The Heart of Yoga Nidra: Teaching Yoga Nidra Through Sequencing, Language, and Guided Meditation for Deep Relaxation and Sacred Rest

SILVER MEDAL WINNER LIVING NOW BOOK AWARDS 2026
"A comprehensive—even definitive—guide, both wonderfully practical and deeply profound. It’s joining Urlacher’s Yin Yoga & Meditation as a textbook in my yoga teacher training!" —Sage Rountree, PhD, Teaching Yoga Beyond the Poses

Go deep into the heart of Yoga Nidra. Guide meaningful, transformative practices with confidence and skill.

This comprehensive, accessible guide takes you into the heart of Yoga Nidra and its many dimensions, so you can skillfully and confidently lead meaningful, transformative Yoga Nidra sessions and enrich your own practice. While a beautiful script can give us the words, understanding the why and the how behind the practice helps us bring it to life. This book gives you a clear framework and practical guidance, along with the tools you need to develop and guide profound sessions attuned to your students’ needs.

Grounded in yoga philosophy and informed by modern neuroscience, The Heart of Yoga Nidra offers an integrated understanding of the wisdom, structure, and many possibilities of this luminous practice of deep rest and renewal. Alongside this understanding, stage-by-stage guidance, practices for embodying the teachings, and trauma-informed, inclusive principles empower you to make skillful, intentional choices in how you guide.

As your relationship with the practice grows, you’ll discover its invitation to inner awakening, connection with your innate wholeness, and the simple joy of being—and create space for others to do the same.

An invaluable resource for yoga teachers, practitioners, wellness professionals, and anyone drawn to sharing Yoga Nidra—inside you’ll find:

• A Clear Framework: Understand how Yoga Nidra works so you can adapt, develop, and guide transformative practices with guidance for leading each stage—including its purpose, sequencing, and sample language.
• The Science of Deep Rest: Ground your teaching in the neuroscience of Yoga Nidra, seeing how the practice settles the nervous system, builds somatic resilience, and fosters healing.
• Yogic Wisdom & the Koshas: Delve into the philosophy of Yoga Nidra and explore the koshas as a map to illuminate the layers of our being, deepening your connection to your true nature.
• Script Adaptation & Creation: Adapt existing scripts or craft your own, stage by stage, to reflect your authentic voice and meet your students’ needs, using tools to weave themes and imagery, work with sankalpa, and draw from a symbol library.
• Trauma-Informed & Inclusive Principles: Hold a safe, supportive space for a full spectrum of experience—from restlessness and emotional release to integration.
• Tailoring the Practice: Tailor Yoga Nidra for any intention, duration, setting, or experience level. Learn to navigate what arises in real-time teaching with thoughtful, responsive guidance.
• Embodied Practice: Deepen and nourish your own practice while rooting your teaching in lived experience, with reflective inquiries, experiential pauses, and a personal practice pathway.
• A Practice & Teaching Toolkit: Ready-to-use Yoga Nidra scripts of varying lengths, body scans, breathwork practices, chakra elements, and class planners.

For practitioners and teachers at all levels, The Heart of Yoga Nidra is an essential yoga teacher training resource and a lifelong companion as you prepare, practice, and teach.

“This beautifully organized guide makes the art of Yoga Nidra accessible, immediately teachable, and offers a blueprint for teaching it with authenticity.”
—Alexandra DeSiato, co-author of Teaching Yoga Beyond the Poses

You may also enjoy The Book of Yoga Nidra Meditation Scripts and Yin Yoga & Meditation, complementary guides by bestselling author Sagel Urlacher.