Advanced Yoga Relaxations (Audio Download)

Rolf Sovik, PsyD

Focusing the mind and establishing a relaxed, one-pointed concentration is essential to deepening your yoga practice and moving inward. Yoga offers a system of relaxation that does more than help us unwind at the end of a long day—it helps us find balance and ease in life. By following these time-honored techniques, we learn to reset the clock of our body and mind.

Advanced Yoga Relaxations is composed of three traditional guided relaxation practices that will help you focus the mind while systematically relaxing your body and nervous system. These practices build upon the foundation of relaxation methods presented in Guided Yoga Relaxations (CD).

The practices included are as follows:

• The 31-Points Exercise establishes a steady focus at points in the upper half of the body, reducing the mind's tendency to wander.
• The 61-Points Exercise traverses the entire body and quiets the body, nervous system, and mind.
• The 75-Breath Exercise refines awareness of the breath and brings a sense of the deep connection between mind and body. It is one of the techniques used in yoga nidra (yogic sleep).

With meditation expert Rolf Sovik as your guide, you’ll be able to move through the relaxation process smoothly and easily. Rolf has been teaching people how to reduce stress, how to relax, and how to meditate for over 30 years. With Rolf’s soothing and calming voice, you’ll begin to connect to a still point within yourself, where the center of lasting peace resides. The benefits of relaxation extend far beyond making us better meditators—relaxation will also make us more peaceful, effective human beings in all dimensions of our life. Through yoga relaxation, we learn to embody the maxim: “Try less; be more.”

About the Author

President and Spiritual Director of the Himalayan Institute and a clinical psychologist in private practice, Rolf Sovik, PsyD, has studied yoga in the United States, India, and Nepal. He holds degrees in philosophy, music, Eastern studies, and clinical psychology. Former Co-Director of the Himalayan Institute of Buffalo, NY he began his practice of yoga in 1972, and was initiated as a pandit in the Himalayan tradition in 1987. He is the author of Moving Inward, co-author of the award-winning Yoga: Mastering the Basics, and a contributor to Yoga International.