Spring Into Calming Your Nervous System

Restorative Yoga

As many of you know Restorative Yoga is a passion of mine. My heart sings when I see a room full of students totally blissed out in a pose held by bolsters, blocks, blankets & straps with sandbags on their upper thighs or bellies.

I also love the sound of someone’s breath letting go. That deep ahhhhhhh. Their release becomes my release and I think, yes, mission accomplished!

Unfortunately anxiety, panic, anger, rage, hopelessness, depression, sadness, body aches and ailments, are a few of the sensations that hijack our nervous systems. We become overwhelmed or experience trauma and the nervousness system gets flooded or frozen into fight or flight.

So how do we catch and re-regulate our nervous systems before they either go to overdrive or plummet?

Teaching nervous system regulation has been an important part of my work Learning how to build a resource container, a toolbox, unique to our own nervous systems that we can dip into when needed is an important resource to have.

I was introduced to Restorative Yoga many years ago. I signed up for a training with Judith Lasater, an internationally known teacher of Restorative and student of the master and founder BKS Iyengar.

I became fascinated with the idea of combining it with other techniques to facilitate nervous system regulation and deep healing in a group context and use it in my private holistic psychotherapy practice.

I have props in my office So clients can lay in a restorative pose as I guide them through a body dialogue, or explore a past life, or teach a meditation technique using aromatherapy.

It is an effective way to help one let go of the stories in the mind and move deeper into unconscious issues as the NS begins to defrost and deep unconscious patterns can begin to unravel.

As I began my study of plant medicine, or aromatherapy my passion grew as I found this to be another modality to deepen healing using aromas to tap into specific emotions deep into the Limbic brain.

“Essential oils are natures medicine and an anecdote for all our symptoms and conditions. Only by going within can we gain back our health and well-being. Fragrance can disconnect our mental chatter and soothe our souls as we find our place in the world.” ~ Michael Scholes

The most difficult part for many the stillness. It takes practice. Learning and practicing the techniques I teach can be a helpful way to tolerate the restlessness that comes up.

ADD, boredom & depression created struggles in my own life. I became passionate about this work because it showed me how to shift my internal mental chatter and soothe my soul to find my place in the world.

Recently I was fortunate to meet a dear man Mr. Jack Graves, a reporter for the East Hampton Star. He was fascinated at the idea that even with his Titanium Knees he can participate in this yoga.

He wrote an article, Its gentle, restorative, to help to get the word out and a better understanding of if what it’s all about. Please have a read, and don’t miss my upcoming Restorative Yoga Workshop on April 22nd, 6:30-8:45pm KamaDeva Yoga.

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