by | Oct 23, 2019
I was introduced to yoga at a young age by my grandmother Cindy Yaple, who is a yoga teacher. I enjoyed taking the classes and sometimes got to go to her adult classes when I was three years old! (I would sit on her lap during the meditation). The breathing helped me to feel calm. Then I took yoga classes for children, participated in family yoga events, and also practiced yoga in elementary school.
Even with the yoga, I still used to have difficulty falling asleep and then staying asleep. My mind was always thinking about things that would sometimes cause me to wake up during the night. Currently, I am in middle school and on the cheer team and I have a very busy schedule.
One night, I was staying with my grandmother and she played me Jennifer Reis’s Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra for Children CD/MP3. I didn’t make it through the whole journey before I drifted off to sleep and I slept for twelve hours straight!
A few weeks later, I called my grandmother and asked her if she could send the CD to me so I could listen to it AGAIN! I found Jennifer’s voice very calming and soothing and I liked the journey with the bubbles a lot! As I continue to listen to the cd, I have never made it through the whole thing without falling asleep! I wanted to actually hear the whole thing, so I listened to it during the day a few times.
My sleep has definitely changed for the better from practicing Divine Sleep® Yoga Nidra with Jennifer’s recordings. I have also invited some friends to practice with me and they liked it too! School and life for children and teens can be very stressful and I am happy to have a new tool to practice with.
I wanted to tell you my story and so I asked my grandmother who works with Jennifer if I could share it here. I hope Jennifer will make another cd for children to listen to! Thank you Jennifer!
(You are very welcome Abby! My pleasure.
~Jennifer)
by | Sep 22, 2019
My life before yoga nidra looked like the following: stressed, impatient, overachieving in all areas of life, grasping, controlling, the start of physical ailments such as high blood pressure and ulcers, always thinking of the future rather than the present, self-doubt, and way too busy!
When I had finally had enough of that – I walked into my first yoga class as a graduate student – while at the same time holding down three jobs. In yoga practice, I immediately found ‘home’! I asked the teacher if I could stay for the second class that evening… and finding that my ‘home’ was inside of me, I feel as though I’ve never left my home again.
A year later I enrolled for the yoga teacher training program and began teaching alongside my instructor. As the years passed, my list of ‘problems’ disappeared, I began to realize that I was both practicing and teaching yoga postures in a way that could aggravate my intense type ‘A’ tendencies. I had been drawn to Ashtanga and vinyasa, but gradually I felt pulled towards meditation, and slower more mindful ways of practicing postures with Viniyoga and Kripalu yoga styles.
In 2006 I left my stressful corporate life and actually moved to Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in the Berkshires as a volunteer! I wanted to steep myself in the practice of seva yoga, which is selfless service. That’s when I experienced my first full yoga nidra with Jennifer Reis on one of my free afternoons and delighted in the magic of Divine Sleep® Yoga Nidra.
Never in my life I had I ever felt so grounded, balanced, and relaxed! I felt expanded and empty for the first time. I continued to practice regularly and it had tremendous effects on me. I began to ‘walk’ differently in the world. My life took on a clearer magnificence, deepened intimate connections with friends and family, with a greater openness to change and flow. I now have the ability to let go of unnecessary disturbances such as worries and anxiety. I am free!
After volunteering at Kripalu, I moved to Austin, Texas to lead teacher training programs at Yoga Yoga. A lovely teacher led yoga nidra each week at our studios, and I attended three times a week. That was back in 2007 and still to this day, yoga nidra and meditation are the core of my daily practice. I have been teaching yoga nidra and leading workshops in Texas and Louisiana since 2008.
I have Jennifer to thank from the deepest depths of my heart for introducing me to the practice that has changed my life! I have claimed it as my road to more love and connection in my daily experience. I feel that the practice of yoga nidra itself, IS my Guru-teacher! It has forever shaped me.
www.premascension.com
by | Aug 13, 2019
I have always been prone to anxiety. Over the years, I have experienced peaks and troughs in the level of anxiety in my life. I have also noticed over the last several years a kind of low-grade vibration of anxiety persisting underneath everything. It came to the point that I dreaded facing the day, talking to people, dealing with phone calls, and even talking to my family.
