Lately I’ve been struggling with my at-home yoga practice. It’s winter here, and while I’m famous in my house for not being that fabulous in the morning, my daily yoga and meditation practice had helped me to be much brighter in the mornings. We can all relate to waking up when it’s still dark, it isn’t easy, and even though the sun has been rising earlier as the days get longer, all I want to do is roll over and sleep some more. This has been going on for about two weeks now and I was beginning to worry. I asked myself, “What’s going on with you girl? You were doing so well with your practice Heidi, what’s happened to you?” I thought, well, my day job has been been kicking my ass lately and I know this has a lot to do with how tired I am, so it’s not just the winter. There has been an upside to all this though and it’s that I’ve been spending more time on my meditation cushion in place of my time on the mat. Even through all this I have still made it to evening classes with my teacher once or twice a week, but at home, still my body only wants to do relaxing and restorative poses like supine twists, inversions and lots and lots of savasana.
I decided to seek help, and so after class on Tuesday night I spoke to my teacher and asked his advice. His answer was gloriously simple. He said I should listen to my body and go with the restorative poses, and that our practice moves in cycles and if this is what my body needs, then I should let go and give in to it. Of course, so obvious right?! As a result I’ve kicked those pesky negative thought patterns to the curb and decided to listen to my body’s needs and those feelings of guilt have completely gone!
So my friends, if you’re feeling run-down or in need of a little self-nurturing, you might like to try some restorative poses. Some of the poses I have been enjoying are viparita kirani, supported child’s pose (using a bolster), supta baddha konasana, supta padangusthasana, upavishta konasana, setu bandasana and of course, savasana. Do you have any other restorative poses you like to practice, I’d love to know if you do, please share them with me.
love & light xo