Understanding Restorative Yoga
One way to understand Restorative Yoga is to see it as a bridge between active asana and meditation. Active asana will create spaciousness, stretching, and expanding. The practitioner is the doer and the body responds as receiver.
What Happens During Restorative Yoga
In Restorative Yoga, there’s opening and expansion but no active stretching. Restorative yoga poses don’t increase range of motion nor build strength. Prop utilization creates sensations of complete comfort so practitioners are only the receiver.
Addressing tension in a Restorative Yoga practice is more than just muscular tightness. However, that kind of physical tension releases during practice. Certified yoga therapist Jillian Pransky defines tension in the context of restorative practice as “the body’s way of forming resistance over places of vulnerability.” This means the practice addresses tension that includes both a physical and psycho-emotional component.
Restorative Yoga is effective for managing conditions such as anxiety, depression, chronic fatigue, chronic pain, high blood pressure and gastrointestinal disorders. Restorative Yoga is also ideal for anyone recovering from illness or injury.
