Life can be hard. iRest can help.

iRest is a simple and accessible form of meditation designed for modern day living.

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Our goal is to make your life a little better, day by day.

Backed by extensive research, iRest can help people navigate all of life's challenges and enhance one's sense of well being and peace.

Benefits of iRest

Improve Sleep

Sleep better with iRest

Your body and mind know how to fall into deep and nourishing sleep. iRest gives you simple tools to revive these natural abilities, improving your capacity for sleep and enhancing the quality of the sleep you get.

How does iRest improve sleep? Practicing iRest can help you fall asleep more easily and experience more restful sleep throughout the night. If you wake during the night, following the steps of iRest can induce the deep relaxation needed to get back to sleep. During the day, iRest ‘naps’ of only 10 or 20 minutes can help you fall into short periods of restful sleep, so you awaken refreshed and ready for the rest of your day.

Research shows that people with sleep problems who practice iRest experience more time asleep than those using other methods. Whether insomnia or sleep deprivation are the result of life’s daily demands, shift work, parenting young children, health problems, anxiety, trauma, or any other condition, iRest can help.

Try a Quick iRest

iRest is typically taught as a guided meditation. Below you will find samples of iRest meditations you can listen to guided by Richard Miller, PhD, creator of iRest. These recordings are designed for everyone; both experienced iRest practitioners and newcomers alike.

8 minute iRest practice for a restful nap
20 minute iRest practice for deep and restful sleep

Resolve Trauma

Restore Peace with iRest

With iRest, you will discover that you have an indestructible inner resource of strength, calm and ease, no matter what you have experienced in the past or what challenges you face now.

 

How does iRest resolve trauma?

iRest is an evidence-based form of guided meditation that has been shown to resolve symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The simple steps of iRest (which have been tested in clinical trials) calm the nervous system, release stress, increase resiliency and restore a sense of balance and control.

iRest is easy to learn and can be practiced by anyone. Even short practices of 10 or 20 minutes can bring about a sense of calm and ease and the ability to face difficult or stressful situations.

There are currently iRest programs in active duty military and Veteran’s Health Administration medical facilities across the United States, as well as in correctional facilities, hospices, homeless shelters, clinics and schools around the globe. Based on current studies with iRest in the military and veteran community, the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury recognizes iRest as a Complementary and Alternative Medicine warranting continuing research for its use in the treatment of post-traumatic stress.

Try a Quick iRest

iRest is typically taught as a guided meditation. Below you will find samples of iRest meditations you can listen to guided by Richard Miller, PhD, creator of iRest. These recordings are designed for everyone; both experienced iRest practitioners and newcomers alike.

5 minute iRest practice for alleviating stress and anxiety
10 minute iRest practice for feeling at ease

Relieve Chronic Pain

Alleviate Chronic Pain with iRest

With iRest meditation, people have found relief from chronic pain that medication and other pain-management programs are unable to resolve.

How does iRest alleviate Chronic Pain?

With iRest meditation, people have found relief from chronic pain that medication and other pain-management programs have been unable to resolve. A scientific study has shown that iRest reduces the intensity of pain and the extent to which pain interferes with daily life.

iRest is easy to learn yet powerful - It works by enabling you to deeply relax, focus attention, experience the underlying calm and wellbeing that is already present in your body and mind, and begin to understand pain rather than just resist it. iRest has historically been endorsed by the U.S. Army Surgeon General as a form of complementary and alternative medicine for addressing pain management.

Anyone can learn iRest, and you can practice it wherever and whenever you need relief.

"I suffer from chronic pain as a result of nerve damage from brain surgery. … Since beginning my practice of iRest, I have been almost pain free, and when I have needed medication, it has been much less than before. … I feel as if I have my life back…”

- Marci Alegant, participant at an iRest Retreat

Try a Quick iRest

iRest is typically taught as a guided meditation. Below you will find samples of iRest meditations you can listen to guided by Richard Miller, PhD, creator of iRest. These recordings are designed for everyone; both experienced iRest practitioners and newcomers alike.

