A practice to consciously explore wakefulness, dreaming, deep sleep, and the very structure of your emotional, mental, and energy bodies

* Details the simple postures of Yoga Nidra, breathing exercises and guided meditations, and tips for maintaining awareness in the liminal state that precedes sleep

* Includes four complete sessions as well as pointers for creating your own sessions

Known as the "yoga of conscious sleep," Yoga Nidra is an ancient Indian practice that allows you to consciously explore the states of wakefulness, dream, and deep sleep as well as your own psyche by combining deep relaxation with attentive awareness. Through Yoga Nidra you can directly observe and understand specific physiological, emotional, and mental processes within yourself as well as experience moments of great inner tranquility, joy, and well-being.

Providing a step-by-step guide to Yoga Nidra, Pierre Bonnasse details the simple postures of Yoga Nidra and includes preparatory techniques that work with breath and guided meditations to help you become an attuned observer of your inner world. Offering tips for withdrawing the senses and maintaining awareness in the liminal state that precedes sleep, the author explores how all practices in this discipline begin with a phase of relaxation and observation of breathing, followed by immersion into a very subtle awareness of the physical, energy, and mental bodies. The higher states of more advanced sessions focus on the energy body and its components: the chakras, nadis, and pranavayu, the vital breath and autonomic functions of the body.

Including four complete sessions as well as pointers for creating your own, Bonnasse shows how Yoga Nidra offers stabilizing, and therapeutic effects for the body, emotions, and thoughts. Connecting Indian and Western philosophical ideas, the author shows how sleep can be an opportunity to practice a form of yoga that changes not only our nights but every minute of our days.