Training
50-Hour Rest into Being Yoga Nidra Training with Eric Bennewitz
26.-30.11.2025 English
Training Overview
Who is this training for
This training is open to anyone who wants to balance their body & mind energies, deepen their personal meditation practice and/or teach Yoga Nidra professionally.
Yoga Alliance Certified
This training is certified as a Continuing Education Accredited Course with Yoga Alliance.
Educational-Leave Certified
This training is certified with the City of Hamburg as an Educational-leave course (Bildungsurlaub training).
Training Details
A practice for everyone.
This training is open to anyone who wants to balance their energies, deepen their personal meditation practice and/or teach Yoga Nidra professionally. It is a simple but deeply self-harmonizing practice based on ancient yoga traditions modernized by Swami Satyananda Saraswati and western science. Yoga Nidra is used today in yoga classes, therapy centers, counselling, post-surgery healing and other professions as a natural alternative or compliment to medical treatments and as a preventative medicine tool to promote and maintain body & mind health.
A simple explanation.
On the surface, Yoga Nidra is considered a deep relaxation practice. However, when practiced consistently, Yoga Nidra opens and connects you on much deeper levels, reduces and dissolves blockages in your layers of consciousness and ultimately dissolves your karmic past. It enables you to recognize and change negative habit patterns, thus enabling a more fulfilling life with more meaning and satisfaction.
Reduced Stress with Yoga Nidra.
It has been scientifically proven that stress is the main cause of many illnesses today. The practice of Yoga Nidra calms the sympathetic nervous system (fight-or-flight) and stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system (relaxation response). With consistent practice, you learn to activate your self-healing power, welcome, be and let go of emotions, recognize healthy habits and reduce negative states such as anxiety, insomnia, chronic pain or addictions. All of this happens in a state of deep, conscious sleep, without effort and without trying to achieve anything. The beauty of this practice is that ANYONE can do it. It's not about forcing change, but about uncovering, noticing and being with your past physical, emotional and mental tensions and negative barriers. Yoga Nidra opens us to the realization that we are already whole from the inside out.
This 50-hour training will give you the skills to better understand your own Yoga Nidra practice and to lead others through a Yoga Nidra practice with understanding, confidence and creativity. You will experience first-hand how Yoga Nidra inspires and enriches life.
Practicing and leading Yoga Nidra.
Eric's Approach - Accessible & Interactive.
Eric follows a traditional approach to learning and practicing Yoga Nidra. Students are guided through the meditation in 8 steps that refer to the 5 sheaths of being (koshas). In the training, participants first practice understanding, then experiencing, and finally leading themselves. The training uses visual, auditory, and kinesthetic methods to help students understand concepts more easily, making it suitable for all learning styles.
Yoga Nidra Training Content.
150+ page teacher training manual. Daily journal. Power Point presentation, flipchart and hand-outs. Yoga & Tantra Yoga asana & pranayama practices to prepare the body and mind for Yoga Nidra. Origins of stress and stress reactions in the body. Yoga Nidra history and philosophy. The 5 W's of Yoga Nidra. Levels of consciousness / Inner & outer mind. Effects of Yoga Nidra on the brain and nervous system. Understanding the 8 stages of Yoga Nidra. (Swami Satyananda Saraswati method). Understanding the 5 Koshas and their purpose in Yoga Nidra. What is a Sankalpa? Types and how to apply it in Yoga Nidra. Prana / Vayus / Nadis / Centers of Desire – Chakras. Definition and affects in Yoga Nidra. Understanding samskaras (life's past experiences and impressions). I-Ego vs. Cosmic Consciousness in Yoga Nidra and meditation. Preparation practices before Yoga Nidra. Practices after Yoga Nidra. Western science support for Yoga Nidra. (chemical, neurotransmitter & hormone reactions in the body). Effective voice use in guiding others in Yoga Nidra. Using soundscapes in Yoga Nidra. Finding inspiration for your own Yoga Nidra scripts. Creating suitable and simple scripts for various audiences. Dealing with student reactions during and after Yoga Nidra. Bringing it all together: Creating your own Yoga Nidra scripts. Partner and small group Yoga Nidra assignments. Personalized guidance & feedback from Eric.
Eric's Yoga Nidra Journey.
My Yoga Nidra roots are in Canada, where I grew up. There I studied with my first teacher Xenia Spawlinksi from 2008 to 2011. In 2010 I moved to Germany to teach yoga. I spent a few years studying Yoga Nidra with Jennifer Reis of the Kripalu Institute in America, where I further deepened my understanding of Yoga Nidra and yoga philosophies. During this time I began offering Yoga Nidra meditations in yoga classes and workshops in Hamburg. A few years later I was invited to lead Yoga Nidra workshops throughout Germany and in Canada. Through these experiences I developed a Yoga Nidra teacher training program that has continuously grown and transformed since 2012. Today I study with Peter Marchand (Tantric Nepalese Healing & Meditation from Belgium), who has been my spiritual teacher since 2018. Since Yoga Nidra uses many tantric practices, the teachings and practices I learn from Peter have deepened my Yoga Nidra and seated Ashtanga Yoga (Patanjali) meditation practices. It is my deep desire to share these experiences with you and anyone else interested in reconnecting and understanding the “user’s manual” that makes YOU, using the gift of Yoga Nidra. Regardless of your meditation experience, everyone is welcome to join my classes, workshops or trainings. It's about sharing and making the potential of Yoga Nidra accessible, whether you want to deeply relax, deepen your meditation practice or guide others in Yoga Nidra. I believe that Yoga Nidra is a very useful tool in today's fast-paced and complicated world. All you have to do is lie down and listen to the Yoga Nidra guidance without trying. Tensions will release, awareness will deepen, old internal programming will rewire, and perhaps you will reconnect with your true nature in a state of complete non-doing. In other words, it is time well spent for yourself to just "be."
Location.
Mattenplatz (Eilbek)
Pricing.
749,-€
Kind words. What people say...
The Yoga Nidra training was a true inspiration for me. After this detailed training, I truly understand it. Eric's training is unlike anything I've experienced before. He takes plenty of time to explain the individual stages in detail. Eric's knowledge and experience have deeply impressed and inspired me, and I think it's fantastic to now be able to write my own Yoga Nidra scripts. No one should miss out on such a wonderful practice, and in this day and age, I consider it essential for anyone seeking mental balance, reducing stress, and awakening their creativity. Nathalie M.