What is restorative anyway?
I have heard a number of people lately refer to my classes as Restorative. While that is a lovely thought — that people feel restored from my classes – I am concerned that it also is a misunderstanding of what Restorative Yoga actually is.
I encourage my students to approach their yoga from a place of rest no matter what the level of difficulty is. It is important to downregulate the nervous system for the simple reason that most of us are chronically up-regulated. Fascia works like its own nervous system, and so physiologically if we want to become more lithe (read strong and flexible), we need to have our fascia in a state of trust.
As I often say in my classes, no one relaxes because someone is yelling at them to relax. Approaching your fascia from a place of trust and ease, builds your ability to release and let go while also activating strength without triggering the sympathetic nervous system. Slow and steady allows us to engage specific muscles far more effectively, instead of continuously activating the same dominant groups of muscles. This method affords more ‘give’ from the fascia and therefore allows for greater transformation.
So yes, I do aspire to have my students fill their cups while on the mat with me. I do want to see a restoration of their energy and sense of personal power and strength whether they have signed up for Rest & Rebuild, Flex & Flow, or Deep & Delicious.
But this is not Restorative Yoga unless you are booking one of my 2 legitimately Restorative classes.
The roots of Restorative Yoga
The roots of Restorative Yoga track back to BKS Iyengar who saw yoga as a way to heal from injury. Using blocks, straps, and neuroscience-precision blanket folding, Iyengar developed a method to heal everything from chronic headaches to full on disease processes.
Both Vanda Scaravelli and Esther Myers, of my yoga lineage, were trained by Iyengar over many years. Esther opened the first Iyengar studio on Harbord st. in Toronto, but once she experienced Vanda’s evolution of his work, there was no going back to Iyengar’s approach.
Vanda found a way to listen to her body and act from its instructions. It was revolutionary and Esther followed in those footsteps.
Interestingly, Iyengar was not kind to his students. He had a strong militaristic approach to alignment and specificity of postures. He has been known to kick and slap students. That being said, he contributed a tremendous amount to the legitimacy of yoga as a method to avoid and also heal injuries and diseases. He was not teaching Restorative classes like we see today, but he was the father of the current understanding of yoga as a restorative tool.
Judith Hanson Lasater, an American yoga instructor, took the path provided by Iyengar to become a key developer of the glorious system we now know as Restorative Yoga. Like Iyengar, bolsters, straps, blocks, and blankets are all used to support students to recover and heal from various issues. Typically, supported postures are held for a longer period of time so as to allow for deeper layers of healing as well as greater calm within the nervous system.
This is different from Yin. Where you might do a lunge, pigeon, or hero’s pose in Yin, Restorative should not challenge the tissues like this. Restorative Yoga invites a very deep rest that then allows for healing and transformation through the magic of vagus nerve activation. Where many Yoga classes flow from pose to pose, a true Restorative class will feel more clunky as many of the postures will require extensive set up of props.
Personally, I find it all lovely but also quite fussy. The majority of our disease processes, mentally and physically, are based in inflammation which is raised by stress and difficulty. Is it necessary to fold a blanket just so in order to lower inflammation? Do I have to keep getting up to shift my props only to rest again? Not necessarily. Yes, it might feel amazing but it doesn’t have to be so complicated either.
Having begun teaching yoga in the late ‘90’s I have seen human stress levels change significantly from before 9/11 to the ensuing increase of chaos since it. I have witnessed a time where people settled into savasana pretty easily and quickly at the beginning of a class. Yawning would start within a few short minutes. Over the past 20+ years, this has changed remarkably. I can feel my students’ agitation as far as 40 minutes into a class these days. Settling the nervous system has become an acrobatic feat due to dissociation from a life on overdrive and over stimulation.
As a result, Restorative Yoga for me must begin from the perspective of embodiment, ease, and reduction of inflammation through activation of the vagus nerve. In this approach, the majority of issues will be addressed subtly but also profoundly. This is not a head-on attack but a slow and generalized journey to calm.
I do think that Lasater’s approach of props and support is calming but a plethora of props is not okay when I am teaching hybrid or if I want my students to be able to calm their adrenals in a few short minutes. A more accessible approach is to lessen the use of props and simplify the practice so that anyone can do any part of it at the drop of a hat. I am more interested in someone knowing that one deeper breath can make a difference in an agitated moment, than in how many bolsters and sandbags they can buy.