5 minute iRest practice for alleviating stress and anxiety
10 minute iRest practice for feeling at ease

Cope with Daily Stress

De-stress with iRest

Everyone needs a way to feel at ease when life gets tough. iRest helps you discover a place inside yourself that is calm - even when life is not.

 

How does iRest alleviate stress?

If you're looking for a way to feel at ease when life gets challenging or overwhelming, iRest can help. It's a simple, easy-to-use form of guided meditation, designed for modern day life, that can be practiced anywhere, any time. With iRest in your back pocket, you can take a break and recharge your inner battery. iRest helps you see situations from a fresh perspective and find your equilibrium no matter what life throws your way. It's simple, yet powerful, even when practiced for as little as 10 minutes a day.

 

Try a Quick iRest

iRest is typically taught as a guided meditation. Below you will find samples of iRest meditations you can listen to guided by Richard Miller, PhD, creator of iRest. These recordings are designed for everyone; both experienced iRest practitioners and newcomers alike.

5 minute iRest practice for alleviating stress and anxiety
10 minute iRest practice for feeling at ease

Decrease Depression and Anxiety

Experience Peace with iRest

Research has shown that iRest meditation is a complementary practice that can help relieve the symptoms of depression and anxiety.


How does iRest help with depression and anxiety?

Every person - no matter how troubled or overwhelmed - has the capacity to feel joyful, peaceful and secure.

iRest meditation can help you experience this every day. Through this simple but powerful practice, you can give yourself relief from troubling thoughts, and create an inner resource (or safe space) to explore and befriend your mind and emotions. You can do this anywhere, anytime.

Some people who suffer from depression or anxiety find it beneficial to do an iRest practice first thing in the morning, or just before going to sleep at night. Others find that a 10-minute iRest break during the day enables them to carry on with their work or responsibilities. Over time, regular iRest practice can help you see through the thoughts and perceptions that keep you from experiencing your true state of health, happiness and well-being all the time..

Try a Quick iRest

iRest is typically taught as a guided meditation. Below you will find samples of iRest meditations you can listen to guided by Richard Miller, PhD, creator of iRest. These recordings are designed for everyone; both experienced iRest practitioners and newcomers alike.

5 minute iRest practice for alleviating stress and anxiety
10 minute iRest practice for feeling at ease

Awaken to your True Nature

Awaken to your True Nature

You are healthy, whole and interconnected with all of life. iRest meditation can help you awaken to this understanding and integrate it into all aspects of your life, work and relationships.

iRest and nonduality

iRest is a 10-step meditation protocol embedded in an ancient 38 Stage yogic approach to meditation based on the teachings of nonduality. iRest supports you to awaken to your Essential Nature: the underlying Mystery that has given birth to the entire cosmos. These timeless teachings support embodying your full potential as an individuated human being, as well as recognizing your non-separateness with all of life.

The comprehensive spiritual teachings of iRest enable you to experience your indestructible ground of well-being. They teach how to resolve obstacles that stand between you and the recognition of your Essential Nature. And they support the realization of your inherent interconnectedness with all of life, in every moment, no matter your circumstance.

Try a Quick iRest

iRest is typically taught as a guided meditation. Below you will find samples of iRest meditations you can listen to guided by Richard Miller, PhD, creator of iRest. These recordings are designed for everyone; both experienced iRest practitioners and newcomers alike.

5 minute iRest practice for alleviating stress and anxiety
10 minute iRest practice for feeling at ease

Learn how iRest Trainings can help you.

We provide workshops, trainings, and certification for individuals wanting to hone their meditation practice, and professionals looking to integrate meditation skills and Yoga Nidra into their offerings.

Choose Your iRest Adventure

Military

iRest for Military

Whether you are an active duty service member, veteran, military family member or professional working with the military, iRest can help you address the unique challenges you face, whether related to adjustment back to civilian life, sleep issues, or Post Traumatic Stress.

Why iRest?

iRest is a simple 10-step protocol that is easy to learn and can be practiced anytime, anywhere. Its positive effects are supported by scientific trials and military based research. Many healthcare providers share the steps of iRest with clients who are active duty service members, veterans or military family members experiencing chronic pain, anxiety, depression, substance abuse, post-traumatic stress, and other conditions.

iRest can be practiced in short sessions of 10 or 20 minutes, to induce deep relaxation and leave you feeling refreshed and alert. It can also be used before bed, to ease your body and mind into restful sleep, even if you work shifts or are sleep deprived.