My yoga and meditation practices over the years have brought a lot of this to the light. Its also helped me release some of the angst, so I do not experience the high peaks of anxiety as much as I used to. However, even with my regular practices, the dread remained. And I thought it would be my companion for the rest of my life.
In the summer of 2017 this all changed when I first encountered Divine Sleep® Yoga Nidra when Jennifer came into my Yoga Teacher Training at Kripalu. I was immediately drawn to yoga nidra because it deeply relaxed and nourished me. I purchased one of Jennifer’s CDs to take the practice home with me. When the anxiety rose to uncomfortable levels, now I had a tool! I practiced Divine Sleep® Yoga Nidra and my levels would subside to that familiar underlying, low-grade hum. Again, that’s the best I thought it could ever be.
I was drawn to Jennifer’s Divine Sleep® Yoga Nidra 40-hour Teacher Training and traveled back to Kripalu last spring to attend. She guided us in beautiful yoga nidras every day, sometimes twice! In addition, we also guided each other through each of the various stages of Divine Sleep®.
Towards the middle of the week, I noticed something shifting: I felt easier and more free. And by the end of the training, I was walking on air! I WAS COMPLETELY FREE OF ANXIETY! It felt like whatever it was that I was dreading had completely evaporated! My heart was light for the first time in several years.
The feeling of lightness has not left me to this day, and I am still free of anxiety! I continue to practice every day during savasana pose after my yoga postures and breathing by listening to Jennifer’s recordings. On the days when I do not do postures, I still practice Divine Sleep® Yoga Nidra and breathing. I have noticed that practicing daily, as Jennifer recommends, has made the difference between occasional relief and lasting healing of anxiety for me.
When I returned home from the training, I started guiding Divine Sleep® Yoga Nidra right away in my yoga classes. My students love it! Jennifer’s training prepared me to write scripts and I now have written about ten scripts of varying lengths. I also find that as I am guiding yoga nidra, I too feel it in my body and mind, so I get the benefits as well! Now my students expect yoga nidra and they find it an enjoyable and healing component of the whole class. I am truly grateful for Jennifer and Divine Sleep® Yoga Nidra!
by | Jul 30, 2019
Before I started practicing Divine Sleep® Yoga Nidra I was running on empty. I was a very tired “Mom and Yoga Teacher” who was giving, giving, giving, and rarely was I refilling. I was searching for a quiet, gentle practice I could do daily to re-fill.
Becoming a yoga teacher was never in my plan. I worked for many years in arts and fashion and discovered yoga in the late 90’s while working in NYC. My yoga practice began purely as a physical one that I would do in my apartment in the early morning hours using various DVD’s. I practiced this way for many years – just doing the poses – but not practicing anything that was quiet or reflective.
When my family and I decided to move to the Chicago area, I was excited to explore the yoga studios and communities around my new home. My children were two and four years of age and that made me anxious to begin a more regular yoga practice again. I was the student who claimed I would “never teach” because I loved being the student so much! Teaching yoga never really crossed my mind.
Shortly after our move, I met a teacher I connected with, and felt encouraged to begin a yoga teacher training with the idea that it would expand my knowledge of yoga. However, in the teacher training, there was a huge shift for me, and I realized that I Ioved it all so much that I wanted to, and needed to share it with others and thus, I became a yoga teacher!
The first year of teaching yoga I put everything into designing and teaching well-rounded classes. I would come early to chat with my students and leave late when they wanted to hang around the studio after to talk. I taught classes at 6:30 AM and then again at 6:30 PM, in between staying home with my two young children, and teaching classes on the weekends as well. I would fill my schedule to get as much experience teaching as I could. Physically, I was still practicing on my own but mentally I knew I needed something more. What I was really searching for was a quiet, gentle, inner practice.
