What activity (or nonactivity) works best for you when you want to feel calm and centered during a chaotic period? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
In 2011, I took my first Restorative Yoga class. I was becoming my parents’ caregiver. I was exhausted from traveling more frequently to Chicago from Atlanta to check on them, speeding through my days, juggling my home-based business responsibilities. I arrived to class ready to twist myself into a pretzel and ‘om’ like a pro. But what I got wasn’t at all what I expected! It felt like we did nothing!
In this typical class, we did five or six easy and comfortable poses, which we held without problem for up to fifteen minutes. We sat on the floor or laid on plush yoga props. The room looked like a slumber party when we finished. I felt rested, loose and limber, and my mind was quiet. I could access my intuition and inner wisdom.
Restorative Yoga is Legit
In those first classes, I was one of just a few Black people. So, I questioned, “Is Restorative Yoga really Yoga, and is there a benefit for me as a Black woman?”
So often, we look to Yoga to improve our physical shape or complement a more dynamic activity like running or biking. Yoga is more than that. It strengthens our capacity to let go, surrender and be—which for a lot of us is either an underused or unknown muscle. Active yoga strengthened my physical core. Restorative Yoga strengthened my emotional resilience.
According to Dr. Gail Parker, Restorative yoga is particularly good for Black people. In her book, Restorative Yoga for Race-Based Stress and Trauma, she discusses how it can help heal generational pain and mitigate the regular experience of microaggressions. Dr. Parker writes that Restorative Yoga teaches us to experience our negative emotions and discomfort without letting it wound us, and instead just let it move through us.
Nowadays there are several flavors of Restorative Yoga: Classical Restorative, Nidra, and Yin, are a few. A Restorative class at a studio will usually come with a range of props provided, and the teacher will guide you through the poses. Some classes include spoken cues while you rest, chanting, music, poetry, or even sound baths.
Create Your Own Restorative Yoga Experience at Home
- First, claim the time for your restorative session. Fifteen minutes is fine, just do one pose. Tell family, roommates, and pets that you need some time for yourself.
- Wear your most comfortable relaxing clothes. Then, gather several blankets, large and small pillows or cushions, a clean washcloth, a chair or ottoman.
- Cultivate warmth, stillness, quiet, and darkness in yourself and your environment. For example, clothes and blankets, and room temperature address warmth. Low lights or an eye mask control darkness.
- Remove distractions. Put your phone on silent, but set the timer with a gentle alert to signal when to finish the pose, or use a timer separate from your phone.
Two Simple Restorative Yoga Poses:
Both these poses can be done by most people. If the floor doesn’t work for you, do it on a bed. Create a ‘cushioned mat’ by laying some folded blankets on the floor, roughly the size of a yoga mat (5.5’ x 2.5’). The final step is to cover yourself with a blanket, place a folded washcloth over your eyes, and rest your hands on the floor or your belly. Hold for up to fifteen minutes.
Instant Maui
Very helpful to relax the spine and pelvis. Place your cushioned mat in front of a chair seat or ottoman (narrow end toward the chair). Place a small head pillow ~3 feet from the chair seat on the cushioned mat. Lay back and pull the pillow under your head and shoulders. Lift your feet to lay them on the seat of the chair.
Reclining Butterfly
Encourages release in the tendons and muscles of the hips. On your cushioned mat, place a small head pillow and your folded washcloth toward one end. Take two larger pillows or cushions and lay them on either side, about mid-way down the mat’s long side. Place an open blanket near your feet. Lay on the cushioned mat. Pull the head pillow under the head and shoulders. Make a butterfly with your legs. (Bend your knees with feet flat on the floor. Open your knees wide to opposite sides. Soles of feet touch.) Tuck the pillows under the opened knees for support.
Once you’re in the pose: Take a moment. Does anything feel uncomfortable? If yes, fix that. Add a pillow a blanket, turn on some music, whatever you need. Once you’re truly ready, close your eyes or lay the washcloth over them. Take long slow breaths. If that doesn’t relax you, mentally catalog your major muscles, squeezing and releasing them one at a time. After a while you may find that you forget the exercise. That’s perfectly fine. You’re finished with that pose when the timer goes off, or you find yourself moving spontaneously (shifting your hips, moving your hands, etc.).
Many people don’t hold these poses for the maximum suggested time when they first begin practicing Restorative Yoga. You may find being still surprisingly difficult. As you continue to do the poses you may hold them longer effortlessly as you feel safer being vulnerable. Recently, I practiced Restorative Yoga at a retreat with other Black women in the Georgia mountains. In that communal environment, my guard descended even further, and I felt safer going into a deeper state of release. At the opposite end of the spectrum, if you fall asleep, that’s fine. Sleep isn’t our goal, but rest is rest.
What activity (or nonactivity) works best for you when you want to feel calm and centered during a chaotic period? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