As an evidence-informed meditation protocol, iRest is being taught and shared in several military and veteran settings, such as through the Veteran’s Health Administration’s Whole Health Program, community based Vet Centers, Deployment and Reintegration Yellow Ribbon Programs, military medical treatment facilities, private studios offering programs for military and veterans, U.S. military installations, and foreign defense services such as the Australian Defense Force and Canadian and British Armed Forces. iRest has historically been endorsed by the U.S. Army Surgeon General and recognized by the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury as a form of complementary and alternative medicine.

If you'd like to learn more about how iRest can help military and veteran communities or share this information with people and organizations who could use these resources, please view, download, print, and distribute our official iRest Military and Veteran trifold brochure.

Try a Quick iRest

iRest is typically taught as a guided meditation. Below you will find samples of iRest meditations you can listen to guided by Richard Miller, PhD, creator of iRest. These recordings are designed for everyone; both experienced iRest practitioners and newcomers alike.

5 minute iRest practice for alleviating stress and anxiety
10 minute iRest practice for feeling at ease

Individuals

iRest for Individuals

iRest gives you simple tools to experience joy and peace, improve focus and clarity, and feel safe and at ease, even when life is challenging.

Why iRest?

iRest guided meditation is a modern adaptation of the ancient practice of yoga nidra, designed for people’s lives today. It is easy to learn and can be practiced anywhere, by anyone, even if you’ve never stepped foot on a yoga mat or tried meditation before.

You can practice iRest a little each day, or a few times a week. Ten- or twenty-minute guided audio sessions can deliver profound benefits and deep insight. There are longer sessions of 30―40 minutes, which you can practice on your own or at iRest events. iRest Teacher Trainings enable you to take your personal practice further, even if you never plan to teach or share the practice in formal settings.

Studies have revealed the effectiveness of iRest across multiple scientific trials, showing benefits for people with depression, sleep problems, trauma, chronic pain, while improving overall well-being.

Try a Quick iRest

iRest is typically taught as a guided meditation. Below you will find samples of iRest meditations you can listen to guided by Richard Miller, PhD, creator of iRest. These recordings are designed for everyone; both experienced iRest practitioners and newcomers alike.

5 minute iRest practice for alleviating stress and anxiety
10 minute iRest practice for feeling at ease

Yoga Teachers

iRest for Yoga Teachers

Learn how to incorporate guided iRest Yoga Nidra Meditation into your classes

Why Learn iRest?

While yoga nidra is sometimes thought of as simply a form of relaxation, it is so much more. iRest is a modern, 10-step adaptation of the ancient practices of yoga nidra. It is a complete path of yogic meditation, encompassing your heart’s desire, intention, and inner resource (Sankalpa); body and breath sensing; awareness of emotions and beliefs; and recognizing yourself as an undivided expression of life, full of wonder and delight.

Learning and practicing iRest gives you foundational skills to deepen your understanding of yoga - to embody and live yoga fully every day. It helps you integrate simple, proven approaches for enhancing well-being and health into your current teaching with groups and/or individuals.

iRest is supported by scientific research showing its benefits for stress, sleep, chronic pain, trauma, mental health, and other conditions. That’s why iRest has been embraced in healthcare, military, corporate, homeless, prison, and other settings around the globe.

Open a whole new doorway to yoga.

Try a Quick iRest

iRest is typically taught as a guided meditation. Below you will find samples of iRest meditations you can listen to guided by Richard Miller, PhD, creator of iRest. These recordings are designed for everyone; both experienced iRest practitioners and newcomers alike.

