July 12 Nidra
3 of 8 in our Sunday series finding rest in summer
I miss the summers of my childhood. The “normal” of long, sweaty, empty afternoons there that I can never visit because they are a temporal rather than spatial location. There are days when the present moment feels like it is unraveling, when that sort of pace is irreplaceable. What to do?
“There is no way to apply existing logic here. There is no sense or meaning to make. There is no normal to idealize and place on a pedestal. There is only the ground are sitting on and even that feels like it is crumbling. Sink into the ground. You are a seed.” - Octavia F. Raheem, Pause, Rest, Be
…
I practice yoga nidra every day.
Some days it is a reset, a place to reestablish my energies after a big morning / afternoon teaching. Some days it is a sanctuary when I can truly just rest in my own company, in the sensations of my own body and breath. Some days it is done with deep healing intention to shift illness or pain. Some days it is for creativity, and I rise afterwards to go straight to my desk and let it sing back out from the dark.
No matter what is occurring in the outer landscape of the day, the dark soil of the nidra is there to grow whatever seeds I offer.
Winter nidras feel like momentary dips into the hibernation that my mammalian self would love to prolong. Summer nidras feel rich, exploratory, provisional.
Settle in. Travel your nidras through the seasons. See what you find within your soil.
Enjoy xx Martha
Sunset from my sister’s home in Eswatini, Southern Africa