Syria and the Mother Of All Sleep: Yoga Nidra

SHARE ...

Yoga Nidra literally means yogic sleep
Mother’s Day gifts of Yoga Nidra are helping The Circle of Health International keep the Al-Iman Hospital open in Syria

By Eileen Fleming

When we practice Yoga Nidra we are gifting ourselves and benefiting others.

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have been killed and eleven million displaced since the chaos began six years ago.

70-80% of Syrians hurt by recent chemical attacks and bombings were women and children. Most of the children caught up in the Syrian crisis have lost family members or friends to the violence.

Dr. Christine Latif, World Vision’s response manager for Turkey and northern Syria stated, “The children of Syria have experienced more hardship, devastation, and violence than any child should have to in a thousand lifetimes.”

A recent survey by World Vision concluded that American Christians are less likely to pray for and help refugees now than a little over a year ago.

I wonder HOW DO THEY SLEEP AT NIGHT?

This global citizen and American strives to do what Jesus taught and so, I would NOT be able to sleep much at all in the era of Trump, if it were not for the nightly practice of Yoga Nidra.

Any one can practice yoga nidra, you cannot do it wrong and one hour of yoga nidra reaps the same benefits as four hours of restful sleep!

A recent New York Times headline announced: Sleep Is the New Status Symbol by Penelope Green.

Green’s investigation reported on University of California’s Professor Matthew P.Walker’s “mission to reunite humanity with the sleep it is so bereft of.”

Green reported on expensive gadgets, gizmos, and APPS designed to induce restful sleep.

Green concluded that a $22.00, thirty-three minute “Deep Rest Class” she experienced at a meditation studio in Manhattan delivered her “the best sleep [she] had in weeks.”

The class Green participated in, is akin to the Yoga Nidra practice this reporter began practicing at least once a day since October 2013, after graduating from a ten-day yoga nidra immersion program at the Amrit Yoga Institute in Salt Springs, Florida.

Since then, I have sampled dozens of different facilitators and various forms of Yoga Nidra offerings.

The BEST I have found have been facilitated by another graduate of the Amrit Method of Yoga Nidra, Karen Brody

On her blog, Karen Brody wrote:

The Gift of Rest Supports Moms in Syria

Each year I look forward to offering The Gift of Rest for Mother’s Day because it gives moms permission to get some deep rest, the yoga nidra meditation kind.

According to Swami Satayananda Saraswati, “yoga nidra means sleep after throwing off all the burdens.”

I was thinking a lot about how The Gift of Rest for Mothers Day could help mothers rest, throw off those burdens, and also lift some burdens off of mothers who are experiencing extreme stress in a vulnerable part of the world.

That’s when I turned Sera Bond, mother of two and founder of Circle of Health International…

Sera’s nonprofit is one of the women-led organizations on the ground in Syria helping refugees who are mostly mothers and babies.

An estimated 200,000 women will get pregnant in the next 12 months in Syria.

The Al-Iman Hospital helps in obstetric emergencies and in other life-saving needs of mothers and babies.

In 2016, there were over 250 attacks on medical care facilities and, according to Jason Cone, executive director of Doctors Without Borders’ U.S. branch; these attacks are “part of the war strategy” in Syria.