Jillian Pransky is my main teacher of Restorative Yoga. I have done my restorative trainings with her and have learned so much from her. I started a new class at Still on Thursdays at 6PM, a Restorative class. Restorative yoga, as Judith Lasater says in her classic book Relax and Renew: Restful Yoga for Stressful Times, is about "being and not doing." It is sequenced like a yoga class but we only do about five or six poses, held for about 7-10 minutes, thus allowing the body to rest. There are gentle warm-ups, inversions, backbends, forward bends, twists and savasana. It's an incredibly powerful class as we let the body's innate healing capacity unfold. The "Relaxation Response" is a term coined by Dr. Herbert Benson which describes what happens physiologically to the body as it is resting (ie, lower blood pressure, slower heart rate, improved digestion...) When we are in a restorative class, the relaxation response sets in, and it heals the body, even if your mind is active, even if your thoughts are agitated. It is the opposite of "fight or flight" stress response which is where so many people find themselves nowadays. If you get a chance, please check out a Restorative class. Shari Goodhartz teaches on Sundays at Still and she is incredibly knowledgeable and another one of my teachers. She teaches on Sundays at 5:30PM.

My sequence today for Restorative was:

1) Gentle warm ups: cat/cow; cow to child's pose

2) Gentle backbend: take the blanket as it is folded at the studio. Open it once and roll it tightly using the long end. Sit in front of it with the blanket touching your sacrum and lie down with the blanket right underneath your spine. Add another blanket if you like as a pillow for your head. 10 min.

3) Legs up the wall. With a bolster under the hips, but make sure your booty is coming a bit towards the floor, with the bolster is a few inches from the wall so that your groins are soft. Have a strap over your calves to keep shins in. 10 min.

4) Side stretch. Have a bolster against your right hip horizontally. Lie over it and stretch your left arm over your head. 10min each side.

5) Supported Bridge: Have a bolster vertically under your torso but your shoulders and head are going to be on the floor. Have two folded blankets under your feet/ankles and the feet are against the wall. Have a strap over your calves. 10 min.

6) Lie face down with the bolster under your groins. Make a pillow with your hands. After 5min. turn head to other side.

7) Savasana. With bolster under knees. Rolled blanket under neck. Blanket covers feet. Optional, blanket over belly/groins. 10 min.

I read Mary Oliver's poem "Messenger" at the beginning of class:

"My work is loving the world.

Here the sunflowers, there is the hummingbird-

equal seekers of sweetness.

Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.

Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

Are my boots too old? Is my coat torn?

Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me

Keep my mind on what matters,

which is my work

which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished."

Lastly,

today is my father's birthday. 

And since I know he reads my blog:

Feliz Cumpleaños Papi! 

Que Dios te bendiga en este dia. 

Te quiero muchisimo. 

Gracias por apoyarme y quererme tanto viejito! 

Te quiero mucho mucho mucho!