Restorative Yoga

Me trying to relax at the training in San Francisco. Right? With 80 other "relaxers"
chatting away while we learn how to be Restorative Yoga teachers not much relaxing and renewing here!

Restorative yoga, Relax and Renew is what restorative yoga guru Judith Lasater calls it, is about relaxing your body. To get there, you are propped up in various positions by blankets, blocks and bolsters. The few times I've practiced on people in order to get my certification, I have been most amazed at what a novel concept relaxing is to some people. "No, this is not about stretching or pushing or pulling," I tell my students. "This is about getting into a comfortable pose," I go on, "you know, about just letting your body find comfort and just settling into that." It's easy to tell when somebody finds relaxation. Recently, I put blankets under one of my new students, a yoga teacher, in such a way that her head fell gently over the top of them. OK, I could tell she was getting into the "moment." Then she put her arms out in T-formation...."Ahhhhh," was all she said! Yep, that's it! You are relaxed.

I find it hard to relax once I'm back into full-time work. That's easy during summer vacation but in a few days I'll be back at it, 6,000 hours a day; 87 days a week. I think I'll be bringing bolsters, blocks and blankets to my work! Lunchtime relaxing and renewing! That might just work for me :)