restorative yoga

                                    

A personal disclaimer

I admit it. Lying, or seated, for ages (up to five minutes, for example), in a Yin, or restorative, pose, with pillows to ease me into the pose, is not for me. I am mostly a calm and peaceful person, but this would really irritate me. So I don't do it for this long. And, for myself, I would only ever use cushions and blocks if I was working on restoring my health, after illness or an accident. But this is just me, You might enjoy it. Many do.

The hormone equation

I met a woman not long ago, who did a Yin yoga class, and loved it. When she got home, she felt unwell and very exhausted. I could understand this. When the body is releasing hormones in a pose for too long a period of time, to me that is not good. Most of the poses stimulate our ductless glands, which then release hormones into the blood. Releasing, not creating lots of new ones. When the glands are healthy, they will produce these hormones, and this is one of the miracles of yoga. Hormones are fantastic in that they are integral to keeping our body ticking over, and for keeping us youthful and vital.

Is it possible that this above mentioned woman, had too big a hormone rush, and felt depleted afterwards?

Know how the body works

I am no scientist, just a humble yoga teacher. And I could be wrong with all this. But. Maybe I'm not? It reminds me of when people take the drug ecstasy, (which I have never, ever have done, I don't do drugs) and then get massive rushes of serotonin and dopamine, two of the major happiness neurotransmitters. What happens in this instance, is that our existing supplies of these two, are released en masse from our brain. They are not being created at these times, they are being used up. Then, afterwards, people get very depressed, because their supplies of serotonin and dopamine have been depleted. Not good.

And it's not rocket science to figure this all out. Not if you know your yoga. Not if you make time to find out how our body works.

I, myself, had first hand experience of this. many years ago. But it was in a different way. When I was undergoing some training, the teacher would have us do lots of surya namaskara (sun salutes), plus poses held for about three minutes each. Stretching, powering up, and extending into the poses. (yes, that was the yoga language of the time..... ) I found it horrible, and stopped going as the whole effect gave me inflammation, and I got tired and stiff. And stressed. And depressed.

Holding poses for one minutes would have been fine. Good, even.

                     

Asanas are restorative

The thing is, the poses are restorative in themselves. Especially when they are done according to our own capabilities. So if you can do a beginner version of a pose, and hold it for anywhere from three breaths through to one minute, whatever you can actually do, then the pose will be restorative.

The Yin and the Yang of it

I was teaching overseas a few years ago, at a yoga studio. One of the teachers had taken a class of Yin yoga, followed by Yang yoga. Yang being harder, more strenuous. A woman was complaining about it, she felt terrible from that class. She had been relaxed, then had to do hard, strong, poses straight after. This was beyond silly. Counterproductive. And also indicative of how untrained many yoga teachers are.

The most effective method is: harder, faster, first up, if you want to Yang the yoga,  then relax and restore. Try it in your own practice, and you will see.

People have different needs in how they restore themselves

And, a very big lesson that I learnt, in an eat-humble-pie-sort-of-way, is that some people need to keep moving to release stress. Such as runners. Others need a strong hard, workout to release stress. Surfers need to head to the ocean. Relaxing yoga is not for everyone, nor is yoga for everyone. I have a friend who enjoys to stretch into a pose, and feel the after effects. Some people just love gentle yoga, where you're not holding poses too long.

But for evening, I do believe that some sort of relaxation is a blessing, and we can combine this with poses, relaxation, and breathing. For ourselves. And, it would also make for a lovely end-of-week Friday evening class.