Week 3: Create a habit of Restorative Yoga

Kia Ora,

Welcome to the acro-wine challenge : Creation of healthy habits! If you got there, you’ve already done a good job and you can be proud of it.  

Congratulate yourself for keeping up and doing your exercises every day, because you are already and yes ALREADY halfway through this mini-challenge! Let’s go back to the beginning and see what we have already covered in the past two weeks. 

If you haven’t skipped stages normally, you’ve already completed two challenges: 

YOUR CHALLENGES MET

• Week 1 : During the first week you started to create good Static stretching habits.
• Week 2 : During the second week you performed the stretches of your choice in a dynamic way.

If you’re reading these lines, it’s because you want to continue the challenge and you’re happy to have completed your first 2 weeks! Do not hesitate to tell us what you have appreciated the most so far or your difficulties if you have encountered any.

For this third week of Challenge, we offer you a different style of postures! Make way for RESTORATIVE or RESTORATIVE yoga (it has two names).

This practice is done in a lying position, which is why we recommended that you do at least 2 sessions in a lying position in the last two weeks. Today you will understand why!

The objective of week 3: discover restorative yoga:

How to proceed ?

The procedure is simple, because it is exactly the same as the previous weeks. 

• Keep up the momentum by taking 5 minutes out of your day to do the family postures of your choice (Static or Dynamic).
• And before you fall asleep at night, take some time for yourself and do one of the Restorative yoga postures that we suggest (page 2 of the 3 week tracker ).

The objective of this week is therefore to do your usual 5 minutes of stretching 😉  plus 20 minutes of restorative relaxation (at the beginning or at the end of your day) – If you only hold 10 minutes in Restorative Yoga it is already very good and congratulations for that!   

We will repeat what the steps are in case you skipped week number 1. 

For the 5 min of daily exercise:

• I start my stopwatch.
• I do a family of exercises (dynamic or static) with the help of the week 1 or 2 tracker.
• I reach a minimum of 5 minutes.
• I take my week 3 tracker and check the corresponding box.

In the evening, at home, the same day:

• I take time for myself before falling asleep at night.
• I choose a restorative yoga pose and practice it for 20 minutes.
• I take my tracker to check the corresponding box.
• I go to bed more relaxed than ever.

Do not hesitate to share your adventure with us in the comments. If you succeeded or not to get 2 moments just for you in your day and especially if you managed to relax. 

Find below our advice for the Restorative yoga session: 

How to create a restorative yoga environment?

Before you start, it’s important to put your smartphone on silent, as this will save you precious minutes of distraction. Program an alarm with the time you have decided to devote to your practice. We love using the alarm with the sound of Tibetan bowls, this sound that rises in CRESCENDO is just magical and it helps to avoid coming out of your meditation too abruptly.

To set the mood, we recommend:

Optional, but magical: turn off the lights and be in the dark. Choose a playlist/CD with quiet music and put some candles in the room along with some incense. Take your comfortable position of Restorative or Restorative Yoga and love yourself <3.    

Our little advice is to create the atmosphere and mood well in advance. If you want to do your session on your way home from work, for example, it is ideal to prepare what you need in the morning, so when you get home everything is already ready! It also avoids slipping away or forgetting to do your restorative yoga session. 

Once your Set up is finished, take the restorative posture you have chosen and close your eyes. 

• Start with a gentle, deep inhalation.
• Hold the air for a moment, then slowly let it out in a long, smooth exhale.
• Take this rhythm over several cycles of breathing. 
• Then focus on your body, connect with the way you breathe, how the air goes in and out.

Do not try to regulate or control your breathing during the exercise; all you have to do is be aware. It is about BEING and not DOING .

If you are not used to this type of exercise, you may find it difficult to concentrate on the subtle sensations that accompany the breath. If you ever have trouble, here is what we offer: 

Say in your head: “in” each time you breathe in and “ex” when you breathe out. When you notice your attention wandering, don’t judge yourself. Focus on the sensations of your whole body as you breathe. Do this exercise for several minutes.

Why practice restorative yoga:

Although the purpose of this practice is not to fall asleep, it is not uncommon for this to happen. If this happens, it’s just a sign that it’s time to unwind for a bit and rest. 

We offer these postures regularly and we often conclude in the majority of cases that people are not used to relaxing. Many people aren’t used to stretching. It’s a little like REST and SLEEP are one and the same thing.

The basic breathing of restorative yoga:

The breath is always new, fresh and ALWAYS happens IN THE PRESENT , which is why we use the breath as an anchor.

He is always with us, even if we don’t observe him or think about him too much.

How much time do you spend contemplating your breathing cycle? This thing so light and simple.

Don’t forget that breath is life!

We will now briefly see that restorative yoga is perfect for starting to meditate. 

Meditation has its place when we practice restorative yoga.

Meditation and restorative yoga: 

Meditation is not an exercise that requires the intellect. It’s about connecting (or reconnecting) to what’s going on inside of you. We are more used to looking at ourselves in the mirror than in the eyes of others. We worry more about other people’s approval of our outward appearance and we forget to look inside ourselves… 

We have spent a large part of our life doing something other than being present to what is happening right now. 

When you take your first steps in meditation, you may find that this practice can be difficult.

We chose restorative yoga because it facilitates relaxation, we have everything we need to be comfortable in restorative yoga and it gives us a solid springboard for meditation. Unlike traditional meditation where it is better to sit cross-legged.

The mind is used to meditate on the future or the past, but we have to retrain it to return to the present.

We hope you take full advantage of your little restorative session, you deserve it so much! <3

Let’s summarize the essence of this two-step challenge:

• Feel good during and after stretching.
• Enjoy taking time for yourself

Don’t forget to download this week’s Tracker number 3 to get the Restorative/ Restorative Yoga postures.

Cheers and see you soon!

Acro-Wine