So while we can learn them in a weekend, or a week-long format, we want to keep practicing them and really integrate them and they become just natural tools we have in our arsenal, we might say, as a human being. It does take, obviously, a lifetime to really put the tools into place. So, I’ve been able to find a way of adapting these ancient teachings into a simple 10 Step program, that’s easy to learn. I have found it accessible whether I’m in a homeless shelter, or a VA setting, a chemical dependency unit, or at a Buddhist, yoga, or just regular Christian Center. And that’s really how the teachings arose.īack in the 1970s, as I was introduced to these very ancient wisdom teachings, I began to look at how I could bring them, in a very secular manner, to the people I was working with―because I was working with a lot of different populations. And yet we feel that innate sense of ground within us from which we can meet the situation. No matter the circumstances we may find ourselves in, whether we’re in comfort or discomfort, we might be in chronic pain and illness, we might be facing really challenging situations. So yoga nidra would be an application of meditation where we are able to feel that unchanging aspect of being and well-being with a sense of equanimity and joy. Technically, from Sanskrit, it means “sleep,” but it means a changing state of consciousness. We’re an integral interdependent aspect of everything that we see and touch and feel in the world around us. Yoga in the sense that we understand both our sense of connection with ourselves and the world around us―that we’re not separate. It originates from a very ancient teaching that’s called yoga nidra. This gives me an access point for any population. And I can go into a yoga setting and call it yoga nidra. I can go into a Buddhist setting and call it meditation. So then I can go into a VA setting and call it iRest. So I like to call it Integrative Restoration or iRest meditation. Restoration because it restores us to an innate inner felt sense of being that transcends the personality and gives us a solid foundation from which to meet each moment from a place of equanimity, an innate sense of peace, and an indestructible sense of well-being and joy.īack in 2004, when the military asked me to name the actual original protocol, I came up with Integrative Restoration and iRest as a short acronym, where the small “i” or the ego and the sense of Self is in its proper position. They’ve learned the tools of how to meet every emotion or thought, or both personal and interpersonal situations they may find themselves in as a human being. Integrative because I feel it helps integrate a person’s psychology so that they become friendly with their body, their senses, their emotions, their thoughts. To start, could you give a description of what iRest or Integrative Restoration is and what yoga nidra is? Since we last met, I attended a retreat you gave in May 2022, and I’ve completed the iRest Teacher Certification program. I was also curious about using iRest with veterans, particularly the concept of the inner resource―a sense of inner support that many traumatized people lose connection with. I was interested in the background resources that iRest grows out of and you gave me a number of references. We first met in 2015 when you were in Seattle for a conference and we met at a café for a chat. In addition to his research and writing projects, Richard lectures and leads trainings and retreats internationally. Richard is the founder of iRest Institute, co-founder of The International Association of Yoga Therapy, founding editor of the professional Journal of IAYT, and was a founding member and past president of the Institute for Spirituality and Psychology.Īuthor of Yoga Nidra: The iRest Meditative Practice for Deep Relaxation and Healing and The iRest Program for Healing PTSD, Richard serves as a research consultant studying the iRest Yoga Nidra protocol that he has developed (Integrative Restoration ~ iRest, a modern adaptation of the ancient nondual meditation practice of Yoga Nidra) researching its efficacy on health, healing and well-being with diverse populations including active-duty soldiers, veterans, college students, children, seniors, the homeless, the incarcerated, and people experiencing issues such as sleep disorders, PTSD, chemical dependency, chronic pain, and related disorders. Among his mentors were Jean Klein, T.K.V. For over 40 years, Richard Miller has devoted his life and work to integrating the nondual wisdom teachings of Yoga, Tantra, Advaita, Taoism and Buddhism with Western psychology. Founder of iRest Institute Richard Miller, PhD is a clinical psychologist, author, researcher, yogic scholar, and spiritual teacher.
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