Yoga Nidra for Emotional and Physical Pain

Yoga Nidra is a systematized form of deep relaxation that helps with exhaustion, pain management, insomnia, anxiety, depression and a whole host of other physical, mental and emotional challenges.

One of the ways it does this is to guide the mind and body into a state of present awareness.

What that means is, during Yoga Nidra you are not reliving events from the past or worried about things in the future. Both of these habits of thinking can cause us to feel distress; both physical and emotional. Let me share an example of this aspect of Yoga Nidra from a recent experience.

My husband had basal cell carcinoma on his face and had to have surgery to remove it and then extensive facial reconstruction this December. As you can well imagine, this is a painful process to recover from.

He had been given strong pain medication to get through that first week, but we were running low and, the holidays made it harder to connect with his surgeon to get more. The best thing we could do was to spread his pain medication out, but that meant more breakthrough pain.

Let me tell you this. My husband is a pretty tough guy but as the pain pushed harder and the medications ran low it got a little worrisome. The only thing I could think of to help was Yoga Nidra. Since I was feeling anxious and overwhelmed by that time, I did it right along with him.

Intentions are an integral part of a Yoga Nidra practice. Intentions in a relaxed state help us harness the power of the mind to lead us to more comfort and less distress. His intention was; “This pain is temporary and I know I am healing”. It helped him focus on the moment rather than worrying about the pain becoming unbearable as he had already experienced. He also focused on his ability to heal rather than focusing on possible future complications like infection and increased pain. I used the intention; “We are moving through this with strength and courage” which helped me stay grounded and able to focus on solutions instead of falling apart which at times,  I feared I would do.

To my relief, and more importantly his, the guided Yoga Nidra meditation practice gave him enough relief to get to the next scheduled dose of medication. I came out of the practice feeling more solid and reassured that we could get through it.

I don’t think I’ve ever been more grateful for Yoga Nidra and it’s ability to powerfully balance the mind-body system.

If you want to learn more about Yoga Nidra, check out my upcoming workshops schedule and my other blogs on Yoga Nidra. If you want to give it a try, you can download some of my Yoga Nidra recordings.

Wishing you peace and serenity,
=)
Lori