I have to share a proud moment I've just had with my Yoga Nidra.
Yoga Nidra is a beautiful relaxation practice that involves a systematic rotation of bringing awareness through the body. Like all that we are learning with Being Yoga, the best way to learn is to practice, practice, practice at home. The first time when I attempted to lead my 8 year old son into a Yoga Nidra it was difficult to explain to him to bring awareness to each part of his body so I had to slowly touch each finger and toe etc to ask him to focus on them. This resulted in a fair bit of squirming (he is very ticklish), non-stop critiquing of my pressure ('that hurts, thats too tickley') and the odd request for a scratch 'cause you made my knee itchy.' Not the desired effect I was after. I admitted defeat and he was still wide awake for an extra hour at bed time.
Yoga Nidra is a beautiful relaxation practice that involves a systematic rotation of bringing awareness through the body. Like all that we are learning with Being Yoga, the best way to learn is to practice, practice, practice at home. The first time when I attempted to lead my 8 year old son into a Yoga Nidra it was difficult to explain to him to bring awareness to each part of his body so I had to slowly touch each finger and toe etc to ask him to focus on them. This resulted in a fair bit of squirming (he is very ticklish), non-stop critiquing of my pressure ('that hurts, thats too tickley') and the odd request for a scratch 'cause you made my knee itchy.' Not the desired effect I was after. I admitted defeat and he was still wide awake for an extra hour at bed time.
We recently had a UAE exchange student live with us from overseas and when we dropped Ahmed off to catch his flight home he told Dante he had left a surprise for him in the guest bedroom. Imagine my horror and Dante's glee when we got home to discover a room that looked like Willy Wonka's freaking Chocolate Factory. I told Dante he would need to ration his abundant supply - perhaps a few bites of chocolate here and a handful of lollies there.....for the next 10 years.
Last night I was distracted momentarily with household tasks at his bedtime when I suddenly spotted him on the couch with an espresso glass full of skittles. I just about pole-vaulted the kitchen bench to jump over and try to calmly explain 'ok I need you to only eat 3 more or you are going to have a horrible time getting to sleep with all that sugar buzzing around your body'. Negotiating with a child on the spectrum can be as difficult as disarming a bomb at times - especially if you interrupt something they really love doing.
He turned to me and said 'oh but that's not fair, you can just do that relaxin' yoga and I'll go to sleep'.
Feeling quietly confident of another epic fail I bundled him into bed, read a book then tried my yoga Nidra again, carefully explaining that he was to relax and not talk while I would do my best not to tickle him.
A miracle occurred - other than a couple of initial squirms and smirks I could see him slowing his breathe and relaxing. Twenty minutes of Nidra practice later I kissed him goodnight and tiptoed out of the room waiting for the usual 'I have to have a water, I need to pee, I want to have another story, what time are you going to bed?' etc but nope I was met with complete silence - bliss!!
Yoga Nidra = 1 - Skittles = 0
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