I eventually I trained in Yoga Therapy and began teaching a wide variety of populations from young children to seniors. While attending a Yoga Therapy conference, I had my first taste of yoga nidra. And it was so profound that exactly one year later I arrived at Kripalu Center for Jennifer’s Yoga and Deep Relaxation Retreat! With Divine Sleep® Yoga Nidra I felt I finally found the quiet, inner practice I needed and had been searching for.
I loved how Jennifer bases Divine Sleep® on the five koshas (the levels of being) as gateways within oneself to go deeper within to bring more awareness to my whole being. I realized the piece I was missing in meditation was the complete whole-being awareness that Divine Sleep® offers.
At the beginning of the retreat it took me two days to settle in, mainly because I was thinking about my summer “to do” list and the kids, who were in Cape Cod with their Dad – are they sleeping okay: are they putting on their sunblock… all the things I worry about as a mother. Our twice daily Divine Sleep® Yoga Nidras eventually quieted my mind, and I let go into a place of drop down and re-set. I really got that yoga nidra was something I not only wanted to do daily because I felt so good, but that I also need to do it.
Now, Divine Sleep® is essential for me as daily maintenance. As a yoga teacher, I need to have something I can do to quiet my mind so I can be present for my students. I know now that I cannot keep giving out energy without filling myself first. My daily yoga nidra practice has also allowed me to be more available for my family.
Now I’m able to be in three roles in one day – as the student practicing yoga nidra, and as the teacher and mother. Divine Sleep® Yoga Nidra simply reminded me of what I always knew – I am the most important student!
by | May 1, 2019
I was recently diagnosed with a rare Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Unlike most cancers while you may be at a Stage 4, they do not start treatments until symptomatic or a blood levels go off the chart, which is called ‘Watch & Wait’. The good news, I am on Watch & Wait, and I have learned not to get caught up in the ‘every-three-month blood tests cycle’ or the possibility that I could wake up tomorrow with one of the many symptoms.
I became a yoga teacher late in life when I was fifty-nine after experiencing a major reconstructive Achilles tendon surgery. During the two-year recovery, I could not find a yoga class that could accommodate my needs. It was extremely frustrating! So, I decided to get certified to teach classes with variations, modifications and props and lead them myself! I quickly realized 200-hours of training was a drop in the bucket, and I knew I needed continuous training to make sure I understood the best and safest options for my students.
During one of my sessions at Kripalu I had the opportunity to attend Jennifer’s Divine Sleep® Yoga Nidra and knew this was a great practice, as well as something that I wanted to learn for myself and my own healing, and also share with my students.
At this same time, I was also in the midst of retiring, downsizing my home and trying to start a yoga business. It was an absolutely nonstop time in my life and Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra become a very important practice for my own health and wellness. I rested and received each time I laid down for Divine Sleep!
Fast forward two years . . . I took Jennifer’s Divine Sleep® Yoga Nidra training and lead it regularly with my students. It has become a favorite for them, just as I knew it would be. My students all have all different perspectives from ‘yippee it’s time to rest!’ to those who experience deep inner relaxation and reflection. As a teacher, it’s an exciting challenge to write scripts, and I love going inward to capture all the steps and stages and also using my creative juices!
From a personal perspective, Divine Sleep has an important place in my every day practice with my cancer diagnosis. Divine Sleep is my refuge to stay relaxed and calm as I navigate this new normal. I actually was able to guide myself with focused breath awareness and body scanning (parts of yoga nidra) through a painful bone biopsy.
I listen to Jennifer’s healing journeys all the time, as well as practice self-Reiki which is a hands-on healing energy method. And because I am in Watch & Wait, while it is get extremely fatiguing, happily, I am still nonstop busy with my yoga and Reiki regime.
As I navigate this ‘new normal’ my self-care is extremely important and Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra has been instrumental helping me to stay relaxed and calm.
Thank you, Jennifer. You are an inspiration and I truly appreciate you sharing this wonder gift.
My sleep has definitely changed for the better from practicing Divine Sleep® Yoga Nidra with Jennifer’s recordings. I have also invited some friends to practice with me and they liked it too! School and life for children and teens can be very stressful and I am happy to have a new tool to practice with.
