Why Restorative Yoga is So Important for our Modern Time

We live in incredible times, albiet very busy times. Being stressed out, over-worked and over-stretched has become very common. We are juggling the work-life balance, family, relationships, aging parents, our own health issues, trauma, loneliness, isolation, conflict, difficult work environments, lack of sleep, financial pressures, and of course the regular pressures of running a home and a life. We are balancing ten plates at once, and trying not to drop anything.

Thankfully our collective awareness around stress, anxiety, and our overall metal health is becoming normalized. We are becoming better as a society in supporting one another and encouraging one another to speak up when we are struggling. We are all human, and at some point we have all needed to take a step back and reassess.

In our modern times it is so important to utilize personal practices to help relieve stress and anxiety before we reach a breaking point that leaves us feeling as though we are drowning. One of the methods that has been proven successful is using restorative yoga . If you have never tried this still and nurturing form of yoga practice I highly recommend giving it try. There are so many benefits to this slow healing style of yoga.

1. It slows everything down

Everyone needs a break. A break in which we don’t have to worry about the time, or about accomplishing anything at all. Restorative yoga allows you to move slowly into stillness, to release deep held tensions in your body and mind, and to let your worries go (even for a short while) as you reach a deeper level of awareness.

2. Helps soothe the nervous system

Restorative yoga is full of deep breathing, perhaps our most direct source to calm our nervous system. This style of practice can help to reduce the fight or flight response that many of us spend our entire day in. Connecting to a deep, full body breath changes the chemical response of the brain which encourages us to finally let some of our stress and anxiety leave the body.

3. Helps you to feel safe

A reality in this modern era is that we are bombarded with an overwhelming amount of news and information, locally, nationally, and globally. This can make us feel very uneasy. Restorative yoga can help us work through layers of fear, uncertainty and anxiety. As we start to loosen the grip of our habituated stress we may start to find a source of inner safety. A reminder that although there is much in this world we cannot control that we have a refuge within we can retreat to when the world feels too much.

4. Helps with decision making

One surprising effect of restorative yoga is that it can provide the feeling of coming home to ourselves, giving us a source of self knowledge. It is a true gift to rest into the home of ourselves without the pressure to do, or to be anything. When we cultivate this as a practice, and learn to trust ourselves and our intuition again, it can becomes easier to make decisions for ourselves that will serve us. This can goes a long way in eliminating some of life’s stressors.

With all that we face in these modern times, we must find a way to balance our lives. The recipe we come up with for ourselves is vital to our over all health. Maybe adding Restorative yoga to your personal self care tool box can help to ease some anxiety, stress and fear from your life too. It might be just what the doctor ordered.