Benefits of Restorative Yoga

Happy Autumn from all of us at Hometown Yoga Lambertville!

As we move from the bright, lightness of summer, we come to a time when the daylight hours and hours of darkness are more in balance in Autumn.  During this time, it's a good idea to move into balance with our Yoga practice too.  Not only do we continue the practices that honor the light, movement and flow like Hatha & Vinyasa yoga, but also we carve out the time to honor the stillness and the dark with Yin and Restorative Yoga.  

As you may know, I talk a lot about Yin Yoga and its benefits since it's a passion of mine, but I haven't written that much about Restorative Yoga.  In Yin, we apply gentle stress to release our fascia and connective tissue over a period of 2 to 5 minutes per pose.  In contrast, a Restorative pose completely supports the body so that it can deeply relax and heal.  You can safely stay in a Restorative pose anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes. 

Some of the many benefits of Restorative are:  As the body and mind relax, we produce lower levels or cortisol, the stress hormone; the practice shifts the balance from our sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) to the parasympathetic nervous system; the deep relaxation improves our mood and may help to alleviate symptoms of depression; it can reduce chronic pain and may improve the quality of our sleep.  Furthermore, Restorative Yoga can be practiced safely for women who are pregnant and people with chronic injuries or health conditions.