My approach is less specific to injury and disease and more broad in nervous system and anti-inflammatory practices. I just think that we have enough going on without making our Yoga complicated. I prefer to show a path to ease in a general sense so that when disease or injury hits, perhaps we can all freak out less and breathe more.
What does this look like?
There are two main components to restoring which are happening simultaneously throughout the time we have together.
One is that we need to flush the pipes. Through landing, letting go, and breathing deep breaths that stimulate movement in our internal organs, we can boost digestion, lymph flow, and even cleanse our liver and kidneys. Slow and calm movements will signal to our bodies that it is safe to release.
The second component is the refill which can only happen when we lower our shields and allow ourselves to receive again. Steady instructions in savasana including pratyahara are crucial to this shield lowering.
My words are slower and more spacious in Restorative. The lights are low as is the music. There is very little stimulation of sensory organs and this is strategic. Any and all movements are incredibly slow so as to never trigger the shields to rise.
Trust is tough to build in this world of shifting sands. My biggest focus is on my own consistent presence and cadence.
Many of us arrive on the mat with shelves full of clutter and disarray. Our windows of tolerance are totally fogged up. In a Restorative practice, through deep rest verging on sleep, we can begin to unclench, unbrace, and clear those shelves and windows.
Most of my restorative classes will begin with at least 10 minutes of savasana. Where in most classes I might suggest a great big yawny stretch, I may not in this class. There may be injuries or issues in the room that could be exacerbated by that intense stretch. Instead, I might suggest the head rolling slowly side to side. Knees bent will make this movement even safer and more effective as it would ease the lower back.
Every movement must be incredibly slow and predictable so that the nervous system never shifts to protective mode. I have a number of people with concussions from catastrophic accidents. They must not have surprises. Same with people who were diagnosed with cancer.
We don’t need surprises here.
As Bruce Lipton states in The Biology of Belief, our cells have only 2 modes – growth (or healing) and protection. We can only be in growth mode when we don’t feel a need to protect. Protection mode will always trump healing mode.
Restorative consciously and consistently activates growth mode and de-activates protection mode. It is a deeply healing journey and that is why many are drawn to it.
Breath is a huge part of a successful Restorative practice. Long inhales coupled with longer exhales will trigger the vagus nerve. I might invite Viloma breath with pauses so that clients can feel all parts of their bodies. However, breath retention can trigger anxiety so I might opt out of the pauses. Counting numbers as one breathes can trigger some with brain injuries. Moving one’s head side to side can trigger vertigo, so care needs to be taken there too.
I focus a lot on how the ground connects with the back body, the head, and the feet. This calms our minds. The movements might be as minor as moving the arms like seaweed in water.
Taking people to the parasympathetic system (growth mode) means we are bringing them to the edge between sleep and wake. Holding them there, away from their worries, is the art of Restorative Yoga for me. This is where the Vagus Nerve will awaken, sending a healing serum to the heart to begin the process of lowering inflammation.
If you were in my YTT programs, you may have assisted in a Restorative class. I likely told you that it is a bit like watching paint dry. But when you look more closely at what is happening, it is fascinating to watch students sink more and more into the floor and into themselves.
I feel energy more than see it, so I can’t really explain to you what I feel other than a landing. It is as though people’s spirits walked in the door 20 minutes into class and then laid down. Sometimes I don’t even realize that they are missing until the room feels full and calm. Thankfully over the pandemic, I discovered that I could still feel people who were online as opposed to in the room. Phew.
No Shields
From my perspective, Restorative Yoga is a really challenging practice. It reduces all distractions from ourselves and lands us smack in exactly how we are. That is hard. We have become master avoiders and Restorative calls us to account.
Restorative Yoga is also really challenging to teach. There is a lot of silence, a lack of keeping people entertained or busy. There are no shields.
This is a truly powerful practice, whether you teach it with a million props or a simple mat.
I do believe that approaching ourselves calmly and building trust is the only way forward in this unstable world. Does it have to be Restorative Yoga? No. Practice strengthening with the same calm. Go up in Downward Dog or even a Headstand from a place of ease and even joy.
Don’t use adrenaline on things that don’t need it. Save it for the stuff where you’ll need its turbo charge.
And in the meantime, if you need a little regeneration of those adrenals, do some Restorative. Ideally, you will do that in the middle of the afternoon when your energy naturally crashes or before bed to insure a really sound sleep.
Do we all need Restorative? Not necessarily. But we sure do need a whole lot of kindness and care right now. Let’s start our practices there.
