8 Benefits of Restorative Yoga
Perhaps you’ve never heard of Restorative Yoga, but that’s why we’re here. In yogic terms, Restorative Yoga is a fairly new field of practice - built upon the teachings of B.K.S Iyengar it was developed by one of his students, Judith Lasater in the 1970s. The practice of Restorative Yoga stimulates the ‘Rest and Digest’ parasympathetic nervous system in the body which slows the heart rates, regulates blood pressure and relaxes the body.
“We work very hard in our lives, and while we may sleep, we rarely take time to relax. Restorative yoga poses help us
learn to rest deeply and completely.”
benefits of Restorative Yoga
Restorative yoga encourages physical, mental, and emotional relaxation.
It activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which helps create restorative yoga is practiced at a slow pace. During a restorative practice we focus on long holds, which helps to create this relaxation response in the body.
When we relaxed deeply in restorative yoga, focusing on stillness and deep breathing, it helps to reduce blood pressure.
All the organs systems benefit from this practice, as well as an improvement to digestion, our immune function, fertility and fatigue.
As the name suggests, this style of yoga “restores” the nervous system function to a balance state. If we think of our nervous system on a pendulum - when we live so often, in our modern lives, in a stressed ‘fight or flight’ mode at one end of the pendulum we need practices like restorative yoga to swing the pendulum back to neutral by drawing us into a parasympathetic response, a rest and digest state - creating more balance.
Anyone can practice. Regardless of your yoga experience, in each posture you can feel comfortable and supported.
Slow breathing and deep relaxation in the postures enhance your mood, and produce a feeling of calm and increased well-being.
It is known to be a supportive practice for depression and anxiety.
Fun fact, whilst Tadasana in the fundamental posture in Hatha yoga styles, Savasana is the foundational building block of all restorative yoga poses.
Join my weekly Restorative Yoga class, RESTORE every Thursday evening 7-8pm
“Relaxation is an art form we need to learn”