by Jay Hiller, October 7, 2022
I had a jittery vibe going on tonight. Some things that I chose and that I knew would be hard–whadayaknow–they are challenging me. I’ve had a few minor disappointments this week that all boil down to I can’t control everything. Losing the illusion of control is the worst thing that can happen to a control freak. I pulled out my yoga mat this evening, and began what I thought would be an active practice and ended up being a restorative yoga practice. Just what I needed.
I like describe restorative yoga as finding a super comfortable and supported position and staying there for minutes. Then changing to another super comfortable and supported position. In an hour practice you might only do 3 poses. Restorative yoga gets short shrift in some circles, because it’s not, you know, exercise. However, it’s a powerful practice, good for everyday stress to be sure and indispensable when big, awful things happen. Judith Hansen Lasater, the author of the book above and many other yoga books, is the one who says that if you don’t have time for 10 minutes on your yoga mat, you’re the very person who needs to roll it out. (I’m paraphrasing here.) I took a weekend workshop from her a few years ago where we took long restorative yoga poses (30+ minutes of savasana) interrupted by short lectures. As you can imagine, by Sunday afternoon I felt quite relaxed.
Books are good, but I’ve gotten more out of taking classes from experienced teachers who like and practice restorative yoga themselves. There are also some very good streamed restorative classes on platforms such as glo.com and others. If you haven’t yet, give restorative yoga a try.
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