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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 cover by Sagel Urlacher.

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

Deepen your practice. Guide meaningful, transformative Yoga Nidra with confidence.

Enter the heart of Yoga Nidra—a luminous practice of deep rest and renewal that invites us to turn inward, connect with our innate wholeness, and experience the simple joy of being.

Rooted in timeless yogic wisdom, this guide offers everything you need to skillfully and confidently lead meaningful and transformative Yoga Nidra sessions while deepening your own practice. Bridging traditional yoga philosophy with modern neuroscience, it reveals both the why and the how behind the practice—offering a clear framework, sequencing, and practical tools for guiding sessions that are attuned to your students’ needs.

Understanding the wisdom, structure, purpose, and many possibilities of Yoga Nidra helps us bring our sessions to life and make skillful choices in how we guide. That understanding lies at the heart of The Heart of Yoga Nidra.

You’ll find step-by-step guidance for leading each stage, adapting existing scripts, and developing your own to reflect your authentic voice. Experiential practices help you embody and integrate the teachings. Trauma-informed, inclusive principles equip you to adapt the practice and meet your students where they are. As your relationship with Yoga Nidra grows, you’ll bring each session to life through intentional choices and responsive guidance.

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

  • A comprehensive framework for understanding how Yoga Nidra works—and how to adapt, create, and guide transformative practices.
  • Step-by-step guidance for every stage of Yoga Nidra, including its purpose, sequencing, and sample language.
  • The science of deep rest and how Yoga Nidra supports nervous system regulation, builds somatic resilience, and fosters healing.
  • Trauma-informed and inclusive practices for holding supportive space across the spectrum of experience—from restlessness and emotional release to integration.
  • Tools for skillfully and safely tailoring Yoga Nidra for different experience levels, intentions, durations, and settings.
  • An exploration of the koshas as a map for wholeness, self-discovery, and the joy of being.
  • Practical instruction for adapting existing scripts or writing your own stage-by-stage, including how to weave themes and imagery, work with sankalpa, and draw on a library of symbols mapped to the stages.
  • Intentional language and responsive guidance for navigating real-time teaching.
  • Reflective invitations and pauses to explore your inner landscape and deepen your experience of sacred rest.
  • Yoga Nidra scripts of varying lengths, body scans, breathwork, chakra elements, and integrated class planners for personal practice and teaching.
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Deepen your practice. Guide meaningful, transformative Yoga Nidra with confidence.

Accessible to practitioners and teachers at all levels, The Heart of Yoga Nidra is an essential yoga teacher training resource and a lifelong companion as you deepen your practice, prepare your sessions, and guide transformative Yoga Nidra.

“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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