or a self-guided Savasana. There is a good chance this will help him get back to sleep again. Granted, worrying is very tempting; in the middle of the night it feels like important work. But like any other practice, moving the mind away from worry to a more neutral subject gets easier and easier with experience.

“Paul,” I’d say, “I’ve been there, too. And these are all practices that have helped me learn to sleep better, even during stressful times.”

Friday Q&A: What is Yoga Nidra?

 

Q: What is yoga nidra (yogic sleep)?

A: Well, this is a good question. A straight up translation is “the sleep of the yogi,” however, done correctly, one does not enter fully into sleep, but is guided by a teacher on a journey while resting in a restorative version of Savasana. I love this practice, as it can lead to a profound conscious rest (that means, again, you are not sleeping!) that has many physiologic, mental and emotional benefits.  Because you are listening and following the voice of a teacher while resting anywhere from 20-45 minutes, your mind is gently occupied and does not tend to revert to its typical habits of remembering, anticipating or judging. This provides a mental respite for your mind, and your body tends to more quickly shift into the rest and digest part of the nervous system, even faster than in normal sleep. Yoga nidra is being used to treat PTSD in vets returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, so the potential effect on anxiety, fear and worry seems obvious.

You can practice yoga nidra is the physical presence of the teacher who is guiding you (in a class or workshop) or on your own using a recording of your favorite teacher. And I hope to record a version of yoga nidra for your listening pleasure in the next few weeks. Nina will fill you in on yoga nidra’s modern roots, which may surprise some of you who have been told it is an “ancient “practice.” — Baxter

A: Yoga nidra was developed by Swami Sivananda Saraswati in the early twentieth century (based on the teachings of his guru, Swami Sivananda). Yes, the twentieth century. He wrote, “I came across many important but little known practices, which interested me greatly. After practicing them myself, I decided to construct a new system called yoga nidra which would incorporate the essence of these practices without having complicated ritualistic drawbacks.” He says the yoga nidra practice was inspired by the tantric practice of nyasa, but nyasa was performed in a sitting posture and involved the use of specific mantras which were “placed” in different parts of the body.

Swami Sivananda Saraswati’s disciple Swami Satyananda Saraswati describes the yoga nidra practice in great detail in his book Yoga Nidra. Swami The form of practice taught by Swami Satyananda includes eight stages: Internalisation, Sankalpa, Rotation of Consciousness, Breath Awareness, Manifestation of Opposites, Creative Visualization, Sankalpa and Externalisation. Contemporary teachers, such as our very own Baxter Bell, often create their own versions of yoga nidra.

So yoga nidra is not ancient after all! But that doesn’t mean it’s not a very powerful practice. Much of the yoga that we know and love was actually developed by a few brilliant Indian yogis during the early twentieth century (Desikachar, Iyengar, Jois, etc.), a very exciting and fruitful time in the long history of yoga.

In simple English, yoga nidra is a practice where you lie in some version of Savasana (Corpse pose) and allow a teacher, who is following a format devised by Swami Sivananda Saraswati, to guide you into a state of conscious relaxation that is referred to as “yogic sleep.” It doesn’t feel like being asleep and it doesn’t feel like being awake—trust me, I’ve tried it.

— Nina

THE RELAXATION RESPONSE AND YOGA

by Nina

Last week I wrote about the stress response, and how dangerous chronic stress is for your physical and emotional wellbeing (and possibly your longevity). So at this point you might be wondering: wouldn’t it be nice if there were an easy way for you to switch off your stress? I mean, something quicker and less expensive than a month in Tahiti or a week in a spa.

Well, it turns out there is. Remember, between stressful situations, your body needs to rest, recover, and acquire new energy. So your nervous system responds by:

• lowering your blood pressure
• reducing your heart rate, diverting blood back to the skin and gastrointestinal tract
• contracting your pupils and bronchioles
• stimulating your salivary gland secretion, accelerating digestion, and promoting normal movement of food through the gut

Dr. Herbert Benson coined the term “the relaxation response,” to describe this phenomenon, and he discusses it in detail in his book The Relaxation Response (which I highly recommend). I’ve also heard the term “rest and digest” to describe this state, when your body is recovering and restoring itself, and I find this is a helpful way to think about it, as the opposite of “fight or flight.”

Of course when you are stressed out, you can’t just tell yourself to relax. (I remember when I was suffering terribly from chronic stress, a therapist told me to “stop worrying.” I said, “Are you kidding?” and, duh, never went back.) But this is where yoga performs so brilliantly. Because, as Dr. Benson discovered, to trigger the relaxation response all that is required is:

1. A quiet environment

2. A focus for your mind, such as a sound, word, phrase, physical sensation (breath or body part), or fixed gaze at an object

3. Passive (non-judgmental) attitude

4. A comfortable position

5. 10 to 20 minutes

A Garden Path by Joan Webster

If this makes you immediately think of meditation, you’re right about that. But yoga has bunch of different options that you can use to trigger the relaxation response:

1. Meditation. See here for information on how to meditate.
2. Breath practices (pranayama). See here for information your nervous system and your breath.
3. Restorative poses with a focus for the mind (such as your breath or the relaxation of your muscles).
4. Corpse pose (Savasana) with a focus for the mind (such as your breath, the relaxation of your muscles, or peaceful imagery). See here for information.
5. Yoga nidra (yogic sleep), a long, structured form of Savasana. See here for information about yoga nidra and here for a mini version of yoga nidra that you can stream or download.

