What is restorative yoga?

We will soon offer a new type of class on our schedule: restorative yoga. You might have heard about this relaxing form of yoga but maybe you are curious to know what it is exactly. No worries, after reading this you are all set for your first restorative class.

Restorative yoga

As the word suggests a restorative yoga practice is designed to, well, restore you. In a restorative class you encourage your body and mind to slow and wind down, restoring them to their optimal health. We live in a world filled with stimuli, from city sounds to blue light phones and from crying children to a constant flow of work emails. To sustain ourselves in this hectic environment we often call upon the ‘fight and flight’ mode of our nervous system disproportionally. To regenerate your nervous system (and with it: you) has to be allowed to switch off sometimes, to come into ‘rest and digest’ mode. That’s what a restorative yoga class is specifically designed to do: allowing your body and mind to relax and heal. Of course this is an aim in all our yoga classes but in a restorative class the therapeutic benefits of yoga are emphasised even more and we leave the athletic part at home. It’s basically adult nap-time.

So what does a restorative yoga class look like?

You know what’s even more difficult than moving into acrobatic yoga poses? Finding stillness. That’s why in a restorative class we aim to find stillness in our poses by using gentle postures that are designed to restore the body and mind in a kind way. This means that we do a lot of poses on the floor and we will hold each posture for anything from 3 up to 15 minutes, doing only a couple of poses per class. When the body is still, the mind often takes over so the challenge in restorative yoga is not purely a physical one, in the passive poses the focus is on ease and release and the body should be allowed to feel supported and relax completely. Nope, the challenge in a restorative class is often a mental one, you (re)learn to be at ease with the state of your body and your mind, using your breath as a tool.

What is the difference with yin yoga?

Some of you might read this and think about yin yoga and yes, they are very much alike. In restorative yoga we try find complete relaxation however, where in yin yoga some strain is put on parts of the body with the goal to facilitate a deeper stretch. In many of our classes you’ll find elements of both yin (relaxation, cooling) and yang (heat, action) but instead we often label them in the Indian tradition as Ha (sun) and Tha (moon). You will find the same difference in names and terminology in yin classes (Chinese foundation) and restorative classes (Indian foundation). It’s all in a name right?

Darcy Ecoma Verstege