You might bend your elbows, resting one hand on top of the other, or place another blanket folded into a plump square between your forearms, reaching forward as much as is comfortable, hands in line with your forehead. Lengthen your right leg behind you (toward and perhaps beyond the right rear corner of your mat) on a bolster placed diagonally so that it will support the right knee, shin, and foot.
If you leave a third or so of the blanket unfurled, you can use that unrolled part of the blanket under your right hip for padding. Lie on your left side in a fetal position, the blanket-covered block under your left ear and the left side of your waist supported by a blanket roll. After enjoying a few breaths here, switch sides.įor poses six and seven, start with: a block (covered by a blanket, if possible) where your head will soon be, and a partially rolled-up blanket across the middle of the mat. Hug yourself if you don’t have more blankets or bolsters. You can place a rolled-up blanket (or another bolster) lengthwise along your torso, and give it a loose hug. Supine Supported Cow Face Poseįrom supine supported chair, cross your right leg comfortably over your left leg. Arms may be placed wherever is comfortable for you. Lie on your back, knees bent over the bolster, feet on the blanket square. Move the bolster to the front of the mat, tilting it against the blocks. Remove the blanket roll from the middle of the mat. Keep the blocks and the blanket square and arranged as they were for the previous pose. Allow your chest to sink down as the pressure of the blocks moves the heads of your shoulders back toward the ceiling. If you have more props to spare, you might, as in the second photo, place eye pillows in your upward-facing palms, and a bolster at the back of the mat, where it will support the tops of your feet and the fronts of your ankles. (If the rolled-up blanket is moving you into a deeper backbend than feels good in your lower back, shrink the blanket roll, unfurling more of it.) (If the blocks are too intense, try moving them to a lower setting, or substituting blankets folded into squares for the blocks.) Have the rolled-up blanket an inch or two beneath your frontal hip bones, where it will both guide the hips deeper into their sockets and prevent the frontal hip bones from digging into the mat. Lie on your stomach with your forehead on the squared-off blanket, the tops of your shoulders on the block pillows, arms back alongside you. You might also want to place a partially rolled-up blanket horizontally across the middle of your mat, where it will support the tops of your thighs. Fold a blanket into a small square to support your forehead. Supported locust, a downward-facing pose, serves to turn one’s attention away from the world, setting the stage for relaxation, while blocks help to move the shoulders into place.Īt one end of your mat, set up two blocks at their middle height, shoulder distance apart, and drape them with blankets, if available. Restorative Gentle Yoga Sequenceįor poses one to three, start with: two blocks set on their middle settings, covered with blankets, if possible, and one blanket folded into a square at the top of the mat. You can also add one or two of these restorative poses to the end of a more active practice, or use any you like as a wind-down before bed. However, the poses may be done in any order that feels good to you. In the following gentle yoga sequence of passive poses based on “active” poses, at least two restorative poses will use the same prop arrangement, making the transitions between poses fluid, like those of a vinyasa practice. “A restorative pose is any pose in which the arrangement of your bones, the support of props, and the gentle pressure of gravity work together to rechannel the breath,” says Jonina Turzi. “You know it’s a healing pose for you,” says Turzi, “if it’s pleasurable and you’d like it to continue, and it’s allowing the vibrations of the breath into previously unreached, deeply held places.” According to Turzi, every tissue in the body, from the soles of the feet to the crown of the head, can and should receive movement from the breath. “A restorative pose is any pose in which the arrangement of your bones, the support of props, and the gentle pressure of gravity work together to rechannel the breath,” says Jonina Turzi, a doctor of physical therapy and owner of West End Yoga Studio in Lancaster, PA. Inventing and inhabiting new restorative poses refreshes our attentiveness and hints at the abundance of situations, in yoga and in life, in which relaxation is possible. We can take inspiration for new restorative poses from “active” poses and create classes for ourselves and our students that are as playfully varied as vinyasa practices.
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