The difference between restorative & any other style of yoga is both intensity of effort and duration in poses. Rather than working with muscular opposition, hugging in, radiating out, spirals, loops, etc you create a space for your body to melt into the pose. The time spent in both preparation and melting can more greatly emphasize the already meditative possibilities in asana practice. It’s useful to warm the body up to the practice with chandra namaskar – moon salutations. At least one practice a week should be restorative. The effects of restorative practice are hormonally supportive, metabolically positive, meditative, stress relieving, rejuvenating and can supercharge your regular practice.
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"Heart Opening" poses, a.k.a. backbends, are accomplished with spinal and shoulder mobility, a large infusion of core strength and core sensation. Core - deep core - are muscles interior to the "abs" forming the very basis of our ability to walk, sit and breathe: respiratory diaphragm, psoas and pelvic floor. Learning to sense your ability to move and engage these muscles transforms backbends by moving the arch up into the less mobile rib cage and away from the more mobile and in need of stability lower back.
In this class, explore openness in your shoulders and upper back along with stability in your pelvis and legs while enjoying how they interact to allow you to move with grace, freedom and generosity. The * poses are advanced to intermediate and not at all necessary to feel the benefits of the class. Find the backbend in triangle as well as camel. Feel the awesome strength of Anjeyanasana, and ground it in the stability of Warrior I. Finish with a lovely Supta Baddha Konasana and melt in Savasanahhhhh! Where do stability and openness meet in your life? Tell me in a comment below! You'll find class plans and themes here every week. I share these for many reasons and there are several ways you can best use them.
Long holds in intense positions: it's either a first date, performance art or yin yoga. Lucky for you, these poses "Feel sooooooo good!" according to one recent student and you can mix and match, alter the time in pose and total practice time.
Just the first 4 poses are a great preparation for sitting meditation and are great for letting go before bed. Do you practice yin yoga? What are your favorite poses and sequences? Tell me in a comment below! Yin yoga works with sometimes intense sensations over longer periods of time (2-5, even 10 minutes), and relies on the difference between pain and intensity. We'll discuss 3 different ways to work with intensity and turn anything into meditation.
Yin yoga is a style of yoga that focuses on "yin" tissues of the body: the fascia, connective tissues and bones which are yin relative to the yang muscles, yin with respect to having less blood, less water than the muscles on which regular hatha yoga practices focus. If you've come to a place in your practice where you feel stuck, it's likely the fascia surrounding the muscles that's the culprit and yin yoga is the way to work with fascia. These tissues are, however, less pliable. The forces we exert on the yin tissue require relaxation of the muscles, a relatively "cold" practice (without warm up or heat that activates the muscles) and longer time in pose. These poses can be quite intense, but that is all within your control: go slowly and explore closer to the minimum edge of these poses until you are comfortable with the sensations and how to work with them. Four ways of working with intensity in yoga and life
Why would we want to work with these tissues? Aren't these the exact places you tell us not to stress during regular classes? Yes. In regular yoga classes we are focused on muscular engagement, strength and flexibility. We specifically warm up and engage muscles, which compress and put their own strain on joints. In a regular yoga class, we don't want to add stress and can't access the fascia. In Yin yoga class, we release patterns of holding and habitual engagement in the muscles so we can intelligently work with the connective tissues. The joints have more space so shearing forces aren't directed into them. This is less forceful, more patient work. The reason to work with these tissues is that the fascia and other connective tissues are exactly where we hold our patterns - our "stash" of habit, filter, assumption and experience. If you're stuck working with a certain area of your body or class of poses and haven't been able to "stretch" your way into the experience you want, Yin yoga is most likely exactly the secret key you've been looking for. You've probably heard that bones are strengthened through stress; this is one reason some form of resistance training is recommended for graceful aging. Without stress, the processes that rebuild bones are circumvented. In zero gravity, astronauts actually loose bone density. But this happens with physical inactivity of any kind: a casted limb, bed rest or simply a sedentary period of time. Yin yoga intelligently applies stress to the bones and the connective tissue in ways that strengthen rather than strain and which can lead to increase mobility and vitality. Additionally, because postures are engaged for minutes rather than seconds and target fascial lines, they interact with what Eastern Medicine refers to as meridians in the body. This week's practice focuses on forward bends and therefore interacts with the liver meridian, though kidney, gall bladder, urinary bladder, spleen and stomach also run through the legs. This is a gentle stimulation and leads to greater balance. The most important thing about Yin Yoga is to discern the difference between pain and intensity. In no instance do I recommend you remain or move toward poses that create sharp or electric sensations: these are "pain" and signal danger to tissue (soft, connective or nerve) in the body. However other sensations often avoided are actually signals of need in the body. Erich Schiffman popularized the distinction between minimum and maximum edges in his book, Moving Into Stillness. Your minimum edge in a pose is the first inkling of sensation created by a direction of movement. In Yang Yoga practices, this isn't a very useful place to stay, though it's vital to understand. In Yin practices, this can be a fruitful place to explore sensations and make decisions about how much intensity to generate by moving toward a pose. If you're looking for the next horizon in your practice, Yin may open up a whole new world. You can come to class, request a consult or book a private lesson by Skype or in person in the 505 to get you started. Already have a Yin practice? Tell us about it! What has it opened up for you? This Mother's Day Weekend we're rocking a strong side-facing flow Moon Salutation to honor the mother within us all - male or female, old or young.
