My Experience with Restorative Yoga
Today was the last restorative yoga class of the semester. I came out of the session feeling more rejuvenated than ever!
If you don’t know what restorative yoga is, it’s a form of relaxing your physical body to allow yourself to be mentally clear. Basic poses are as simple as just lying on your back with legs propped up on pillows (no need to be flexible), and to someone who peeks in on a class, you’d think we’re just a bunch of lazy nappers! But it’s much more technical than that. You must have a certain number of equipment, blankets must be folded properly, bolsters are placed specific distance to the body, everything must be symmetrical, and so on. People have really studied this! And it’s proven extremely effective. If you’d ever want to just take some time off of the day to regain your energy and escape from the craziness of the world, I highly recommend that you try it out yourself, I’ve had a lot of fun and have reached ultimate states of relaxation that I have never experienced before.
So why restorative yoga? The difference between restorative yoga and meditation is that restorative yoga is a connection between mind, body and soul. Meditation focuses only on the mind, whereas restorative yoga releases everyday stress and strain from our constant motion. Stressful thoughts and emotions are very connected to the physical body, which I did not really understand at first. But after doing even one session I was able to feel much lighter and think in a forward, positive way while feeling very wholesome inside. It’s like someone pushed a reset button and I was able to move freely again.
I have to admit, I did fall asleep plenty of times during the class. It was really embarrassing on some days when I completely napped through the session and people had already finished packing up. I even fell asleep while sitting up, but that’s just how relaxing it feels when you practice it. (More likely to happen because I also didn’t get enough sleep).
Bonus: If you plan to take this class, you receive a free eyebag to keep! Plus a handful of helpful tips and advice from your instructor :)
Any sort of yoga, meditation, hypnosis, and the like are great ways to rewind yourself. This is one form that I’ve discovered to be simple, easy, and effective.
—
So that was my experience with yoga this semester. Last spring I did circuit training, which helped on my cardio. 8 AM PE class everyday wasn’t so bad, it gets your energy going. The next PE class is jazz! I haven’t danced since the elementary school days, which calls for some help in the flexibility department. I’m as unbendable as a chopstick. It will be very interesting and I am super excited to take the challenge!
-
anilelina posted this
