What is Restorative Yoga?

I have been getting this question a lot. When I tell people that I do restorative type yoga their immediate response is... What is restorative yoga? Then I began to question it myself, trying to come up with the best answer. At first when I would try to answer this question my words get all jumbled and I was never exactly sure what to say. I know what restorative yoga is of course. I see how the body moves... I see it with my eyes; I see it with my mind. I watch how people move. I watch how people stand. I watch how people sit. I want to go around and fix all of their postures. Then I become fully aware of how I am sitting or standing. But when it comes time for me to explain it to someone with words I haven't come up with the best collection of them to full describe what restorative yoga is.

So that's what I am here to do. To put into words what restorative yoga is...

It begins with B.K.S. Iyengar. In his form of Hatha yoga the student and teacher focus on alignment of the body as well as the union of the body, mind, and soul. They achieve this through the use of props. In this style of yoga one may be in the poses for longer periods of time. The use of props allows the student to achieve this without tiring out the body and over stimulating the muscles. It is a slower paced yoga practice and one will find deep relaxation within this practice. This type of yoga, "Iyengar Yoga" as it was coined; it was Iyengar's goal for his students to achieve stability, flexibility, and to cultivate strengthen and awareness in oneself.

Now Iyengar Yoga has expanded. In the west yoga is being found to have all types of therapeutic benefits, from mental health, to physical health, to gut health. Things the easterners have been saying for centuries. Yoga is good for all things. Yoga has been known to heal the body and bring a person back from sorrow. Judith Hanson Lasater is a well known restorative student and teacher. She is one of B.K.S. Iyengar's early disciples. She has been teaching his form of yoga for years and helped to popularize restorative yoga. She believes that “we work hard in our lives, and while we may sleep, we rarely take time to relax. Restorative yoga poses help us learn to rest deeply and completely.” 

My interest in yoga first really began when I found out I have scoliosis and as a way to help with it I was told to try yoga. Several years later I found rock climbing and conveniently enough they had a yoga studio at the rock gym I frequented. The instructor there began her classes by asking us if anyone had any problem areas that they wanted to focus on. Several of us would raise our hands and spout a handful of issues at her. Then class would begin. She would put together a yoga sequence based on the issues we were dealing with. I always left feeling better mentally and physically. I fell in love with her style of teaching.

When I made the decision to get my teaching certificate I knew I wanted to learn more about myself and more about yoga. And I achieved both of those things. We each had to present our fellow classmates with a topic/form of yoga. I chose to do mine on yoga for scoliosis which led me down the path of restorative yoga. When we were divided up into groups to teach a class I was put into teaching an all-levels type class. Again signs pointing to a slower more  basic type of yoga. I was drawn to restorative yoga because I have so many issues with my back, hips, tailbone, along with other things all formed around my scoliosis. I wanted a form of yoga that would help make me feel better. Where most people want yoga for the fitness aspect I wanted to feel good, calm and peaceful after yoga. I want to help others find their peace through yoga, just like I did.

Now when people ask me what restorative yoga is I  have a better answer to give them. I can confidently tell them restorative yoga is a form of yoga that is used for healing and alignment. The use of props and relaxation techniques, breathing and meditating techniques, are used to allow the student to be in the pose for a longer period of time to fully and deeply relax into each pose. It balances the body, mind and soul in slower more gentle way.

Namaste
My Friends.

xo