Ever notice how someone on a particular day plants a “seed”, which sparks a trend, which then becomes a movement that takes off, capturing and sustaining attention around the world?
A case in point relevant to my yogic lens and worldview is that of a meditation practice called Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, typically referred to as MBSR.
This all began in 1979 when Jon Kabat-Zinn started a Centre for Mindfulness (originally called the Stress Reduction and Relaxation Clinic) for hospital patients and staff at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Since then MBSR has spread rapidly around the world and into mainstream Western culture, in particular due to numerous scientific and medical studies into the health benefits of this practice.
According to Kabat-Zinn mindfulness is about paying attention with “openhearted, moment-to-moment, non-judgemental awareness, best cultivated through meditation”. This practice has its origins in Buddhism dating back over twenty-five thousand years. Many students of Buddhist meditation find the practice to be profound, healing, and universally applicable. The same can be said of MBSR because of its inherent relationship to Buddhism.
So where am I going with all of this, you might ask.
Several months ago I watched a YouTube video called, “Master Your Sleep & Be More Alert When Awake” (Huberman Lab Podcast #2). I found it incredibly interesting, and even more so about an hour into the podcast when professor and neuroscientist Andrew Huberman began talking about something he called non-sleep deep rest, referring to it thereafter as ‘NSDR’, mentioning that he had never heard of this term before and was “planting a flag for NSDR, non-sleep deep rest”.
Huberman explained what he meant by non-sleep deep rest (it includes things like meditation, yoga nidra, and hypnosis — I would also add restorative yoga) and stated that NSDR, backed by neuro-scientific evidence, was likely going to begin to play a more prominent role in health and wellness, both mental and physical.
With all of the above in mind, lo and behold, a couple of weeks ago an email from the iRest Institute arrived in my inbox.
It highlighted the fact that Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, recently shared that he relied daily on a yoga nidra-based practice called non-sleep deep rest (NSDR) to “unwind and rest”.
Sound familiar?
And of course people have taken notice. Business leaders are adopting the practice of yoga nidra —whose origins can be traced to ancient Eastern spiritual teachings such as the Upanishads and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali — welcoming the practice as a “superpower” in the workplace. You can read the full iRest article here, which I encourage you to do.
Like MBSR the term NSDR has landed in popular culture. It’s now cool and trendy. Who knew? And to think that I recently started teaching yoga nidra, just ahead of the pack you might say.
If you happen to be interested, or perhaps curious, you can join me for FREE on Tuesday, June 7th from 10-11 a.m. for my last iRest Yoga Nidra Meditation class of spring 2022. Contact me and I’ll gladly send you the Zoom link.
I’ll soon be taking my usual summer break beginning on June 10th.
Classes will resume in September and I’ll be in touch with you again well before then.
With joy and gratitude,
Jeannine
