Restoring Yourself through Yoga Nidras with Dora Chan

In this episode Dora enlightens us about the practice of Yoga Nidra and what it can offer. A former scientist, Dora, now teaches the meditative practice of Yoga Nidra to help people reflect, relax, and understand who they are at the core of their being. Listen to find out how Yoga Nidra and integrated restoration practices can help with anxiety, insomnia, and depression. Dora also shares how to connect your practice into your daily life.

Dora Bio: Dora is an Aussie living in California who has navigated through tremendous stress and challenging health conditions in her life. These struggles led her to Yoga and Meditation, tools that have been guideposts on her own healing path and she now uses in services of others. Dora has a PhD in Immunology, is a Reiki Master, Holistic Nutritionist, and Yoga Teacher with extensive certifications and experience in modalities including Yoga Nidra, Yin Yoga and Restorative Yoga. Her passion is in integrating holistic approaches to help others in living more fulfilling lives.

Connecting with Guest Dora:

Dora’s Website: https://www.dorachanyoga.net/

Dora’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dorachanyoga/

Dora’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dorachanyoga

Dora’s Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorachanyoga/

Dora’s Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqS_zgQ37EtTYthejzTqKWw

Connecting with Host ElizaBeth:

ElizaBeth’s Website: https://www.energyhealingelizabeth.com/

ElizaBeth’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bethalexanderfitness/

Free Intro to Energy Hygiene Course: https://www.energyhealingelizabeth.com/offers/baCryudm

Quotable:

7:30 - Yoga really means to unite. And what it means to unite is how can we reconnect back to ourselves to that deepest and truest part of ourselves. How do we reconnect with our essential nature? And when we are reunited with our true selves we are awakened too.

8:50 - Yoga Nidra, you can think of it as meditation and it’s almost like, you know how when you get to the end of a yoga class you are often cued to come to a restful pose, the savasana pose where you lie down for the last 5 - 10 minutes of class? So Yoga Nidra is sort of like a guided meditation in savasana.

13:54 - Maybe I’m relaxed but okay, what does relaxation feel like as a physical sensation? And they’re like, “oh, I don't know what you mean by that!” And so yoga nidra will give you some guidance as to where you're feeling it. When you say relaxation for example, do you feel it in your belly, do you feel it in your chest, do you feel it anywhere else? Is it localized, is it in your whole body? Is it heavy, is it light? Is there a temperature to it? And so it kind of just helps you to think of sensations in a whole new way.

26:35 - It (Yoga Nidra) has been shown to help with depression, it's shown to improve anxiety and even more so than other types of seated meditation.

30:00 - The yoga asanas were only done so that we can prepare the body to go into deep meditation for hours.

37:50 - We’re not trying to clear out your thoughts. We’re not saying you need to focus on this or you need to focus on that, in fact, our philosophy is “how can you be open to all that is around?” And curiously what happens is that when you become open to what's around, it becomes background.

43:50 - The whole point of the practice