Afterglow
I teach Yoga Nidra workshops and classes and create personalised Yoga Nidras for those who want support for a specific area —providing people with a safe and healing practice that helps them gently navigate their inner world as a way to process the experiences life offers us.
Afterglow Yogic Sleep (AYS) is my new podcast, designed to open these Yoga Nidras up to the broader community, making this type of work more accessible while also creating a platform to act as a resource for all.
The Yoga Nidras I create are informed by the concepts of Carl Jung and Internal Family Systems with the goal to provide meaningful, healing Yoga Nidras to all who seek a deeper relationship with themselves.
Each week’s theme will be delivered in two episodes; — a companion episode to give weight and context, — and the Yoga Nidra experience episode. Consider it the theory and then the practice.
Themes to expect — I move through a rhythm of: — forward reaching Nidras that let us, reflect, dream, create; — healing Nidras that cover specific concerns such as nervous-system resets, bereavement, chronic illnesses, miscarriages, and depression; — curiosity episodes that give us the opportunity to play with no outcome in mind; and — inner child check ins as this is a vital and under-addressed element of inner work.
What is Yoga Nidra
Yoga Nidra — the Yoga of Sleep — appears in the Indian texts; the Upanishads and the Mahabharata, as well as Buddhist Tantric texts, all describing it as a blissful state of conscious oneness or a divine sleep. In the 20th Century, the practice has been modernised and has become very popular to help with everything from general relaxation to healing complex post-traumatic stress disorder.
Today, Yoga Nidra typically refers to the state of consciousness between sleep and wakefulness, it can also refer to the technique of utilising the steps to go into the state. Within my Afterglow platform, it will most frequently be used to describe a stand alone experience of Yoga Nidra that I have designed around a specific theme.
As someone who reveres the works and applications of Jungian psychology and Internal Family Systems, I have evolved my Yoga Nidra technique to act as a vehicle powered by these two modalities. I find that this combination has a natural alchemy; creating a robust and intentional practice of inner work. This vehicle can drive us to any part of our inner landscapes, directed by important life themes — it will be these themes that make up the weekly podcast episodes.
Some people are hesitant of inner work and I can assure you that Yoga Nidra is a gentle practice and you are always fully in charge. I design my Yoga Nidras to be comforting and relaxing, and one of the best benefits of the companion episodes is to shine even more light onto the theme and give you context and value for the work being done during the Yoga Nidra.
What to expect — you will be gently led through a series of steps that prompt you to be aware of certain things such as sounds around you and your physical form — this is to create calm and nourish your body with praise — while bringing your attention into focus so as to engage with your unconscious. Then we will begin the Yoga Nidra that I will design to fit the theme — for example, it may be a Yoga Nidra on coping with a chronic illness and you will be told to picture yourself in certain scenes or to have a dialogue with your body. You will be gently led back into full conscious awareness, enjoying the afterglow of the experience.
Jungian Frameworks
The work of Carl Jung, is too vast to capture in a book let alone a paragraph, but for those new to him; he is one of the founders of modern psychotherapy and is considered unique in that his work goes beyond the realms of clinical psychology into linguistics, esotericism, mythology, and symobolism.
In addition, he brought us many concepts that have become commonplace in our culture today. Some that we will frequently refer to here, are the collective unconscious, shadow work, archetypes, the transcendent function, and individuation.
Each of these ideas will be explained where necessary as this work is intended to be accessible and I seek to avoid intellectually dense discussions, caring less about the analytical specifics and more about the feeling and the function.
That being said, Carl Jung’s concepts are incredibly profound and offer a remarkable lens through which we can make sense of ourselves and the world around us. While reading Jung may be a joyous experience for people, many find that his writing it too academic as he wrote for fellow analysts not for practitioners. If you have found this too, I recommend reading current Jungian analysts talking about Jung, rather than Jung himself; they provide more modern and relevant arenas for us to engage with his work. I have included a few below as suggested starting points.
Internal Family Systems
This relatively new model — often abbreviated to IFS — was developed by Richard Schwartz as a transformational take on traditional family systems theory.
IFS is the belief that we are made up of many different ‘parts’, some parts flare up as defences, some as compulsions, some are exiled and need to be brought back into the conscious sphere. IFS encourages us to operate more continually from our Self — with a capital S; a neutral and essential position that is better able to remain in balance, extending love and compassion to all parts.
Richard Schwartz asserts that there are no bad parts; no matter how dysfunctional our behaviours are — our parts are operating with good intentions, even if misguided or in great need of evolving.
The benefits of IFS is that it is much quicker than traditional talk therapy and it blends extremely well with Jungian concepts.
Reading Suggestions
Jungian
Women who Run with the Wolves, Clarissa Pinkola Estés
Romancing the Shadow: A Guide to Soul Work for a Vital, Authentic Life, Connie Zweig and Steve Wolf
Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Carl G. Jung
The Scapegoat Complex: Toward a Mythology of Shadow and Guilt, Sylvia Brinton Perera
Inner Work: Using Dreams and Active Imagination for Personal Growth, Robert A. Johnson
IFS
You Are The One You've Been Waiting For, Richard C. Schwartz
Introduction to Internal Family Systems, Richard C. Schwartz
No Bad Parts: Healing Trauma and Restoring Wholeness with the Internal Family Systems Model, Richard C. Schwartz
This is a short list for those who are interested in Jung or IFS.
If enough people request it, I would consider starting a book club.
This individuation work
“Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside — dreams; who looks inside — awakes.”
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
―Carl Jung
