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

The Heart of Yoga Nidra book by Sagel Urlacher, Silver Medal Winner Living Now Book Awards

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.
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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 lead 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 this 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.
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An invaluable resource for yoga teachers, practitioners, wellness professionals, and anyone drawn to sharing Yoga Nidra—inside you’ll find:
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  • 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 integrated class planners.
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Go deep into the heart of Yoga Nidra.
Guide meaningful, transformative practices with confidence and skill.

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

“In The Heart of Yoga Nidra, Sagel Urlacher has written a comprehensive - even definitive - guide on how teachers can guide themselves and their students to deeper connection and balance through intentional rest. Here, readers will find everything they need to develop yoga nidra sessions that stay true to the spirit of the practice while also expressing the unique voice of each teacher who guides it and adapting to the unique needs of the students who follow it. This book is both wonderfully practical and deeply profound. It's joining Urlacher's Yin Yoga and Meditation as a textbook in my advanced studies yoga teacher training!”
Sage Rountree, PhD, E-RYT 500
Author of Teaching Yoga Beyond the Poses and The Art of Yoga Sequencing‍
“This is the book every Yoga Nidra teacher has been waiting for! With clear teachings, embodied practices, and guiding questions to help uncover your own unique voice, Sagel’s gentle presence will support and empower teachers in creating their own Yoga Nidra practices. This is the resource Yoga Nidra teachers will be coming back to time after time.”
Linda Snay, E-RYT
Yoga Teacher and Teaching Artist
“The Heart of Yoga Nidra is a luminous companion for teachers drawn to the art of sacred rest. This beautifully organized, teacher-centered guide makes the art of Yoga Nidra both accessible and immediately teachable. With clarity, care, and deep respect for lineage, Sagel weaves philosophy, language, and practice into a resource teachers can confidently use immediately.”
Alexandra DeSiato
Co-author of Teaching Yoga Beyond the Poses and Yoga Off the Mat
“The Heart of Yoga Nidra is a wonderful resource for teachers and dedicated practitioners of Yoga Nidra. In this comprehensive guide Sagel Urlacher skillfully describes the many facets of this deep practice, ranging from an exploration of energetics to scientifically looking at brain-wave states, understanding how healing of long-held emotional and psychological wounds can occur to how to eloquently craft Yoga Nidra scripts."
Aiyana Athenian
Founder/Director of ShivaShakti School of Yoga
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