Restorative Yoga: The Struggle is Real

Bliss? ..... Or Torture?

I woke up are 4:57 AM today.

I tried to go back to sleep. I tried pretty hard actually. Husband was asleep. Bub was asleep. The house was quiet, the time was mine. 

Much to my surprise, I got up and made it 10 steps to the living room where I collapsed in a heap with my yoga props.
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During my yoga teacher training I learned there are two types of yoginis in the world, "Pushers" and "Sensualists."

Pushers are drawn to hot, sweaty vinyasa classes. They love a challenge, strive to find the next edge, and thrive on control and progress. Sensualists are more about, you guessed it, the sensations. They enjoy the surrender and relaxation of the asana practice. 

We were asked by show of hands what category we belonged to. Most of the room raised their hand for the "pusher" mentality, including myself. I lived for vinyasa and teacher training was THE best because we doing up to five hours of active yoga a day! I was in my element.

"Pushers," the teacher said. "If you are a pusher, then you need more restorative yoga in your life. And sensualists, you should try to take more vinyasa classes. You usually need what you are not drawn too."

 I couldn't think of anything worse. I needed restorative yoga? Says who? Why take a restorative yoga class when I could just have a nap instead? I longed for fast paced classes that made me feel like I accomplished something. I wanted a breath with each movement. I wanted to be so in the zone the I was unable to think about anything else. No stress, no distractions. The busy mind fell away during vinyasa because I'd work so hard, and got so damn tired, I couldn't think about anything except: stick this pose -  don't fall over  - breathe  -  breathe  -  breathe. I used to flow until I was near vomiting, checking for a quick exit in case I did chunder. True story.
I was quite literally pushing myself to exhaustion... and for what? 

I was using asana as bandaid. Asana is so much more than that. 
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Yoga should be used as tool to open the mind and the body in order to facilitate transformation. It shouldn't just be a workout; I should have known better.

​I decided to try Restorative yoga and give it a red hot go. My first experience was, simply put, horrible. I hated every single second of the class. From memory, we did four poses in the hour, and all I did was look at the clock, wondering how much longer we were going to be in said position. My body was screaming to move. The long static holds were agony and being left alone with the company of my own thoughts made my head want to implode. 

I left angry, agitated and in a foul mood. I'd attended the class after a full 9 hours of teacher training and marched home in a tissy, regretting my decision and affirming out loud, "As if I'm ever going to do that again."

“A lot of people think that restorative yoga is like a bliss practice, where they’ll just be lying around and relaxing,” says Jillian Pransky, the national director of restorative yoga training for YogaWorks. “But the practice of being still and restful provokes anxiety for many people. And during times of extreme stress, such as illness, a difficult transition, or grief, releasing control of the body can overwhelm the nervous system.”​

Turns out, I'm not alone. What a relief!  I thought I was the one person who felt paralyzed during the class, crippled with anxiety. 
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A few years later, I was asked to teach restorative yoga at my favorite yoga studio in Melbourne. Inside, I silently rolled my eyes, but I said I'd think about it. I didn't need to think about it, I knew I was not a good candidate because it was a style of yoga that I wasn't passionate about. I felt like teaching it would be inauthentic, not to mention, boring. 

I mulled it over some more, and eventually decided to give it a go. I felt that I needed to keep pushing my boundaries so that I could continue to grow as a teacher. I read up on it, practiced at home, wrote out fervent lesson plans and attended my second and third class at the studio where I would be teaching. I still struggled during the classes, but I had matured quite a bit, and I had many hours of teaching under my belt at this point. I was nowhere near hooked, but I was interested in the potential that restorative yoga could offer. 

I taught my first class on a weekday, can't remember when it was exactly. People had come after work, before dinner, for some quiet time. I had the perfect music picked and a stellar lesson plan. I was determined to deliver the best class I could, one that I might have enjoyed taking. 

I felt really fantastic after the class and I got a lot of kind feedback from the students. I felt as if I had just completed a class myself. I was super mellow, calm, and I felt like a million bucks watching people leave as if they were walking on air.

I was hooked. 

I found a three day intensive Restorative Yoga Teacher Training in Melbourne through Ana Davis of Bliss Baby Yoga. I enrolled with my mate Rachael and we studied to our hearts content about the parasympathetic nervous system and the benefits of the practice. We had both discovered this practice later in life and were keen to learn more about the science behind the asana. 

What is Restorative yoga?
Restorative yoga is a yogic approach of limiting options for the body to continue to be carried by fear, pain, stress, and tension by using different props to make us weightless; removing all pressure on the body's joints; and holding the pose for six minutes up to an hour. Restorative yoga aids the so-called "Relaxation Response" in the brain, which is the healing mode for our being.
 Ulrica Norberg

I fell head over heals in love with teaching restorative yoga. I'm not sure if it's the dimly lit room, the melodic hum of the music (or no music, even better), or maybe it was the drastic shift in the student's body language from the beginning of class to the end of savasana.

Much to my surprise, I started to get a little following of regulars, and many of them started to confide in me about their struggles with anxiety and depression. It took me back to my initial class where I felt so tightly wound. I panicked thinking, "Oh crap. They already have anxiety. It is your job to FIX it." But it wasn't my job, it was their job. That was why they came, to help remedy their busy minds and hectic days. My mission was to allocate the stressors, slow it down, get them to unravel, breathe, surrender, breathe some more, just be in the one place... we are all in the together after all.  

I always went out of my way to take 2 minutes at the beginning of class to explain what restorative yoga was, how it worked and that we would be holding the poses for some time. This was a blanket statement for new and old students alike. I wish the teacher of my first restorative yoga class had the same courtesy because I would have spent less time predicting a pose change and more time going inward and chilling out.

And don't think I've lost sight of the irony of this situation. Isn't funny how we changed and evolve as individuals? Since having a baby, by body has changed significantly, and my desire to practice has shifted as well. I'm no longer drawn to hot sweaty vinyasa classes like I once was. Nowadays I find a strong pull toward slowing down. Gentle, slow flow classes and restorative yoga are my JAM lately. I feel like I need yoga now more than ever, and I don't want to escape my thoughts. I love my thoughts. And yes, they get loud sometimes, but that's OK. That's life, and I love my life and the ability to bask in this ancient practice. 

So as my yoga props caught me this morning at 5am, I was more than thankful . . . and smirked to myself at how naive I once was.

EMK