“This is the art of Letting Go. Observe your breath. Remind yourself that you don’t have to do anything. Notice your inhale and say to yourself, ‘I am breathing in’. Notice your exhale and say to yourself, ‘I am breathing out’. Relax your muscles and try to let go of any places that are gripping in your body. Let Go. Breathe”.
Tanya Dawe, Restorative Yoga Teacher & Creator of White Brick Studio Yoga Restorative Yoga Teacher Training
The above is a small excerpt from one of my virtual online restorative yoga classes. This is one of the many ways I like to open a restorative class. It’s a gentle reminder that my students are with me to find a place of relaxation and calmness through their bodies, to rest and recover, and to feel connected to themselves.
Rest and recovery weren’t part of my descriptive process when I first began practicing yoga.
I liked the challenge, the effort, and the sweaty joy of feeling my body get physically stronger. I wasn’t overly interested in the meditative journey (admittedly I had a lot to learn back then) and I was never a yoga student who grabbed a prop. Forget blocks! Blankets? Keep em’. A bolster? If I wanted to nap, I would have stayed at home, thank you very much.
Everything changed after I did a “30-day yoga challenge”.
These challenges are pretty popular throughout the yoga world and I felt that I was ready to really push myself and commit to yoga every single day for a month. It was exhausting and physically demanding, and I found my body aching after a few weeks and not in a good way. My muscles were being overworked and I knew that I wasn’t giving them time to heal. I’m stubborn so I didn’t want to “give up” (again, I had a lot to learn back then about honoring my body’s wonderful limitations) so I started a conversation with one of my yoga teachers about the struggles I was having. He asked me what yoga classes I was taking and I told him the 90-minute vinyasa classes or the 60-minute power flows. He said that those classes were wonderful, but had I given any thought to incorporating the gentler beginner classes or the restorative classes? I had not. Thinking back on that conversation, I felt insulted. I wasn’t a beginner! Those classes were for injured people or people who weren’t advanced enough for the faster, sweatier classes I craved.
I continued to push my body to the point where my back ached, my wrists were tender, and my shoulders were constantly sore. About three weeks into my challenge and after a particularly grueling power class I was resting in Svasana (the Sanskrit word for corpse pose or final resting pose) and felt sleep start to enter my body. I’m not sure how much time had passed but I woke up to people coming into the studio for the next class on the schedule. They were carrying bolsters (the most wonderful yoga pillow prop ever) and blankets and were starting to set up their mats around me. My teacher walked over to me and said, “This is a restorative class, and you should stay.” He brought me my props and began to teach.
He explained that restorative yoga is The Art of Letting Go.
Words I’ve never forgotten. We started in Svasana, which was such an affront to everything I thought yoga was that I found myself planning an elaborate escape route out of the room - this is a pose done at the end of class! What was this guy thinking?! We started on our backs for a few minutes in classical Svasana then we used the bolster under our knees and the teacher taught us how to support our shoulders with a blanket. This was Svasana like I had never experienced before; my back felt supported, my shoulders felt held and my muscles released a residual tension that I didn’t even know was there. It felt so good I didn’t even notice that I had started to gently cry. There was such a sense of support and wellbeing. My body felt heard.
Our teacher walked us through just a handful a supported poses: restorative child’s pose, restorative spinal twists, and the most incredibly soothing restorative bridge pose I had ever felt in my life. During that hour-long class we did 5 poses. FIVE POSES. That’s mindboggling to someone who is used to doing 5 poses in the first minute of a vinyasa class.
I loved it but I was confused by it. There were times when I would look around the room to make sure I was doing it properly because I didn’t feel much of a stretch. There were other times that I found my mind wandering away more than it ever did in a regular, sweaty yoga class. You’re in a pose, holding it for approximately 10 minutes, remaining still whilst trying to calm your mind. That, my friend, is much easier said than done. I found my thoughts drifting to projects at work, to what I was having for dinner and to a conversation I had with my sister the previous week. “Letting Go” wasn’t as easy as I thought.
I learned that day that restorative yoga feels wonderful and the more I practice this style of yoga, the more I’ve come to understand that it IS stretching and increasing flexibility – it’s just done in a slower and more therapeutic way. I have also learned that restorative yoga is hard. Like really hard. Your body is relatively still so your mind thinks it’s time to plan ahead for the future or to relive something from the past. We are training the mind in restorative yoga to be present and to Let Go of the fluctuating mind which is a very difficult task.
Restorative Yoga is a way to move your body in a supported manner and to let the props do the work for you.
Your muscles and bones and joints are cradled by pillows and blankets to let go of the effort it takes to maintain a posture. Your body opens in a slower way that has a much more soothing affect on the nervous system. We remove the rush and effort of the physical practice to allow for the body and mind to heal.
Anyone who has ever taken a yoga class knows the sense of empowerment that you feel after a class.
We connect to our bodies and become our own healers by playing an active role on the journey towards health and wellbeing. This healing is guided by our teachers but, ultimately, comes from within ourselves. There is a sense of accomplishment and happiness in the act of bringing this movement and meditation practice into our bodies and minds. The scientific study of yoga has increased substantially in recent years and many clinical trials have been designed to assess its therapeutic effects and benefits.
A focus group published by the American Journal of Health and Behaviour in 2009 wrote that yoga is a recognized form of mind-body healing that integrates an individual's physical, mental, and spiritual components to improve aspects of health, particularly stress-related illnesses. [1]. Further studies show that stress contributes to heart disease, cancer, and stroke as well as other chronic conditions and diseases. [2]. With stress being a contributing factor in numerous diseases, a focus on stress management and reduction of negative emotional states is an integral component of reducing illness and disease and improving our overall health and wellness. A study published in the Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nursing noted that a regular practice of yoga promotes strength, endurance and flexibility throughout the entire body and facilitates characteristics of compassion, greater self-control, while cultivating a sense of calmness and well-being. [3]. Aditi Nerurkar, MD of Integrative Medicine, who teaches at Harvard Medical School writes, "Long-term (yoga) practice can also become a buffer to chronic stress." Sustained practice also leads to important outcomes such as the ability to adapt, self-awareness and an improved sense of energy to live life with genuine enthusiasm and enjoyment. [4].
Restorative yoga helped me to find balance, which is really the end goal of any yoga practice.
I love my yoga props now and can’t imagine any class without them. Every time I adjust my bolster and blanket, I feel more connected to myself and my body’s needs. It is a practice of gratitude and rejuvenation and it has completely revamped my approach to moving through life. I’m happy to say I no longer create elaborate escape plans in Restorative Classes but rather, I try to appreciate every single precious moment of Letting Go.
Tanya Dawe is a yoga teacher based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She has a BScN from McGill University. She is certified in Vinyasa Yoga, Restorative Yoga, Pre-natal and Post-natal Yoga and is currently offering Online Restorative Yoga Teacher Trainings.
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