What is iRest®?
Developed over a period of 30 years by Richard Miller PhD, iRest Yoga Nidra is a research-based meditation, relaxation and healing protocol. It offers a portal for awakening to your essential nature, deeply calming your nervous system and integrating difficult thoughts and emotions. A beneficial personal practice, iRest meditation is also a brilliant adjunct for healthcare and healing professionals.
Research shows iRest effectively reduces stress, insomnia, anxiety, depression, chronic pain and post-traumatic stress, and enhances joy, equanimity and well-being in daily life. iRest is short for Integrative Restoration. iRest is integrative because it helps to integrate unresolved emotions or trauma and restorative because it restores you to your true nature of wholeness.
iRest is a path of meditative self inquiry
- At a basic level, it provides the initial building blocks for a mindfulness practice in which one learns to stay present and alert.
- At an intermediate level, one learns how to meet challenging experiences, emotions or beliefs in order to integrate and go beyond them.
- At the highest level, iRest offers the teachings of the “end path” of direct realisation into one’s true nature as abiding peace, infinite calm, and interconnected wholeness.
Who was this training for?
Self-practitioners
- On a spiritual quest looking for pointers towards Awakening or simply longing for a greater sense of peace in their life
- Committed to healing their unresolved wounds and trauma
1-on-1 practitioners
- A yoga therapist, psychologist or other health professional wanting to offer their clientele an easy, accessible and trauma sensitive way to meditate and experience deep rest and relaxation
Group facilitators
- A yoga teacher looking for a deeper understanding of yogic philosophy, and/or to be able to offer guided meditation as part of their repertoire
- An educator passionate about teaching people, of all ages and populations, skills to help navigate the challenges of life.
Research and evidence align with first hand experience
The healing power of yoga nidra is becoming very well known. But not all forms of yoga nidra are created equal. iRest has enhanced the basic structure of yoga Nidra by adding several therapeutic steps to heighten its effectiveness for our western lifestyle and world view. iRest Yoga Nidra draws on Western psychology and present day neuroscience.
Much of the research on yoga nidra done in the west is on the iRest protocol specifically, and it suggests that iRest Yoga Nidra effectively reduces stress, insomnia, anxiety, depression, chronic pain, chemical dependency and post-traumatic stress.
Complementing formal research, iRest practitioners report a range of benefits to their day to day lives. Many people report enhanced personal relationships and a keener sense of self compassion that stimulates how they look after themselves generally: sleep, diet and exercise. Their feelings of everyday peace allow them to respond, rather than simply react, to life’s challenges.
What can I expect of iRest® Level 1 training?
This 5-day practical and experiential program teaches the research-backed 10-Step iRest Yoga Nidra Meditation protocol. It offers the tools and experience to deeply enrich your personal practice and teach iRest fundamentals to others. This is dedicated time to begin discovering your unwavering inner resource of wellbeing and to transform how you meet yourself, navigate life – and learn to support others to do the same.
You could support yourself and others to:
- Learn the 10-Step iRest Protocol to enhance meditation practice
- Foster wellbeing and cultivate resilience against burnout, stress, and anxiety
- Learn effective tools for skilfully meeting difficult emotions and beliefs in daily life
- Learn how to slow down and reconnect with true nature
- Develop and access an inner resource of wellbeing, ease, security, and peace
- Experience BodySensing in movement meditation for deep peace
- Practice BreathSensing for increased energy and deep relaxation
- Awaken to essential wholeness
Included in this training
- Teachings and discussion.
- iRest group practice.
- One to one iRest practice with a partner.
- The only physical yoga movements included are very gentle body sensing exercises.
- You will remain in control of your experience. If you are not comfortable with any of the practices, they can be modified.
Training schedule
| Friday 22 Sept | Registration: 8.15am Program: 8.30am to 6.30pm (90 minute lunch break) |
| Saturday 23 Sept Sunday 24 Sept Monday 25 Sept |
Program: 8.30am to 6.30pm (90 minute lunch break) |
| Tues 26 Sept | Program: 8.30am to 4.00pm |
Includes light morning and afternoon refreshments – fruit and teas.
