You may have noticed. The New Moon... The Full Moon... The Dreamweaver(Only getting dreamier!)... 3 weeks. 3 public Nidras. A few very special commissioned ones in between. 3s keep following me around lately. Whenever that happens, I pay attention to foundations. What's being built? What needs stability? So I'll ask you the same thing.

You can consciously want change and still feel like something inside you hasn’t caught up yet. That’s where Sankalpa can become such a powerful part of Yoga Nidra. A Sankalpa is often translated as an intention or resolve, but it goes deeper than a typical affirmation. It is a heart-led declaration that reflects something you already know, or are beginning to recognize, as true at your core. It can sound like: ‘I am safe.’ ‘I am enough.’ ‘I trust.’ ‘I choose peace.’ ‘I allow support.’ ‘I return to myself.’ During Yoga Nidra, the mind becomes deeply receptive. Repeating your Sankalpa in this state can help reinforce new beliefs and patterns beneath the surface, especially when your conscious mind knows you want change but older subconscious conditioning is still running the show. You do not have to use an 'I am' statement. Your Sankalpa can begin with 'I am,' 'I choose,' 'I trust,' 'I allow,' 'I welcome,' or simply 'I.' The words matter less than the truth beneath them. Choose something simple. Something you can return to. Something that feels like a deeper remembering rather than a performance. @Rawl O'Neal

Radical acceptance gets mistaken for giving up. It's the opposite... it's the only stable ground you can actually build change from. Who's in a season of change and needs to hear this today? In yoga nidra and in somatic work, we don't ask the body to perform peace. We ask it to notice what's actually here [ the tightness, the grief, the relief, whatever it is ] without rushing to fix or judge it. That noticing, done consistently, is what starts to shift the nervous system out of survival mode and into something more spacious. This is the heart of what I teach inside the Nova Nidra Teacher Training: how to hold that kind of space for yourself FIRST, so you can hold it for someone else without borrowing their nervous system's alarm. It's not a small skill. It might be the most needed one right now.

Life handed me an unexpected lesson in my own medicine this week. After yoga class, I fell riding home and broke and twisted my pinky finger. I'm now in a fairly dramatic hand brace, and I've got a specialist visit next week — fingers crossed (the ones that still bend) that we can avoid a full cast. So here's the irony I'm sitting with: I teach rest and restoration for a living, and now my body is asking me to actually practice it. I'm leaning on Yoga Nidra to help my nervous system settle, support the healing, and keep me company through the discomfort. It's humbling and kind of beautiful to be on the receiving end of the work. A practical note: Tidal Hearts Yoga Nidra won't release tonight as planned. The fall caused some technical difficulties on my end, so I'm giving it the time it needs to come out right. Thank you for your patience. If you've got a prayer or a good thought to spare, I'll happily take it. 🙏

We are all on a unique path to discovering deep rest! Share your experience here! 1. How did you discover Yoga Nidra/NSDR!? 2. How did you land in the Nova Nidra Community?