Why You Need Restorative Yoga
Embracing the need for rest we are all deserving of
Restorative Yoga may not be what you expect as a style of yoga. At least that was the case in my experience. I remember being in my first restorative class thinking, “When will this be over?” or another class where I thought to myself “Never again”. Yet, here I am years later recently completing a dedicated 40-hours of Restorative Yoga Teacher Training from Octopus Garden Yoga Centre to deepen my understanding of a practice I wish I had embraced all those years ago when I was at my most stressed.
This yoga practice is focused on releasing tension through a new lens on familiar poses. Instead of relying on our body to hold us up, props take on the work to allow your body to soften for minutes at a time. See slideshow above for comparisons of three poses in their Restorative Yoga version where props are encouraged versus their more minimal prop version in Vinyasa and Yin styles of yoga as examples. Healthline describes Restorative yoga as a, “style of yoga that encourages physical, mental, and emotional relaxation” and as one of my teachers Scotty said, “Restorative Yoga is like a guided nap”.
Moving towards “Rest and Digestion”
From a physiological perspective, resting in a pose has an influence on our nervous system which is responsible for our actions and how we process information in the world around us.
You may have heard of the term “fight or flight” used to describe when our body is highly activated. The dilation of our pupils, an accelerated heartbeat, and secretion of adrenaline are all examples of symptoms of our sympathetic nervous system supporting us to take action when faced with a perceived or actual stressor. Even the thought or anticipation of a stressor could mistakenly activate our body leaving us in a constant state of activation.
Restorative Yoga activates the parasympathetic nervous system responsible for slowing down our heartbeat, bringing our body into balance, and moving us towards “rest and digestion” so our body is open to healing.
Having a conversation with your body
Many of us have or still are a part of a work culture or society that reinforces overworking and equates your value with how busy you are. Hours of your day may be locked into a work mode towards a deadline, task, or errand that needed to be done yesterday. Each day is just another race against the clock. I know now that my initial resistance to Restorative Yoga was actually an indicator of how much my tension-filled body from the stress of trying to keep up at work and chronic anxiety was in desperate need of restoration.
This hustle mentality goes even deeper for marginalized communities. On a genetic and ancestral level, within in my community, we have been conditioned to work hard and keep busy to the point that we don’t even know how to rest. There may be a sense of guilt to rest, a motivation to keep busy out of fear of being labelled as lazy, or belief of not being deserving of rest.
Restorative Yoga is an opportunity to have a conversation with your body. To allow it to talk to you by bringing your awareness to areas of imbalance or discomfort and for you to tell your body that you are safe and deserving of rest.
Getting Creative and Experimenting
Common Restorative Yoga Props
Our bodies are so uniquely different from the length of our torso, our posture, down to mobility or sensitive in our joints. Each pose is not a one size fits all solution and this is where experimenting with props can make a world of a difference to how a pose feels in your body.
In-studio, I watched and experienced how the addition of a single blanket to pad a knee or how a few personalized tweaks could transform a usually uncomfortable pose into a more pleasant one.
Common props include bolsters, yoga blocks, blankets, straps, balls (The Yoga Tune Up Therapy Balls by Roll Model® or Coregeous® Ball), eye pillows, sandbags, a chair, rope wall, or getting creative with everyday items like towels, pillows, cushions, tennis balls, or broomsticks around your house are all options available to support you.
Finding your order for comfort
Setting up a pose from what’s being demoed is just the initial version. Once in a pose, you’ll want to observe how it feels in your body. It will be a partnership between you and your teacher to find your version of the pose. A teacher will identify areas of tensions seen in students or address common areas of tension for you to be aware of. And when approaching students, a teacher’s guidance was very much like taking an order of food but instead an order of comfort as I like to call it. “I’ll have a pigeon pose with a side of a two bolsters, and a blanket”. From here it is up to you to communicate your needs.
A practice of speaking your needs
In poses where you’ll stay for anywhere from two minutes to upwards of ten minutes or even longer, even a wrinkle in a blanket can affect your comfort. I Restorative Yoga is an opportunity to empower you to make a change to improve your situation instead of choosing to tolerate discomfort. I also saw it as opportunity to practice speaking your needs to others especially if you have people-pleasing tendencies where you feel that is would be an inconvenience to bother someone for help. A teacher is there to support you but you have to communicate areas of tension or discomfort like in any relationship.
One time while in a pose, I hoped that my teacher would see or know that I wanted to have Tune Up balls in my hands to keep them relaxed and open. Realizing I was expecting my teacher to be a mind reader, I was reminded of a line from The Art of Communicating by the late Thich That Hanh. I could hear is his sweet, loving voice saying “Beloved, I did not know you suffer”. And in that moment, I chose to speak my needs to find the comfort I desired, instead of suffering in silence.
Restorative Yoga is a Metta practice
Being in-studio for my Restorative Teacher Training gave me a whole new perspective on the beautiful dynamic between the teacher and student. There is a very nurturing quality to the practice where one gives and one receives loved much like Metta, a Buddhist meditation that translates to loving kindness. A practice where we send wishes or prayers to ourselves and others in hopes that we may be safe, healthy, peaceful, loved, and in this case comfortable.
There is something about covering someone else, even someone you just met with a blanket. It’s an act of kindness much like tucking a child into bed. This energy of calm, kindness, and love can be felt throughout the room for students and teachers who hold space for rest. This energy can also be felt virtually but there is a magic in-person.
Take away the complex poses, take away the focus on alignment, and take away the ego. And what you are left with is a nurturing practice for you to discovery comfort in a poses to open, stretch, activate, and release tension in various areas of your body. Restorative Yoga is a great practice to wind down for the evening which can be practiced on the mat or even in bed.
RESTORATIVE YOGA
Check out my schedule for upcoming Restorative Yoga sessions and Soul Flow sessions which conclude with a Restorative Yoga component.
With the support of pillows, cushions, blankets and props around your home, get cozy in this slow yoga practice to help infuse rest into your nervous system. This session includes a series of longer-held, static poses from Restorative Yoga as well as elements of gentle mindful movement, Yin Yoga, Yoga Nidra, and breathwork to help guide us into deeper relaxation. Use this break to signify the end of your workday or to wind down for the day to the sounds of ambient music. When our body moves towards a state of rest, so can our mind. Give yourself the rest you deserve.
