Embracing Wellness Through Restorative Yoga Practices

By Dennis Bluthardt, Namaste Studios

In today’s buzz and hurry, wellness and mindfulness have become the ultimate pursuits. We are all trying to keep up with work, technology, and all responsibilities without breaking. Many factions of life are trying to reunite this absence for peace and goodwill when everything we have had to do now can only help manage the strain.

Restorative yoga is known for being tranquil and restful. We use it to wind everything down, and it is a refreshing note in the evening. Asanas are practiced throughout the hour, and practitioners are at ease stretching and relaxing their bodies. Mental silence follows.

Restorative yoga is also helpful in wellness and mindfulness. When you follow the different routines, you will sleep better every night; your sleep will thank you for it. Your immune system will grow whenever you get some well-deserved sleep. Work performance will improve, and you will generally find it better for different things. It is a well-deserved assist for essentially difficult and alarming times.

Understanding Restorative Yoga

Restorative yoga is a slow, soothing practice to relax and heal the body. You use props (e.g., blankets, bolsters, blocks) to support the body in thoughtful, entirely propped positions that allow you to stay in a pose for several minutes. The longer hold and the extra relaxation will enable you to rest as though you were asleep, which reduces stress and makes you feel more relaxed and generally well or “better.” The goal of restorative yoga is to tap into that of the parasympathetic nervous system, which then triggers the body’s “rest and digest” response.

Vinyasa, Ashtanga, and any similar, faster-paced class will not ask the same thing of you as a restorative class. Such styles of yoga have much less to do with lying around with a bolster; they encourage movement and the strength of a gymnast rather than deepening your meditation practice. Similarly, vinyasa yoga and exercise more broadly inquire into the heart, lungs, muscles, and balance and less into “not doing.” In yoga’s context, not doing means exploring any version of a “world” that isn’t your so-called inner. In restorative yoga, you are entirely introverted (working from your insides out).

Restorative yoga differs from similar classes in a few ways. The classes are likely to be slower-paced. You will sit, lie, or slump into a few poses per class for an extended period (often with eyes closed, using visualization to help relaxation). You may be required to hold poses only for as long as a five-count breath in and a five-count breath out. In this sense, exercises are not taken to the edge; the meditation has already begun.

The Benefits of Restorative Yoga

Restorative yoga is a gentle practice that emphasizes relaxation and mindfulness. Its benefits are many and cover physical, mental, and emotional areas.

From a physical perspective, restorative yoga eases stiff bodies and encourages tension release. It only sometimes looks like you are doing much, but the poses support deep stretching and relaxation. As a result, you might notice that your whole body is becoming more flexible; you are standing and sitting taller, and everything inside is flowing and working more smoothly.

Mentally, restorative yoga allows you to take everything you know about other styles of yoga one step deeper. Classic yoga poses, and flows will undoubtedly strengthen your arms and legs. Striking a tree pose for 60 seconds will develop your balance. But it is through powerful stillness that you can really tune into the more subtle aspects of all of these poses, tune inwards, and find your inner calm.

As for the emotional benefits of restorative yoga, it provides a safe place for the weight of the world to be released. Moreover, it is a safe place to realize we don’t have to carry the world’s weight. Day to day, the emotional benefits can vary from being a peaceful reminder to stop our worlds from spinning so fast to a complete purge of pent-up emotional energy that leaves you in a cathartic puddle of peace in your bedsheets.

Essential Yoga Practices in Restorative Yoga

Restorative yoga is a quiet, gentle practice that emphasizes the power of slowing down and bringing invisibility to action. There are many classic restorative postures, but generally, they tend to be pretty straightforward—a lot of vital relies on classical shapes like Child’s Pose and Supported Bridge (and beyond!) without any particularly fancy choreography. Supported Bridge is nice because, with its gentle inversion, plus the feeling of nesting offered by the props, there is an immediate sense of deep rest and a signal to the body that it is safe to switch on the relaxation response. Child’s Pose is also lovely because it has this deeply relaxing element, but in a more “classic” refreshing way, with the gentle rounding of the forward folding shape providing internal support for continued sensation and grounding.

While approaching the heart center in Bridge, are there parts of the back body sole platform—that I can “plug in” to that space just slightly more, to imagine that they contain the switch for turning on groundedness at the heart? Is there a sensation of any lesser-supportive knee-jerking reaction melting away under the stress of holding the body in the air?

For those who choose a cozy, warm, folded position with the body’s built-in external comfort apparatus, take a deep breath and feel fully human on your exhale. Try different folding styles and be receptive to what they suggest to the body. Enjoy!

Creating a Restorative Yoga Space

Creating the right environment for restorative yoga at home can make relaxing and getting a good night’s sleep much more accessible. First, you want to find a spot where it’s easy to find peace. You also want to have a lot of

Foam rollers, a block, enough blankets, and a mat so you can use a relaxing and therapeutic yoga sequence at home.

Questions about Your Practice?

Ultimately, neither you nor a teacher will be able to answer those particular questions. Your practice is who you are and what you are.

Integrating Restorative Yoga into Your Routine

You can slot restorative yoga into your daily routine and use other tools simultaneously to ramp up your wellness game. Try to do restorative yoga at the same time each day. Make it a part of your daily schedule, whether for a full hour or just 15 to 20 minutes. Get a good routine to know it’s time to chill your body and mind down at that time of day. Put on some relaxing lights or listen to calming music to make it part of your day that you always look forward to.

Meditate after each restorative yoga session to develop your meditation skills. Restorative and meditation practices make a good combo for your daily routine. Try a meditation practice that takes five minutes or more. Your mind should be calm and your body relaxed, so see if you can sit up from your last restorative Pose and meditate. You will get into the meditation flow a bit easier and keep your mind on point for the meditation session. If you have other practices that you like to do, such as writing in a journal or breathwork, slip these into your routine to get a double dose of goodness.

Restorative yoga is a slow, soothing, and quiet style that uses various props for holding poses for long periods. This can enable a very deep sense of relaxation and help relieve a variety of mental, emotional, and physical stresses.

The key benefits of restorative yoga include:

Improved flexibility, more profound physical relaxation, more vital emotional coping skills, reduced anxiety symptoms, And other things.

Most notably, restorative yoga is a style that powerfully encourages “mindfulness.” In restorative yoga, the instructor typically encourages the practitioner to begin by focusing on the breath and then move on to a full-body scan. This can create a very deep sense of calm, relaxation, and positive body awareness.