Bright shining Betty has brought so much joy and peace to herself and so many through her work as a nurse and yoga teacher. Here’s her story:
The body knows how to heal itself. This is something I’ve seen first-hand throughout my professional career as a nurse for over 43 years working in a level-one trauma center in a large inner city hospital. One of the key factors that is needed to allow this natural phenomena of healing to happen is time. Time to be still, quiet and non judgmental.
How many of us honestly allow ourselves time to heal? Pride filled with the ability to multi-task – ‘do it all’ – and accomplish everything on the to-do list… we are busy, busy, busy, and this mind-set is another way to define ‘stress’. Studies prove that stress is the root cause of most disease and illness. It’s during this ‘peace and quiet time’ that the body repairs and heals itself.
And this is why I fell in love with yoga nidra! Because it gives the ‘time’ needed for healing, and also balance to happen. Balance in my body is something that I have strived for most of my life, and actually why I started practicing yoga postures. I was in a sport that required my ‘physical’ balance, but I found myself falling too often. It was suggested to “try yoga” – and it helped!
Yoga helped me not only regain my balance, but it worked on so many other levels as well, and also led me to yoga nidra. When I began practicing yoga nidra, I knew it could take me into deeper healing and transformation. Before, I had felt blocked but with yoga nidra practice I became much more able to express myself and what I was experiencing inside.
The various components that the yoga nidra meditation leads you through – such as the five levels of being (similar to body-mind-spirit), the visualization, finding my heart’s longing, and increasing my self-awareness by practicing non-judgmental witness – were so fulfilling to me and helped me get in touch with my deepest self.
I first discovered Jennifer in a yoga class at Kripalu during an R&R weekend. Even though it wasn’t specifically yoga nidra but a yoga asana class, during relaxation savasana I realized what made this class so special. Jennifer is an excellent teacher with an extensive background of knowledge that she shares during her class, but it was her voice.
It was her calm and confident and relaxing voice that allowed me to experience this class in a very different, personal way. It was as if I was the only one she was teaching, although the room was full of students. Her voice and and her teaching style allows you to delve deep into your own experience and receive all the benefits that are offered.
I have heard far too many people say “I can’t do yoga, I am too old, too heavy, too…” you probably have heard these excuses too. And yet they would love to actually practice yoga! This is one of the many beautiful things I love about yoga nidra is that can do this yoga EVERYONE can do. And what is amazing to me is that this is yoga that you cannot possibly do wrong!
I did my Divine Sleep® Yoga Nidra teacher training with Jennifer. Upon graduating and beginning to lead Divine Sleep®, I knew I was offering a special gift to every person who came to class. This is such a valuable time to experience self-healing. I am so happy to offer a place and practice that invites healthy and lasting change for my students in the safe atmosphere of our classroom. If you can feel it, you can heal it, not only for yourself but for others also is what I have learned as a guide of yoga nidra. Divine Sleep is “the antidote to modern life” just as Jennifer says.
Divine Sleep® Yoga Nidra broadened my life-path and continues to improve my life. After I lead yoga nidra I will often hear from a student that, “I feel so good after class, I can’t describe it.” It can be hard to describe a soft breeze on your face, a beautiful sunrise or sunset, the smell of a flower garden, the taste of fresh fruit or music that moves you. But you feel it, and live it in yoga nidra. It’s said that ‘if you can feel it, you can heal it’ and I find this practice so very healing.
I’ve also been fortunate to have attended Jennifer’s Advanced Teacher Training weekends which help me to come home refreshed with new information and experiences to share with my students. She has a very approachable, easy teaching style, a great smile, and a wonderful sense of humor!
Not only am I very grateful for having met Jennifer and have been the recipient of her many teachings, I share her information through her cd’s and her web site. I highly recommend anyone and everyone to go to any of her classes, workshops, weekends or retreats. It will be an experience that will add value to your life and practice that is priceless. Divine Sleep for me is self healing by coming into my own balance.
Betty Hamilton, Guilford, CT