Important: To receive a certificate of attendance designating you as a Level 1 Teacher-in-Training, you must arrive on time every day and you must attend all training sessions. Please arrange your schedule and travel to ensure your full attendance.
N.B. This training is not residential. This training schedule is subject to change.
Accommodation options
- St Josephs Baulkham Hills
900m walk from Norwest Metro
From $99.55 per night
Enquire (02) 9634 2317
- Rydges Norwest Sydney
1.4km walk from Norwest Metro, from $161 per night
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Recognition
This training counts towards iRest certification with approximately 30 CPD hours. These points are recognised by:
Yoga Australia
Yoga Australia accepts the certificate of Level 1 iRest training provided at completion as evidence for CPD points.
Meditation Australia
iRest training is registered with Meditation Australia.
Becoming a Certified iRest Teacher meets all the requirements to achieve full membership and be listed as a Meditation Australia Registered Meditation Teacher.
Certified iRest teachers can enjoy:
- A streamlined Meditation Australia membership approval by virtue of completing this registered program
- Listing on the Meditation Australia registered teachers pages
- Regular newsletters and updates
- The right to use the Meditation Australia Registered Teacher service mark.
On completion of Level 1 iRest training, you will be eligible to join Meditation Australia as a provisional member. For more information refer to Meditation Australia Membership.
Australian Psychological Society (APS)
Many past Level 1 participants have used the Level 1 training hours as CPD points.
Your facilitator: Fuyuko Saramura-Toyota
The Director of the iRest Institute Australasia, Fuyuko is a certified iRest teacher, senior trainer, retreat leader and supervisor/mentor. She has been assisting iRest training in North America for Richard Miller (founder of iRest) and other senior trainers for the past decade.
For the past 20 years, Fuyuko has been deeply committed to Awakening. Discovering iRest over a decade ago gave her a deeper understanding of living life in a non-dual way, in harmony with all of life. In 2013 she brought Richard Miller to Australia and commenced the first iRest training in Australasia. There are now over 400 teachers in the region utilising these teachings in health and healing professions, in yoga and meditation studios, community programs, prisons, schools, hospitals and more.
Fuyuko draws her joy and delight in life by loving all and serving all. Fuyuko is the ‘mother’ of iRest in Australasia to whom we owe a debt of gratitude for bringing these teachings to our part of the world.
Required and recommended reading
REQUIRED reading and listening
- Richard Miller, Yoga Nidra: A Meditative Practice for Deep Relaxation and Healing (book with audio CD).
RECOMMENDED reading and listening
- iRest Program for Healing PTSD – BookiRest Program for Healing Meditations with Richard Miller (audio recordings)
- Integrative Restoration—iRest: The Principles and Practice of Yoga Nidra (6-volume audio recording)
- iRest at Ease with Richard Miller (audio recording) or iRest at Ease with Kelly Boys (audio recording)
- Resting in Stillness (audio recording)
- Read an article by Samantha Kinkaid about Level I and II iRest Yoga Nidra trainings
- Read an article by Gemma Adams about the iRest Yoga Nidra Certification Program
About IRI
- To find out more about the Integrative Restoration Institute, please visit irest.us
- This iRest Yoga Nidra Level 1 Training is a requirement of the iRest Certification Program.
Full price $2,000
Early Bird $1,700
(until August 22, 2023)
Payment by direct deposit
If you’d prefer to use direct deposit to pay, or if you are registering for a group of people, you can deposit to:
Yoga from the Inside | BSB 112 879 | Account 469 915 128
Please send your bank receipt in an email to info@yogafromtheinside.com.au and provide the details of your registration.
Cancellation policy
- Prior to 30 days: 95% refund to cover CC transaction fees and admin
- 11-30 days before start of event: 75% refund
- 0-10 days before and after event start: No refunds but for exceptional circumstances
