In general, you are only operating in the conscious realm approximately 5% of your day. This is not a hard and fast line, rather, consider that even when you are fully present and conscious, there is a multitude of unconscious and subconscious systems at play, and when you are acting reactively and unconsciously, there is still at least a part of you that is conscious.
With that in mind, the majority of our time is driven by the powerhouse of subconscious habits and unconscious systemic operations beneath the veil, coloring what we perceive and how we feel. A problem arises when there is a lack of awareness, support or resources to understand how to intervene or regulate in moments of activation (i.e. when our body perceives there are more danger-in-my-system or DIMs than safety-in-my-system or SIMs).
For many of us, when something happens that increases DIMs, a cascade of changes happen to mobilize our system for action, such as: our heart rate increases, brain waves speed up, our breath shifts more to the chest as it quickens or becomes strained in an attempt to suppress some uncomfortable feelings arising, and our vision narrows, which also mirrors the narrowing in our perspective, perception of self and others.
On average, people are triggered into their fight or flight survival system 50-300 times per day, and this comes along with increased heart rate and subconscious behavioral platforms that, in service of our survival, use past experience to project meaning, stories and reactions onto the present moment. The more time you spend in your survival systems, the more your body acclimatizes to this way of being.
Once a system spends a considerable amount of time "out of balance," the wise body adapts around this "new normal" and a plethora of results can manifest (i.e. fast breathing at rest, IBS, hypertension, chronic insomnia, disease/cancer, ADHD, etc.), all of which make regulation, restoration and relaxation difficult, uncomfortable and seemingly out of reach. The bodymind now resists what it truly needs because it has familiarized and created homeostasis around an imbalanced state of being.
We are creatures of habit, and for good reason. Our brains are predicting what is needed moment to moment before we have fully captured the actual stimuli the moment offers. We use our past experiences to formulate how we should think, feel and act in the present. Hence 95% of what we think today, we also thought yesterday. We repeat what has "kept us alive" up to this moment, whether it is actually serving our highest good or not.
If we allow the subconscious system to be the main source of processing - which is what happens when we are not tuned into the present moment and mindful of the plethora of information arriving and being emitted through our various senses - we are then at the mercy of a system full of outdated programming and we fall into the trap of the illusion of separation and victimhood. Yoga Nidra is your invitation and guide to wake up.
I have created an online yoga nidra program to guide you through this complex practice. Stage by stage, each module is an exploration of the possibility and purpose in each part of the practice while learning how to link and integrate what has been ruptured within back into a repaired whole. The program starts when you register, and I am here for you if you need or want support along the way. It’s time to wake up to what is keeping you alseep.
“Rest is sacred. It is vital. It is non-negotiable. No longer think of rest as a long departure from more important work. Think of it as an integrated, continuous return to your deepest work: being all the way alive. The eternal ones understand us and whisper to us now: children, in every moment, no matter what you face, you can heal yourself with rest. Rest is a life skill. When you master it, you realize it is not a departure from your life. It is the soul of your life. A nurturing you do in the garden of each precious Breath and moment. Freedom.”
- Jaiya John, Fragrance after Rain