Mothering starts at home, both literally and figuratively. Our social images of mothers and mothering are often about taking care of others, nurturing and making the world a better, kinder, happier place for those we love. Mothering also requires power, fierceness and focus. For Mother's Day, honor your Mother - and the mother within. What does mothering mean to you? What do you need to receive to be your truest self? How can you make that happen? Maybe this class can be a part of giving yourself what you need. Expect to feel stretched, strengthened, balanced and nurtured. Let us know how you feel! Moon Salutations are the calmer, less strenuous, more peaceful cousin of Sun Salutations. They aren't talked about in the ancient texts and are a modern creation by people creating alternatives that work for different bodies and different purposes. Because of this, there are many interpretations, some bearing little resemblance to the Sun version and others more. You can see a lovely and compact representation of many alternatives here. In the schematic to the left you can see the version I practice, which incorporates rounder, softer, slower movements and a chi kung exercise for the water element. This practice can be the perfect warm up for a Restorative pose or session of poses or a stand alone practice. I find it focusing and a great way to connect with physical sensation right before meditation. And followed by some Brahmari (Bumble Bee) Breath in Savasana in bed, it can be a great before bedtime practice. Mountain is the same as the one to which you are used, but with softer knees. You can meditate here at beginning or end or simply practice breath awareness. Try allowing the arms to float up with soft elbows and the hands to hover out in front of your heart with the fingertips 3-4 inches apart, as if you are holding a beach ball. Shoulders soft, gaze unfocused - like you're trying to see shooting stars. Stay here two or more minutes at beginning and end. As you're ready to begin movement, the arms come up and overhead but round, like the moon. The gaze is at the palms. When the fingertips touch overhead, the backs of the fingers, hands and wrists come together and descend to trace the front line of the body. The hands actually touch the body from the middle of the brow, down the face, throat, chest, belly and then the inside of each leg. Your gaze follows the hands as you slowly curl in and down to a soft kneed forward fold. Exhaling, step left foot back and drop your knee. Next exhale, right knee back. Next exhale, lower down to chest chin and knees. Inhale into low Sphinx or Cobra. You can make this a Yin Seal pose and stay awhile if you'd like. Exhale Child's Pose. Inhale look forward, Exhale left foot forward. Exhale right steps forward, Forward Fold with soft knees, shoulders, head. Place your left hand inside right, palms up, as if you were cupping a drink of water from a well. Begin to curl up slowly, dropping the tail bone and stacking the spine from the inside, watching as the hands are drawn up just in front of the midline of the body, as if you're drawing up water from that well. As the hands come to the level of the heart and the shoulders drop and head stacks, still gazing down at the hands, turn the fingers to point up at the sky and bring the thumbs and pinkie fingers together, creating Lotus Mudra in front of the heart. Remain for a few breaths. Begin the next cycle by holding the ball again and use the right foot to lead this time. Do even numbers of sets so you lead with each foot equal numbers of times. Leave a comment if you try this series and share your experience! This week we built on the core connection we've been building through April and start to express it 360 degrees. We added "Wiggling Mermaid" to access the multifidus, one of the lesser known and discriminated back muscles. With the knee of the active side (you choose which one to start with) lifted in dolphin plank (you can do it with the other knee on the ground or lifted), draw the top, back of your pelvis toward your back and side ribs of the same side - ever so slightly. As always, follow your inner guidance - you are the expert on your experience - and be respectful of your limits. Brahmari, or Bumble Bee Breath, focuses and calms while giving direct feedback on core engagement in exhalation. Here in Burque, Spring means wind: wind like god is mad, wind like someone poked a hole in the sky, wind like can only come off the llano and be focused by the Sandia Mountain Range. Brahmari is my personal antidote to wind-brain, which is full of agitation, void of focus and slightly on edge. You love a good yoga session, the stretch and sweat and the after yoga feeling. Now you’re eyeing the Restorative yoga class and wondering if you really could take all that restoration and quiet. The answer yes you can, and here is why: trust the yoga. All yoga is designed to calm your sympathetic nervous system, or the “fight or flight” system. This is the part of our nervous system that we need when we’re trying to avoid a tiger, but also causes us “stress” in modern life. Stress