Healing Journeys with Suzie Daggett
Yoga – touted as an elixir of a healthy life style and an excellent meditation and exercise program, comes in many different flavors. In local yoga studios and health clubs, you can experience Ashtanga, Prenatal, Kundalini, Yin, Bikram, Young at Heart, and many other classes devoted to specific yoga practices. However, whether you are a beginner, a once in a whiler, or an advanced student, you may want to experience Restorative Yoga. The benefits of this relaxing and de-stressing practice are superior. I asked three teachers from Wild Mountain Yoga Center to help educate us on this practice, which elicits a lot of ahs and yums!
Katie Carter, owner and teacher, Wild Mountain Yoga Center:
When I was first introduced to restorative yoga, I immediately found it to be a great antidote to a stressful lifestyle and the “busy-ness” that our society identifies with. These poses come in all forms including gentle backbends, supported forward bends, modified inversions, and gentle twists. Their common thread is that these postures are long held and supported by bolsters, blocks, blankets and pillows, so you use very little muscular effort and simply focus on letting go, allowing the breath and mind to become more integrated in your body. Each pose is like a mini-meditation and moves you into deeper levels of relaxation to calm your nerves and recharge your batteries.
This soothing and nurturing type of practice can restore balance to the lives of most ages and body types. Some beginning yoga students might find it challenging to stay in one position for 3 - 5 minutes, because of restlessness in the mind. With practice, that changes and students leave a class feeling refreshed and expressing it felt like a full body massage.
Deborah Jordan, yoga teacher
I became a yoga student because I liked the physical challenge and deep relaxation I experienced in the postures. I love it all: the strong, warm athletic flow styles; the slow, cooler, passive openings of restorative; and the stillness of meditation. Restorative yoga is an important remedy for the fast paced world that is constantly demanding our attention. It slows us down, opens our body gently, and is extremely effective at relaxing the mind. Release of muscular tension which pulls on our skeletal structure can many times be much more profound in restorative postures versus active stretching. When we slow down, we start to notice things like: how we use our body, how tired we really are, emotions that we haven't attended to, how obsessively busy our mind is and how that prevents us from releasing physical tension. Once we notice these, we can make wiser, more responsible choices. Restorative postures are gentle, held longer that active postures and some physical support is used like bolster, pillows, wall, chair, blocks, or straps. I find that support to be a powerful metaphor for students to recognize other supports in their life that are not acknowledged. Restorative yoga can be for everyone: young and old. People with physical conditions or limitations can feel safe to begin a practice without injury. The practice itself will promote better body awareness which in turn will allow changes in habitual patterns of movement and thus promote more effective healing. Even restorative postures can be modified for those who have problems getting up and down off the floor.
Elke Brown, Yoga teacher
After a sudden injury, I was banned from doing all exercise for six months. In my mind, I had decided that Yoga was not really exercise, so I let myself fall deeply into a yoga practice. It was and is so fulfilling and deeply satisfying, that I decided to become a teacher and share this gift with others. As part of my teacher training, I was introduced to restorative yoga. I found it to be just the practice that I needed during stressful times or when my body needs a gentle practice. During the busy times, when we all have “To Do” lists that never end, it is vital for our well being to let go of doing and switch to a BEING mode. A restorative yoga class is just the place to do the switch. My students and I feel a melting away of tensions, holdings, contractions, worries and a letting go into a deep opening and unfolding of ourselves. By the end of the practice, we are feeling relaxed, rejuvenated and restored. I have found that all ages and people with a varying degree of health and fitness can participate. Restorative Yoga is often used as part of a rehabilitation program after injury, surgery or dealing with chronic conditions, but everybody can benefit from it because of its rejuvenating qualities.
Katie Carter, teaches Gentle Stretching and Restorative Yoga every Tuesday and Wednesday from 3:30 – 5pm: Elke Brown teaches Restorative Yoga workshops, and the next workshop is Friday, September 29 from 4 – 6pm; Deborah Jordan teaches Yogini Yoga – Immersion a class for women with restorative yoga and guided meditation on Mondays from 3:30 – 5pm.
All classes are held at Wild Mountain Yoga Center, 574 Searls Ave. Nevada City, 530-265-4072 or www.wildmtnyoga.com
Healing Journeys is a column written by Suzie Daggett for the Grass Valley Union newspaper. Suzie interviews a variety of health practitioners most Fridays in the Wellness section. Click here to read past articles. Enter "Suzie Daggett" in the search box to get listing of all articles. |
