How many times have you caught yourself saying, “I’m too busy to…fill in the blank?” Once a week? Once a day? Once an hour? We all want to live a full, beautiful life, but cultivating a balance between action and relaxation is essential. This week, how about adding in a quieter type of yoga to your repertoire?
Consider these 5 benefits of taking the time to chill out:
1. Pacify Your Nervous System
Slowing down and settling into a relaxing, restorative pose encourages you to step away from stress. For example, in a supported Vipariti Karani (Legs up the wall pose), your parasympathetic nervous system kicks in and calms your stress levels quickly. If you’ve had a tough day, restorative yoga is a way to reset. Soothing your nervous system helps keep your body and mind healthy.
2. Strengthen Your Body Acceptance
In a mellow yoga class, your focus shifts from “doing yoga” to “being yoga.” You aren’t flowing or sweating, instead, your body can relax and simply be perfect. When you aren’t attempting to arrive anywhere, you have space to appreciate your physical body exactly how it is.
3. Intensify Your Awareness
Restorative and slower paced yoga classes encourage you to turn inward and tune into how you’re feeling. When you settle into stillness and there’s no action required except to breathe and relax, a sense of freedom arises to examine your thoughts and emotions. You enter a safe space to tune into your authentic self.
4. Prepares You for Deeper Contemplation and Meditation
Many of us need to release the tension we’re holding in our tissues before we can quiet our mind. A sweaty Vinyasa class can be wonderful to relax the muscles, but a quieter slower practice does too, and on some days when we’re experiencing extra stress we need the deepened awareness of a quiet practice. You may be able to settle into the meditative state during yoga, before you begin a more formal meditation.
5. Balance Your Perspective
Life is a dance between rest and work, softness and strength, and yin and yang. When we make time to truly relax and restore our body, mind, and spirit we create more energy for the times we need it. Imagine if you didn’t sleep at night? In a matter of days or even hours, you’d collapse. Similarly, if you don’t give yourself permission to chill out, you can burn out.
Allow yourself to release and surrender in order to stay balanced. This weeks classes will help not only your body, but also your mind relax, with a mix of different yoga styles and a meditation class.
1. Patrick Montgomery - Root Back & Relax
2. Shy Sayar - Therapeutic Wall Yoga for Hips & Back
3. Geenie Celento - Transform Tension into Vitality
4. Shannon Paige - Saraswati Hangs in the Stars