Hatha Yoga

Hatha Yoga is the path of physical yoga, also known as body postures. Among all forms of yoga, Hatha Yoga is probably the most well-known in our Western society.

The physical postures work systematically on every part of our body—stretching and harmonizing the muscles and ligaments, making our spine and joints more flexible, improving blood circulation and digestion, and massaging the internal organs, glands, etc. The postures are designed to regulate the physical and mental functions of your body. By practicing these postures, your body becomes more relaxed, stronger, and more energetic. These postures always go hand in hand with conscious breathing. The proper way of breathing ensures improved oxygen and energy circulation in your body. By synchronizing movement and breath, they become harmonized and feel like one.

Releasing muscle tension and calming the entire body has a soothing effect on the nervous system, thereby promoting inner peace. Practicing yoga is beneficial for your body and, at the same time, contributes to spiritual and mental growth.

Yoga helps us explore and understand ourselves, to consciously listen to our "gut feeling," our intuition, and our body. Every exercise or posture can be adapted to your specific needs. The whole idea behind it is that you learn to recognize your own limits—so you don't twist yourself into a pose that might even harm your body. And those limits are different for every individual and can even vary from day to day for the same person. One thing you must always remember: you should always be gentle with yourself and your body.

Yoga Nidra

Often, our brains remain stimulated right up until the moment we go to sleep. We're still lying in bed with our mobile phones.

As a result, your brain doesn’t get the rest it needs—even during sleep. In fact, even more thoughts and worries arise because your brain is no longer distracted by the stimuli. That is exactly why many people wake up feeling tired and unrefreshed.

The quality of sleep is poor because the brain remains highly stimulated right up until bedtime.

Yoga Nidra systematically guides you toward complete relaxation—a relaxation the body needs to release tension and recover physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Preparation

Ideally, Yoga Nidra is practiced in Shavasana: lying flat on your back, palms open beside your body, eyes closed. For the deepest relaxation possible, it is important that the body remains still and you do not move until the end of the practice. In this phase, the first relaxation of body and mind begins through gradually becoming aware of inner silence, starting by shifting attention from the outside to the inside. There is conscious relaxation of the physical body and observation of the breath. You are reminded to stay alert and not fall asleep.

Sankalpa (affirmation)

Setting an intention—a resolution. You formulate something positive that you want to achieve in a short, affirmative sentence from within yourself and repeat it in your mind three times. It's like a seed that is deeply planted in your subconscious while your mind is calm, relaxed, and ready to absorb. This seed will germinate, helping us make the changes we want in our lives.

Examples might be:
– I live calmly and peacefully
– I am healthy
– I am positive
– I am the best version of myself
– I am full of confidence

Rotation of consciousness

You are guided through the different parts of your physical body, visualizing them and mentally repeating their names. It moves quickly so that your attention shifts constantly, helping you create a state of complete relaxation in both body and mind.

Breathing

In this phase, we focus specifically on the breath. You become aware of your natural breathing.

Contrasts – awareness of sensations

Invoking opposing sensations in your body—such as warmth versus cold, lightness versus heaviness, and pain versus pleasure. In these pairs of opposites, we practice detachment. This gives you the strength to take a step back, not to cling to feelings and emotions or get entangled in them, but to let them come and go. You learn to observe what is happening within yourself without fear. You discover that warmth and cold are simply warmth and cold, not 'good' or 'bad'—they are just what they are. Similarly, pain and pleasure are simply pain and pleasure: you learn to experience them without judgment, without tensing up in pain or holding on to pleasure. In the process of creating, developing, feeling, and releasing emotions, you come to understand that these feelings are transient—they come and go, and are not permanent. You learn that “it is what it is.”

Inner space

In this part, you direct your attention to the inner space—chidakasha—the space behind your closed eyelids. You observe as a neutral onlooker, a detached observer. In this space, images can arise from your subconscious or your intuition. Sometimes, a specific visualization is associated with this.

Visualisation

You visualize the images that are mentioned, presenting them clearly in your mind. These may be landscapes, rapidly changing images, a story, the chakras, or something else entirely. The content of the visualization varies. Practicing visualization develops self-awareness and relaxes the mind by purifying it of disturbing or painful experiences from the past and leading to concentration. The visualizations connect you with your creativity by using your imagination to create and develop images and stories. Working with visualization in Yoga Nidra, when we are open and receptive and our imagination can move freely, helps us to acknowledge and let go of painful things from the past and opens us up to new experiences.

Sankalpa

You are reminded of your sankalpa, and you mentally repeat your own sankalpa three times with feeling and conviction.

Closing

Gradually, your awareness is brought back to the external world, and you become conscious of the space around you, the sounds, and the people, as the Yoga Nidra session comes to an end.