iRest Yoga Nidra Level 1 Training

With Anne Douglas
April 28 to May 3, 2020

iRest – Yoga Nidra for Health, Healing and wholeness

Yoga Nidra is a systematic practice of deep relaxation and guided meditation.  At its most basic level it helps to restore the healthy functioning of body and mind, while ultimately it can be a path of awakening to your True Nature.

Most often Yoga Nidra is defined simply as yogic sleep.  Although the practice induces brain wave states similar to sleep, the practitioner learns to remain awake and aware and to recognize the unchanging Pure Awareness that lies behind the various changing states of consciousness.

Dr. Richard Miller, PhD, developed the iRest Yoga Nidra protocol and founded the Integrative Restoration Institute (IRI) with a mission statement to provide programs and teacher training’s that show you how to live a contented life, free of conflict and fear, by opening your mind and body to its inherent ground of health and well-being.

Research has shown that iRest effectively reduces PTSD, depression, anxiety, chronic pain, chemical dependency and insomnia.  It has been integrated into yoga classes, wellness centres, physical and massage therapy, schools, veteran settings, homeless shelters, hospitals and clinics.  iRest can also be used for accelerating learning, for inquiring into and neutralizing reactive tendencies and emotional distractions, or for investigating limiting beliefs and conditioning.  It can also help the practitioner answer deep questions such as “Who am I?” and “What is the purpose of my life?”

Typically, Yoga Nidra is done in a comfortable lying position and is guided in person or by a recording.  The guide leads one through an exploration of progressively more subtle aspects of one’s being based on the yogic model of the koshas or energetic sheaths of the body.

Throughout the practice we are invited to fully open to and welcome all of our experience, whether pleasant or unpleasant, including a range of opposing emotions and thoughts or beliefs. This cultivates the ability to meet life in every moment as it is, versus how we want or expect it to be.  Most of our suffering in life comes when our expectations or thoughts argue with reality; when we want life to be different than it is.  However, when we fully open to each moment unconditionally, we find the perfect response arising spontaneously.

Once learned, iRest-Yoga Nidra can be done by oneself in any position or situation.  It can be a long, progressive meditation over the course of an hour or in as short as three minutes while in the midst of life.  The beauty of Yoga Nidra is that it is experiential and opens us to our first hand knowing.  Over time, we begin to embody the insights and revelations discovered through the practice and bring them back out into the world.

In Yoga Nidra, we deconstruct all that we are not, so that we may realize who we truly are.  Eventually we begin to experience greater and greater levels of authenticity, spontaneity and freedom. More and more we experience life as a perpetual “yes” to every moment regardless of circumstance or experience. Yoga for Today is hosting an iRest Level I Training from April 28 to May 3, 2020.  Join this training if you would like to learn the practice for your self or if you would like to share it with your students or clients.  If you would like to learn more about the training, click the link below to view the flyer

Anne Douglas will be leading the training with a team of professional staff.  Anne is a Senior iRest Trainer and Past Director of Trainers for the Integrative Restoration Institute. She is the creator of the iRest Daily – 14 Day Meditation Program.  Anne has a thriving Yoga Therapy practice in Banff, Alberta, in which iRest Yoga Nidra is her central resource. www.anahatayogatherapy.ca

If you would like to learn more about iRest-Yoga Nidra, go to www.irest.us