Restorative Yoga 1:1
A typical restorative yoga session lasts 60 minutes. At your first appointment, you’ll meet with Sarah. You’ll have a short introduction or chat and your expectations or intentions. Here we can discuss any symptoms you want addressed or if there are places in the body on which you’d like to focus on.
What is Restorative Yoga?
Restorative yoga is a style of yoga that encourages physical, mental, and emotional relaxation. Appropriate for all levels, restorative yoga is practiced at a slow pace, focusing on long holds, stillness, and deep breathing.
Unlike more active yoga styles such as vinyasa, you can expect to hold a pose for 5 minutes or more, only performing a handful of poses in one restorative yoga session.
Gentle, supportive, and therapeutic are just a few words that describe restorative yoga. At its core, restorative yoga is a practice of passive healing.
This yoga style is known for its ability to activate the parasympathetic nervous system. This is the “rest and digest” part of your nervous system that helps keep basic functions working as they should.
As the name suggests, this style of yoga “restores” the body to its parasympathetic nervous system function, which, in turn, helps the body rest, heal, and restore balance.
By allowing time for longer asanas (postures or poses) and deeper breathing, restorative yoga helps elicit the relaxation response. This response can help slow breathing, reduce blood pressure, and produce a feeling of calm and increased well-being.
A key feature in restorative yoga is the use of props such as blocks, bolsters, or blankets. The props help you hold passive poses for longer without exerting or tiring out your muscles. It also allows you to feel comfortable and supported, regardless of your experience with yoga.
And, since you’re encouraged to relax fully in the pose while focusing on your breath, restorative yoga allows you to release tension in your muscles for longer periods without discomfort.
What are the Benefits?
The benefits of restorative yoga are similar to many of the benefits you may experience with other forms of yoga. Key benefits, supported by science, include the following:
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Relaxes your mind and body. Yoga is linked to reduced stress and anxiety, and lower levels of cortisol, the stress hormone.
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Relaxes your mind and body. Yoga is linked to reduced and anxiety, and lower levels of cortisol, the stress hormone.
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Soothes the nervous system. Restorative yoga helps shift the balance from your fight-or-flight response (sympathetic nervous system) to your relaxation response, or the parasympathetic nervous system.
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Enhances your mood. Yoga promotes relaxation and deep breathing, which, may reduce depressive symptoms.
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Reduces chronic pain. Experience shown that yoga may help reduce pain associated with headache or back pain, as well as osteoarthritis.
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Improves sleep. Studies have shown that adding yoga to your daily routine may help boost the quality of your sleep.
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Improves well-being. In addition to lower levels of stress, researchers have also found that doing yoga regularly may result in less fatigue, more vigour, and improved well-being.
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Gentle on your body. Restorative yoga is generally safe and often recommended for people with acute or chronic injuries.
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Works as part of an overall treatment plan for chronic health conditions. People with a chronic illness may benefit from a regular practice of yoga.
