YOGA NIDRA: help us bring a book to life

Excited to announce a book I am writing in collaboration with Theo Wildcroft, and to invite you to get involved with our research. Plus, one of my favourite poems.

WHY WE ARE WRITING THIS BOOK

We believe there is a real need for a guidebook on yoganidra that cuts through misinformation and mystification, and reassures facilitators and participants of all kinds that another, simpler, safer way is possible.

We aim to clarify and simplify yoganidra for yoga teachers, yoga therapists, hypnotherapists, and anyone guiding others in healing rest. The book will provide essential tools and techniques, backed by evidence, to help facilitators become confident and safe in creating and leading yoganidra practice.

The focus is on simplicity - not as a stepping stone to complexity, but as a core principle to make the practice inclusive and accessible. After a decade of refining our own practices, we’re ready to share how you can make this simplicity work for you.

HOW YOU CAN GET INVOLVED

We’ll be writing the book through 2025 and invite our Substack community to join us in research sessions.

From February to July, we’ll be holding monthly hour-long sessions discussing the history, science and practice of yoganidra (including the permutations of NSDR, and Somatic Dreaming), along with offering and discussing live yoganidra practices. Participants can access these recording by completing short quizzes. By joining us, you’ll be an active part in testing resources and bringing the book to life.

These sessions are free to our paid Substack subscribers, with whom we each regularly share our resources, research, and practice inspiration.

• If you are already a paid subscriber to either Field Notes or Theo’s Substack, you don’t need to do anything. You’ll get all the information a little closer to the time about how to attend or receive access to the recordings, if you would like to. No need to sign up.

• If you’re a free subscriber and not sure about a paid subscription, you can choose to participate later. If cost is a barrier, do get in touch with Theo or me. NB you don’t have to sign up to both our publications!

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Live Lab sessions (all 8-9pm UK time):

• 27 Feb 2025

• 27 Mar 2025

• 1 May 2025

• 29 May 2025

• 3 Jul 2025

• 24 Jul 2025

  

OH, AND HERE IS A FAVOURITE POEM

I always share this poem on yoganidra trainings and restorative yoga trainings, as we contemplate the nature of rest across species: The Peace of Wild Things, by Wendell Berry.

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Have a lovely day, thanks so much for reading, and I hope you can join us.

Beverley