Can Restorative Yoga Change Your Life? By: Jen Greer

The research says YES! Our students and teachers wholeheartedly agree.
  
Restorative yoga—a gentle, passive style of yoga—invites you to drop into your vast, wise, peaceful, creative self. Scientifically speaking, it gives your nervous system a chance to shift into the parasympathetic state—also known as the healing state.
 
When you take time to rest in your self, in this state, it feels rejuvenating AND the benefits are often surprising, powerful, and consistent. We hear people say things like:
   
 Everything just seems easier for a few days after class.
 
I hadn't felt that relaxed since I can remember. It was like I'd spent a day at the spa!
 
After class, I slept peacefully through the night for the first time in weeks.
 
I noticed I was much less anxious and more confident at work.
 
My back feels so much better!
 
How does it work?
 
Your body experiences soft support from props—blankets, blocks and bolsters—while your mind receives support through the graceful guidance of the teacher. Together this creates the perfect recipe for relaxation and rejuvenation.
 
What if you have a hard time relaxing?
 
Having taught hundreds of students, I find that with skilled teaching like we have at Balanced for Life most people drop into relaxation relatively quickly. Some, like me, are exceptions. While it's getting easier with practice, really relaxing has long been a challenge for me.
 
If I can remember to make space for what is, even when it’s uncomfortable and far from what I think “should” be happening, I soften a bit. The breath starts to open up of it’s own accord.

Yet Restorative Yoga is life changing for me too. I attended Narayani's beautiful class this past Saturday. My mind had a hard time settling. I heard the steady breathing—snoring at times—of the lovely student to my right. My own breath felt shallow, uneven.
 
Of course my first reaction is to judge—I should be breathing more fully, I’m a yoga teacher for crying out loud! So then the next instinct is to try to change my breathing, to make it more like what I think it “should” be.
 
If I can remember to make space for what is, even when it’s uncomfortable and far from what I think “should” be happening, I soften a bit. The breath starts to open up of it’s own accord.
 
I find myself glimpsing peace in moments. And even though I didn’t drift away to dimensions unknown in our lovely extended Savasana, I felt slower, more grounded when I got up at the end of class. My body, tight from cycling, felt looser and more graceful.
 
The cloud of funk and gunk that seemed to be hanging over me all morning had mysteriously disappeared, and I drove away from the studio feeling uplifted and grateful.

Whatever you’re looking for, it’s closer than you think. And chances are, restorative yoga can remind you of this truth as it invites you home to your self.
 
You are brilliant.
 
I believe, and yoga teaches, that you are brilliant in all of your human ways of seeing and being and experiencing this life. And always lying just beneath the surface of your experience waits an infinitely wise, peaceful, magnificent self.
 
Restorative yoga is a powerful, delicious way to learn to hold the space for yourself exactly where and as you are, while also opening doorways into other dimensions that life within.
We are blessed to have a number of skilled and gifted Restorative Yoga teachers at Balanced for Life, each bringing her own unique skills and gifts.
 
Whatever you’re looking for, it’s closer than you think. And chances are, restorative yoga can remind you of this truth as it invites you home to your self.
 
Hope to see you soon.

-Jen