Previously I sought a lot of sources outside myself in my search for balance. I imagined that the key to becoming calm and balanced was in physical exercise. I had been raising two growing kids, changed my career, and was trying to find my way as a yoga instructor and educator, but I had not found the tools to truly connect with myself in a positive way.
The last twenty years of my life have been spent managing a preschool and raising my kids. When my youngest one went off to college, I decided to make a big change! My intention was to take the yoga tools that I had to help kids and adults find calm, connect with themselves, and also to provide parents and teachers tools to teach the kids themselves. Personally, I also wanted to do more yoga, knowing that there was a special and powerful side of yoga that I had been hesitant to explore, and had yet to find.
When I found yoga nidra, I found a compassionate practice that gave me a way to go to that deeper place within, and in a way that was very safe. After experiencing this practice deeply, I found a much greater love and balance within myself. Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra allowed me to be replace self-doubt and judgment with inquiry and acceptance — knowing that I am already precisely who I am supposed to be! I found a new perspective where the ‘stories’ of my life are just there as ‘part’ of my wholeness. Now I feel whole!
And — graduating from Jennifer’s Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra Teacher Training – gave me an amazing tool that I can use to guide people in finding connectedness within themselves and share this powerful practice with others. I was having a lot of doubts about whether I was good enough, or I had what I needed to empower people. And what I found while practicing Divine Sleep confirmed for me that I have it! Jennifer’s training boosted my confidence, and the yoga nidra experience itself allowed me to work out some of my doubts.
One of the reasons I picked Jennifer’s teacher training is because I love Kripalu Yoga and feel how Jennifer’s work is the embodiment of it. There is an element of spirituality in the practice that makes it exceptional in a world of physically dominated yoga and sets it apart from the rest. For a long time I was getting stuck in my head, over analyzing things, and tending to be masculine-dominated in my thinking. But I was attracted to the more feminine, creative, intuitive yoga, even though I thought that it was not me — but it really is me — and practicing it I now enjoy more balance within.
Previously I had been uncomfortable being by ‘myself’. I tried very hard to take care of other people, and was a ‘people pleaser’ to avoid taking care of myself. I didn’t even like relaxation at the end of yoga! Or taking a walk by myself, because I had to be with ‘me’ and I was not sure I liked myself. Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra has given me that safe space to get to know me and I really like me just as I am.
Before Yoga nidra, I was always in a rush to get somewhere –- get somewhere with who I was, or get somewhere with what my work is — and within my yoga nidra practice, I realized that I am already there! I am who I am, and I already have what I need. It’s just a matter of uncovering it, and yoga nidra practice allows me to uncover it.
I had always tried very hard to stay in my physical body, not going deeper, because I knew there was a lot in there. But Jennifer’s Divine Sleep yoga nidra makes all my deeper parts accessible and allows me to be in a space with my feelings. I can be ‘with’ my anger, my doubt, my resentment, anxiety, and to observe it and think “Oh! look at that”. To see these parts and not have to change anything about them is so refreshing and powerful. And that is the gift I want to be able to give people through yoga nidra. It’s that realization that ‘I am not perfect, but I am whole’. And now I feel whole.
During the training, it was amazing to experience the shifts in the other participants as we went through the week and deepened into Divine Sleep. That was something I didn’t not expect – to see people physically lighten. To see them transforming right in front of me, and to see them discover energy in themselves that they did not know was there, that was obviously there because they found it through yoga nidra, was really awesome.
Another result was that through the yoga nidra experience I tapped into inexplicable joy! I have this deep balanced joy that underlies everything.
Before our final training day, I wanted to try my new Divine Sleep script that I had created. I practiced by leading my 18 and 21 year old sons, my husband and our two cats. All week during their training, participants talked about how their dogs would come and lay down when they were practicing leading Divine Sleep and how their husbands would have these great experiences and I was so excited to bring it to my family – I knew they were going to be thrilled.
My son has a condition called Vasovagal syncope. He regularly would pass out from any body trauma. It’s a debilitating condition that has strong symptoms after the event like nausea, headaches, fainting, so there is a risk of falling. I was very concerned because he had to have surgery for a deviated septum. I brought my new tools with me — I played Jennifer’s Healing Rings of Light journey from her CD at the hospital, gave him an eye pillow, lavender oil, and squeezed his feet.
It was like a miracle! He was calm and did not go into Vasovagal response at all! He was able to go through the surgery, and also had a quick recovery. He had no side effects from any of the procedures, or from his condition! Some folks said he had a good doctor, but I know he had Jennifer’s yoga nidra! He told me that when he was doing the Divine Sleep that he “had never felt more connected to my body”. I am still amazed that he was able to keep from having a Vasovagal reaction!
I find Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra accommodates you. It is a practice that meets you where you are today and tomorrow. It’s liberating to find something that goes where you are. It comes and finds you where you are. You don’t need to be spiritual or be a yogi and it will work. There is no belief system attached – it is all about feeling what is inside of you.
