Restoring your Power with Restorative Yoga
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ARE YOU LIVING A POWER-SUCKING LIFESTYLE?
When somebody utters the words "I'm tired" it seems normal.
Unless they were gravely ill, we as a society will accept being constantly tired from the demands of one's professional and personal life. That's a huge problem in my opinion, but it makes a lot of sense when you think about how we glorify busy culture.
And the statistics around stress and sleep support just how tired many of us are...
More than 40% of adults say they lie awake because of stress.
Honestly, I've been in the power-sucking lifestyle before. (And I still struggle with it.)
Given the many demands of life such as work, kids, and ongoing to do lists, it's instinctual to grab some coffee and go go go. Or maybe just with sheer grit, go go go.
But that's not really adding to your power, that's just milking whatever you have left, and hoping it's enough to get you through before burn out happens.
So how exactly can we add to our power?
Although the best answer would be a complete lifestyle change, a more helpful answer is to practice restoring your power little by little.
get your power back with restorative yoga
Some easy ways to restore your power little by little can be napping, meditating, and doing yoga. But if you want the ultimate way, I would say restorative yoga is how you do it.
Restorative yoga is essentially a combination of the three ways. It's what my teacher once called "adult nap time."
It's a little bit of asana (postures), a little bit of meditation, and a lot of napping potential.
It's a very very restful way to practice yoga.
To give you an idea of why I emphasized its restfulness, In a typical restorative yoga class, you'll be doing maybe 5-6 postures total within 60 minutes.
This is me demonstrating a gentle inversion restorative pose. And YES, I had my favorite TV show -- The Office on!
what makes restorative yoga, restorative?
Restorative (adjective): having the ability to make a person feel strong or healthy again, according to the Merriam-Webster definition.
Here is how this type of yoga makes a person feel strong or healthy again:
- The yoga piece of the practice is passive. You will "stretch" for a good 5-10 minutes, but you will have the support of props. So you're working your body in some ways, but you're mostly resting.
- It's an opportunity to be mindful. This is where the meditation piece comes in, while you're holding yourself in a restorative pose for 5-10 minutes you'll probably notice your mind chattering. So there's your chance to notice it and just breathe.
- It's a lot of downtime. It's you closing your eyes and being more or less still, just like you'd be when napping.
- You come out of it feeling well-rested.
okay, how do i start a restorative yoga practice?
If you live in the Federal Way-Tacoma area, I recommend two studios that offer pure restorative yoga.
- Three Trees Yoga (Thursdays 2-3 p.m. and the first Friday of the month 6-7:15 p.m.)
- Samdhana Karana Yoga (Wednesdays 7:30-8:45 p.m.)
If you want a class with gentle movements and a couple restorative poses, there's Source Yoga with a Relax & Restore class (Wednesday evenings and Friday evenings)
You could also search for restorative yoga classes nearby or ask your local studio.
starting a home practice
I know that not everybody can just stop life, drive to a studio, and do an hour of restorative yoga... So I decided to create a guide to walk you through three simple poses. I think if you can master just one restorative pose, you can do them all.
You can find the resource in the password protected Samadhi Lounge. I will not spam or share your information.