Eventually, after his initial studies, Dr. Benson removed two items from the list: a comfortable position and a quiet environment. He soon realized that a mind-body practice, such as the yoga asana practice, can be a “moving meditation,” as long as there is a focus for your mind (such as the physical sensations of your body in the pose) and a passive attitude (refraining from judging yourself in the pose, such as how you look or whether you’re doing it “right”). See "What is Mindfulness?"

Finally, studies by Dr. Roger Cole proved that inverted and semi-inverted poses, where your heart is higher than your head, trigger the relaxation response through the mechanisms that control your blood pressure. This is why supported inversions, such Legs Up the Wall pose and Easy Inverted Pose (legs on a chair), are so effective. I’ll write soon specifically on inversions and how they work (see "Just in Time for the Holidays: Inverted Poses").

And in weeks to come, we’ll provide further information about all seven of these options for triggering the relaxation response: meditation, breath practice, restorative yoga, Savasana, Yoga Nidra, mindful yoga practices, and inverted poses.

By now you may be saying to yourself that while these practices definitely seem like a bargain compared to vacations and spas (free to be exact), they seem like a bit of work. Can’t I just skip all this “practicing” stuff and get a bit of shuteye instead? Sorry, but it turns out the state of conscious relaxation you achieve by triggering the relaxation response is very different than sleep, and I’ll be discussing that difference in my next post (though, of course, a good night’s sleep is also important for your physical and emotional health). See here for a comparison between conscious relaxation and sleep.

What about turning on the TV or reading a good book? Activities, such as TV and reading, while good distractions, aren’t necessarily relaxing. Hey, suspense, though good for a plot, can be very stressful, and I not only cry at the movies, but sometimes during sad parts of a novel! I’m not saying you should never watch TV or read, just that these activities can’t take the place of the conscious relaxation that yoga provides. So as Baxter said last week, "Got 10 minutes?"

And now, dear readers, I’d like to ask you for your help. What are your favorite yoga stress management techniques? What do you find the most useful? And have I overlooked anything? Also, if you’d like to vote on which yoga stress management techniques you’d like to hear about first, let me know. Leave your answers in a comment to this post or email them to me (see Contact Us on the right side of the blog).

WHAT WE NEED TO PRACTICE

by Baxter

As I was enjoying Brad’s post from last week (he really cracks me up—smart and funny!), one statement jumped off the computer screen as I read it. Regarding confronting the inevitable course of aging, Brad stated, “We probably need to practice both acceptance and active engagement as we confront our own aging....”

Cathedral in Process by Brad Gibson

As I thought about the acceptance part of that equation, it reminded me of an experience a friend of mine had while living for a while at an ashram in Northern California. In addition to the center’s own spiritual leader, there were often visiting teachers and gurus, and one visiting guru had a seemingly straightforward message that went something like this: “Everything is already okay!” Well, this message really seemed to resonate with the staff at the center, especially with the kitchen staff, who took it to heart, so much so that the dirty dishes started to pile up. After all, everything is already okay! Finally, the ashram’s main teacher had to remind everyone that, even though this idea was certainly true, especially as a concept found in many yoga lineages, we also have work to do in this lifetime.

Men Working on La Sagrada Familia by Brad Gibson

Yoga posits an intriguing paradox that we each have a perfect, eternal quality already within us, sometimes referred to as the purusha or atman, and at the same time, we have a personal dharma or path to follow that requires active engagement in this lifetime. As a way of supporting the notion of healthy aging, I am able to “actively engage” in my life’s work as well as beneficial practices, such as yoga asana (poses) and pranayama (yogic breathing), that support the overall health and well being of my mind and body. And at the same time, I can access other yoga practices, such as mindful meditation and yoga nidra, where I am more involved in accessing the state of “being” as opposed to the state of “doing.” In these practices, I am able to tap into the acceptance part of the challenge of aging, and also this alluring concept that everything is already okay. We have come to discover through observation and research that this second set of practices (the acceptance practices), has very tangible benefits as well, including, to name a few, quieting the nervous system, lowering blood pressure, and supporting healthy digestion and immune function. For those of you not familiar with these practices, I would recommend the following books as an introduction:

Full Catastrophe Living, by Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., for information about mindful meditation.

Yoga Nidra, by Richard Miller, Ph.D., for information about yoga nidra (an audio CD with practice for you is included)

More on active engagement next time!