Yoga Nidra and Intuitive Art Creation - Why join the two?

What is intuitive art creation and why practice it?

We only need to look at nature with its cyclic rhythm to recognise that there is an innate creative potential in all of us. As children, it was instinctive to express ourselves and learn about the world through drawing, colouring or storytelling. But we often have the tendency to lose this need to create or it is pushed into the background by seemingly more pressing matters of adulthood. However, creating art in its various forms can have abundant benefits in our lives.

Through the process of art making we can explore and approach challenges in our lives that relate to body, mind and/or spirit. Especially where words fail to express the complexities of our inner experiences: worries, fears, anxieties, traumas stored in the body. Art making can also be a powerful method of self-understanding and self-expression, and the process itself can be cathartic and thus promote healing. Much like our yoga practice.

How does Yoga Nidra and intuitive art creation connect?

I often include Yoga Nidra in my classes, as it is undoubtedly one of my personal favourites. Yoga Nidra can be an excellent practice to activate the parasympathetic nervous system (“rest and digest“), which brings on deep relaxation on all three planes: physical, mental and emotional. Apart from it being a simple, but efficient method of complete relaxation that helps most practitioners to sleep better, I find it to be one of the most effortless methods that can allow us to be in a meditative state and experience a calm(er) mind. We are, of course, all unique in what we enjoy practising, and what works for each of us can be different. Nevertheless, as this practice is so carefully structured, we only need to bring an open mind, and heart, to feel at least some of the benefits Yoga Nidra can offer - and there are many!

When it comes to well-being and health, which is also what yoga is about, at least partly, we sometimes talk about psychosomatic symptoms or illnesses, where our internal, mental or emotional tensions and conflicts cause certain manifestations or conditions in the body. Yoga Nidra is particular in that it takes the somatopsychic route to alleviate the internal stress, by resolving tensions first in the body, then moving through the subtler layers of our existence and soothing out the tensions in the mind. And again, this is only one of the many benefits this practice has to offer.

Depending on our physical, mental and emotional state, it can bring the deeper layers of the mind into the field of conscious experience. With this intention and after a thorough preparation, one can use imagery and symbols that sidestep the critical mind, and access something deeper within, which we might not have even been aware of.

When we combine this practice with intuitive art creation, we allow ourselves to create from this deeply relaxed state, from this place of inner wisdom. Our unconscious habits, conflicting ideas, unintegrated life experiences and inner contradictions can safely come to light so we can attend to them compassionately and with our fullest attention. Our intuition knows what is best for each of us, so we can let it guide us more gently, effortlessly, and more importantly, without creating animosity within ourselves.

So practising Yoga Nidra followed by an art session that encourages spontaneous drawing or painting from within can bring us closer to ourselves, shed light on what needs our attention the most in our lives, and in a more simple, yet spectacular way, it can bring us joy. The joy of creation. We can lose ourselves in the creative process, leaving our worries behind while we are being fully in the moment.

No formal art training is needed for these sessions.