5 minute iRest practice for alleviating stress and anxiety
10 minute iRest practice for feeling at ease

Yoga Therapists

iRest for Yoga Therapy

Learn how to lead iRest Yoga Nidra Meditations for group and private yoga therapy sessions

Why iRest?

iRest teaches the heart of yoga therapy, for recognizing and embodying our inherent health, wholeness, and well-being. It offers you, as a yoga therapist, a vast array of tools for helping your clients awaken to their true state of health, healing, and well-bein

Yoga therapy relies on the art of listening, observing and inquiring.

iRest helps you cultivate these skills, enabling you to be fully receptive and creatively responsive to the needs of your clients during group and individual yoga therapy sessions. Studies have revealed the effectiveness of iRest across multiple scientific trials, showing benefits for people with depression, sleep problems, trauma, chronic pain, and many other conditions.

iRest Teacher Trainings have been designed to prepare you to respond and tailor the practice to your groups and work with individuals, with respect to their presenting issues. You learn specific group deliveries for helping clients respond to their sensations, emotions, and thoughts. During one-on-one sessions, in what are known as ‘co-meditation dyads’ – a unique feature of iRest – you learn how to directly address the needs of each client, with interventions that have proven to be empowering and transformational.

Try a Quick iRest

iRest is typically taught as a guided meditation. Below you will find samples of iRest meditations you can listen to guided by Richard Miller, PhD, creator of iRest. These recordings are designed for everyone; both experienced iRest practitioners and newcomers alike.

5 minute iRest practice for alleviating stress and anxiety
10 minute iRest practice for feeling at ease

Psychotherapists

iRest for Psychotherapists

iRest is an evidence-informed framework adapted from the ancient practice of Yoga Nidra which offers profound benefits for psychotherapists and their patients.

Why iRest?

iRest and psychotherapy entail the art of listening. As a therapist, your capacity to be present and listen - without an agenda or judgment - enables you to help clients explore and reveal the hidden aspects of the self that can stand in the way of healing. iRest offers a simple approach to deep listening, enabling you to be aware in the moment and creatively responsive to what unfolds in every session.

The iRest protocol also offers a set of tools to assist clients in locating, describing, and welcoming the various sensations, emotions, beliefs, mental images and memories, which prevent their presenting issues from resolving.

Created by psychologist and yogic scholar, Dr Richard Miller, the efficacy and safety of iRest to address a range of mental health conditions is supported by more than 30 clinical trials and there is guidance available specifically for psychotherapy settings.

Try a Quick iRest

iRest is typically taught as a guided meditation. Below you will find samples of iRest meditations you can listen to guided by Richard Miller, PhD, creator of iRest. These recordings are designed for everyone; both experienced iRest practitioners and newcomers alike.

5 minute iRest practice for alleviating stress and anxiety
10 minute iRest practice for feeling at ease

Healthcare Workers

iRest for Healthcare Workers

If you work in a high-pressure healthcare environment, iRest can help you deeply relax, sleep better, and become more resilient and focused every day.

Why iRest?

iRest is a simple 10-step protocol that is easy to learn and can be practiced anytime, anywhere. Its positive effects are supported by scientific trials, and many health providers share the steps of iRest with patients or clients who are experiencing chronic pain, anxiety, depression, substance abuse, PTSD, and other conditions.

iRest can be practiced in short sessions of 10 or 20 minutes, to induce deep relaxation and leave you feeling refreshed and alert. It can also be used before bed, to ease your body and mind into restful sleep, even if your work shifts or you are sleep deprived.

As an evidence-informed meditation protocol, iRest is being used at US Veterans Affairs hospitals, military bases, hospitals and clinics, hospices, homeless shelters, community programs and schools.

Try a Quick iRest

iRest is typically taught as a guided meditation. Below you will find samples of iRest meditations you can listen to guided by Richard Miller, PhD, creator of iRest. These recordings are designed for everyone; both experienced iRest practitioners and newcomers alike.

5 minute iRest practice for alleviating stress and anxiety
10 minute iRest practice for feeling at ease

Give the gift of iRest

  • Donations fund our mission: training teachers, offering scholarships, and researching iRest's science-backed benefits for stress, anxiety, pain, and more.
  • Research shows iRest reduces PTSD, depression, anxiety, insomnia, chronic pain, and chemical dependency, while increasing health, resiliency, and general well-being.
  • All donations are tax-deductible.
  • iRest Institute has earned a Gold Seal of Transparency on GuideStar USA.

Please help us continue this work by donating today.

Donate Now

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