This course trains yoga teachers and others to teach and facilitate yoga nidra with confidence in class settings, one-to-ones, and for a range of therapeutic applications. Uniquely amongst yoga nidra trainings, it offers Total Yoga Nidra, a comprehensive, inclusive and non-dogmatic approach to yoga nidra that respects and explores not only a range of practice methods, but also acknowledges a variety of different levels of experience during yoga nidra.

• Encounter yoga nidra in its totality
• Explore the multiple forms and levels of this remarkable yoga practice
• Become empowered to deepen your own intuitive practice of meditative yoga nidra beyond the limits of standard trademarked and traditional forms
• Understand the full living range of different methods, lineages and levels of total yoga nidra
• Experience total yoga nidra as a living intelligence of the heart, an adaptogenic practice of deep healing and self-discovery
• Grow in confidence to share responsive and appropriate total yoga nidra practice with students and clients

This training is designed and co-taught by Uma Dinsmore-Tuli and Nirlipta Tuli, who together have over forty years experience of practice, teaching and working therapeutically with all forms and levels of yoga nidra, is a uniquely comparative and creative, experiential course. It offers both practical training and personal and professional development.

What is Total Yoga Nidra?

Total Yoga Nidra is a comprehensive, inclusive and non-dogmatic approach to yoga nidra that respects and explores not only a range of practice methods, but also acknowledges and supports a variety of different levels of experience during yoga nidra. Total yoga nidra empowers you to encounter yoga nidra in its totality: as an adaptogenic meditative practice without limits in terms of its capacity to heal, nourish and liberate.

Most people who are familiar with yoga nidra have listened to some kind of pre-recorded audio track(s), but might not have had the opportunity to encounter the practice live from a teacher in a group setting; and although many people may have experienced a live group yoga nidra, where a teacher delivers a standard script to a group of students, this relaxing experience is very different from practising yoga nidra that has been specifically tailored for a particular individual, for example in a one-to-one setting. This experience in turn is different from the encounter with yoga nidra that comes during a practice that is co-created by teacher and student together, with the specific intention to meet the student precisely where s/he is right now, both in language and method of practice, and in terms of the level at which that practice can be most appropriately met.

And whilst all of these experiences of yoga nidra certainly bring huge benefits, an entirely different set of possibilities open up when yoga nidra is set free from the need to have any external auditory guide of any kind. At this level of self practice, the protocols for practice are so deeply familiar to the practitioner that when we simply lie (or sit) quietly, then the practice can be invited to unfold silently, in the voice of our own intuitive inner guide.

In this course you will learn:

• to devise and deliver Total Yoga Nidra practices appropriate to your needs and those of your students and clients;
• a clear practical understanding of the structure and function of Total Yoga Nidra, including models of best practice, and techniques to be avoided;
• a practical understanding of the key principles of yogic psychology and philosophy relevant to the practice of Total Yoga Nidra;
• a contextual understanding of the development and history of Total Yoga Nidra across different lineages;
• to share Total Yoga Nidra with an informed sensitivity to the emotional and spiritual experiences of those receiving the practice;
• to teach a range of restorative yoga asanas suitable for use during yoga nidra practice;
• to teach within the appropriate safety guidelines for this type of yoga practice.

Topics covered include:

• Understanding the structure and variations in approaches to, and levels of, Total Yoga Nidra practice
• Clinical hypnosis, self-hypnosis and yoga nidra – a full exploration of the relationship between these practices
• Further explorations in history and development of yoga nidra: nyasa, tantra, Satyananda Yoga, Himalayan Institute, Richard Miller, Swami Veda Bharati, Swami Jneshvara Bharati
• Deeper explorations of yoga philosophy and cosmology in relation to Total Yoga Nidra
• Exploring research on yoga nidra exploring the value of understandings from neuroscience, clinical psychology, psycho-neuro-immunology and physiology in relation to the function of yoga nidra, including stress and the relaxation response
• Restorative asana: refinements on propping poses for yoga nidra
• Sankalpa: resolution and intention setting, listening to inner guidance, framing and using Sankalpa within and around yoga nidra
• Breath awareness /pranayama: specific use within the structure of yoga nidra session, and to support the practice of yoga nidra
• Visualisations: a range of different traditional and creative scripting options, contra- indications, appropriateness and therapeutic value
• Creativity and innovation: devising your own Total Yoga Nidra experiences; metaphor, poetry and grammar for enlightened communication
• Responsiveness: tailoring script to needs of target populations, bespoke scripts: utilising client images in yoga nidra
• Self-development: sample practices, support for self-reflection and growth
• Dharana: yoga nidra as an aid to improve concentration
• Dhyana: yoga nidra as the meditative heart of yoga
• Living yoga nidra: practical and effective integration of yoga nidra into daily life
• Total yoga nidra as a therapeutic tool