happens when our fight or flight system gets triggered, say by a near miss in traffic. But since there’s no immediate release of all that energy that didn’t get used like it would have if you’d had to run from that tiger, it gets stuck in a feedback loop that keeps the adrenaline and cortisol flowing well past your need for them. The parasympathetic nervous system, or the “feed and breed” nervous system, which generates the well known “relaxation response” is the counter to the “fight or flight” system. They’re meant to keep one another in balance, but there are so many more triggers for the stress system than the relaxation system in modern life that most of us are out of balance. Paradoxically, even the best vigorous yoga class can feed this imbalance if we relate to our practice in a goal directed or striving way. This is why I recommend everyone give themselves at least one restorative practice every week. Better yet, take 20 minutes before bed in the evening and practice 2-4 of these fully supported postures meant to foster complete release of effort. Many people report avoiding restorative yoga because they’re afraid they’ll be bored, or that they’re incapable of that much relaxation. But once they’ve arrived in the class and the yoga takes over, just like in their more active yoga classes, the yoga works its magic. Your mind isn’t boring and your ability to become the open observer and melt into the pose is actually enhanced with the support of props and extended time in poses. Trust the yoga. A Restorative yoga class features fewer poses, because they’re each held from three to five minutes or longer. Because you’re meant to be in them longer and to relax instead of engage your muscles, you’re set up with props to completely support the weight of your limbs. Most of the poses, for this reason, are on the floor and you’re often encouraged to use an eye pillow or cloth to place gentle, almost imperceptible pressure on the eyes, which triggers the relaxation response. When you come to a Restorative yoga class, it’s more important than ever to wear non-constricting clothing and to dress in layers. Because you’re releasing muscular engagement, you won’t generate the same heat you do in an active yoga class. Feel free to bring socks if you tend towards chilly feet; you’ll not be grounding through your big toe mounds very much in this class and your yoga toes won’t need to sparkle. Your heart and mind will sparkle with the overflow of energy when stop even a few of your habitual holding patterns from everyday life. You may do four to six poses for the whole class, and spend half as long setting up for them as you stay in them. The set up is just as much an exercise in mindfulness and tuning into your body’s patterns and patterned responses as the poses are, so maintain an observational and caring mindset throughout. Some poses you may encounter are Reclined Cobbler pose, Supported Straddle Forward Bend, Legs up the wall and Supported Savasana. Want to try a a half hour restorative practice tonight? Check out the Restorative Sequence I wrote for lovemyyoga.com and finish it off with the Relaxation Sequence, too. When you attend class in person, you'll receive instruction and assistance in Chandra Namaskar, or Moon Salutations, as well as setting up a supported bridge, an "Instant Maui" and receive guided meditations in many of the poses, finished off with a blissfully silent, dark Savasanahhhh! Here's a recipe for your restorative practice: Allow. Release all muscular effort. Apply focus and attention to scan your body for hidden pockets of tension or effort and notice them change simply as a result of being held in attention and supported by your position. Support. In order to release effort more completely, the body must be supported at a productive edge. The edge for restorative practice is very different than the edge in an active asana class. The edge is the place where the shape begins to create muscular tension. Supporting the torso and limbs there, at that very place of opening, creates a supportive feeling throughout the entire being – body and psyche. Breathe. Breath is especially important in the early moments while the mind is still running like a velo. Once the opening is found through which the chatter can escape its cycling, mind creates less tension. However, sometimes it takes an entire practice to find this. Until then, the breath is your ally. Return to watching the breath. We’re not creating or elongating or anything; only watching. Now, as it watches, mind will commence to commentary: “Isn’t that interesting? I was sure I was breathing from my diaphragm! Jeez, I wonder when I’ll ever rid myself of that pattern?….” Just return to watching the breath. Stay with the moment, not the facsimile of the moment created by the commentary. Be. This last is more the meal, while the earlier 3 principles are the recipe. You start with support, mix in a heap of allow, and a generous dollop of breathe, and if the temperature and time are right, you’ll pull some being out of the oven. |
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