Why Restorative Yoga

I discovered restorative yoga in March this year. After my first restorative yoga class with Adelene Cheong, I felt as if I had received nourishment at some deep inner level. I loved how it made me feel. I remember asking Adelene about wanting to keep this feeling with me through the day, well beyond the class. She simply smiled, told me to continue with regular practice and said that it will come with time.

For the last six months I have attended her weekly class. The class has become one of the highlights of my week. I look forward to it every week and miss it when it does not happen. Sometimes I feel deeply relaxed, sometimes I feel very loved and deeply nurtured, sometimes I experience deep emotional releases, all this simply from lying in a comfortable yoga posture. Lying wrapped in blankets in super comfortable postures has sometimes felt like being in the womb.

I have come to love this practice so much that it is easy to make my way to the yoga mat every morning and practise it regularly. It helps me to relax and feel better.

I wanted to learn more about this practice of restorative yoga so much that I found myself attending the five day residential retreat ‘Relax and Restore immersion’ to teach restorative yoga with Adelene Cheong, though not quite sure if I would like to teach it.

As I have experienced the practice more deeply, I have come to realise that it is not too dissimilar to Reiki, my core spiritual practice since 2001. I feel that both the practices are vast, far beyond what my mind can imagine. I receive a little bit at a time. each time I self-practice.

On the second day of the retreat, as I sat down on my yoga mat, I noticed a photograph of Buddha on the wall opposite me. I had sat in the same spot the day before for a good few hours, but had not noticed the photo. In that moment I felt this is how a daily practice works. Each time I practice, I discover something about the practice that I was not aware of until that moment.

I received so much from being immersed in this practice over 5 days that I realised I have to share it with others. I feel this practice helps me to relax, be more at ease within my body, and therefore navigate life with more ease through being able to make better choices for myself.

I received a wonderful example of this on the journey home from the retreat. I had two heavy bags with me, as we had to take our own yoga props to the retreat. While sitting on the train it suddenly occurred to me that I could get off a station earlier and use a lift to change trains. This helped me avoid having to carry the two heavy bags up and down the stairs. I found it really interesting to discover later that I was not alone in making this choice. My roommate at the retreat, who had travelled on a different train to London, had made the same choice.

If you would like to find out more about restorative yoga, about how this seemingly simple practice of resting in a comfortable yoga pose, supported by some props like blankets and cushions, can have profound effects on enhancing wellbeing on all levels – physical mental, emotional and spiritual – please do get in touch. No previous experience of yoga is necessary. Especially recommended for people who may have wanted to do yoga but have kept away from yoga classes thinking they are not flexible enough.

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