Restorative Yoga: The antidote for 2020.

2020 has been no joke. We all have experienced it in different ways, but it feels safe to say that for many of us there has been a huge increase in stress levels. 

There’s a lot going on.

There’s always a lot going on, and everything is always in a state of flux, but when we’re all sitting at home it’s harder to ignore it. 

You want to know what you can do that takes only thirty minutes and will take you from feeling like a stressed mess to feeling like an ocean of bliss

R E S T O R A T I V E   Y O G A !!!

I’ve hardly wanted to practice Vinyasa or Hatha in the last few months. All I’ve wanted and needed is Restorative or Yin Yoga.

Read on to learn what a restorative yoga practice could do for your life, and then watch the video below to experience it for yourself! 

After practicing restorative yoga I feel C A L M, S P A C I O U S, K I N D, J O Y F U L, S O F T,  O P E N, and READY for whatever is next whether that’s a difficult conversation I need to feel cool calm and collected for, wanting to feel connected on a deeper level to friends and family, getting work done with a focused and clear mind, getting a deeply restful night’s sleep, or just living my best life! 

How does restorative yoga help me with all of the above?

Restorative yoga will shift you out of your sympathetic nervous system (fight/flight) to your parasympathetic nervous system (rest+digest).

In 2017 the WHO estimated that “by 2020, stress-related disorders will be the second leading cause of disabilities in the world”." Wow. Did they have a psychic working for them? Did they know that stress would sky-rocket in 2020?

You’re just 30 minutes.png

We know it’s important to take time to relax, but the question is: do you know HOW to relax? How to relax in a way that leaves you feeling restored? That boosts your immune system? That makes you feel like a delicious puddle of bliss?

How often do you have time to relax and you reach for a bottle of wine that might make you feel less than fantastic after, or reach for your phone to mindlessly scroll through social media only to bombard your mind with photo after photo  of what other people are doing with their lives which then sends you into a self-comparison spiral, or maybe the moment you are done with work you are planning for what you have to do the following day. 

We need moments of silence.

We need moments of nothing.

We need moments to just be. 

When practicing Restorative Yoga you take a shape with your body, sometimes flat on the floor and sometimes propped up with lots of pillows and blocks and blankets, and you hang out there for anywhere from 5-20 minutes and just let yourself BE. That’s the key. Letting yourself BE instead of making yourself DO. There’s nothing to DO. 

The time you spend practicing Restorative Yoga might be the only time of the day that you allow yourself to really rest, that you allow yourself to feel supported, that you allow yourself to L E T  G O. 

Ideally you want to set yourself up with enough props in each pose that you feel fully supported, super comfy, and you can fully surrender your body weight into the props and into the ground. 

With a restorative yoga practice you will learn to soften your mind and to soften your body. As your body softens you will have more room for breath. As you take deeper breaths (in particular longer exhales), you will activate your parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). When you activate the PNS you can finally relax. When you relax your body softens even more. When your body softens more your breathing becomes easier…and so on and so on…until you melt into a puddle on the floor ;) 

It’s time for you to take a break, give your weight to the earth, and let yourself be. Learn to be soft with yourself, kind with yourself, and to just be with yourself. Life is hard. It just is. It’s full of struggle, suffering, and the unknown. But there is also an opportunity to create more space for peace, for joy, and for bliss. 

One roadblock some people encounter when practicing restorative yoga is that we are so used to doing, taking action, working, and planning that sometimes  we don’t quite know how to relax. If you find that your mind won’t stop going, that’s totally normal. This is a practice. As you practice restorative yoga, yin yoga, or meditation over time you gradually get better at being with your thoughts and feelings and softening into the present moment. Over time you will also get better at detecting habitual holding patterns of tension in your body and mind. Eventually you will notice the tension in your body even when you’re not practicing yoga and you can mindfully let go throughout the day. Relaxing is a practice.

On a meditation retreat I did at IMS last year I kept repeating this phrase to myself:

(I love a nice alliterative phrase).

(I love a nice alliterative phrase).

I came up with this phrase when I realized that every time I got lost in thought (concepts) my body would contract, but when I connected with the present moment (reality) my body would relax. In restorative yoga, and yin yoga, meditation, and in every day life I practice this again and again. I notice my body is tense, perhaps take note of what “concept” or thought was in my mind, and then I consciously relax my body. I do this all day long, and I know I wouldn’t be as good at letting go as I am if I didn’t have practices like Restorative Yoga in my life. 

When you’re able to carve out 30 minutes follow along with the video below. You’ll just need a couple of pillows and a nice little corner of your home to get cozy in. 

If you take the class and enjoy it let me know in the comments on the video (and subscribe to my channel!), or come back here to let me know what you thought! 

If you love listening to music during class try this playlist I made especially to go along with this video! Start from the beginning and play all the way through if you like music during meditation and savasana, or start on the second song when you take the first pose and turn it off before savasana.

Wishing you deeper breaths, and greater joy.

-Eve