Restorative Yoga Therapy. Leeann Carey
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breakdowns, which is always rewarding. Troubleshooting solutions for different body types is a little like being in a lab. You never know how one insight will lead to another, so it is important to be open to the process. The only formula I know for this is meeting students where they are. I practice this acceptance on the mat. It’s not always easy, but it is always inspiring.
Throughout my travels, I’ve had the privilege of working with yoga instructors and students from all over North America and Canada. My experience in general is that too many practitioners feel bad when they run across a yoga pose they cannot execute well. What’s worse, I have perceived embarrassment and almost shame. I hear rumblings like, “My shoulders aren’t as flexible as Eric’s.” Or teachers share their concern when they aren’t as mobile as some of their students. My advice: welcome acceptance.
NEWS FLASH: There may be poses that you will never be able to practice well without accepting additional support. Or you may come to the realization that some poses aren’t right for your body type. Don’t feel defeated. Instead, consider this as a giving moment to embrace what is present. Adjust to the utter kindness of accepting support and letting go into what’s happening now. Strategic yoga prop support can help you learn how to safely and efficiently leverage your strengths, play with weaknesses, and explore them with a soft breath and calm mind. Sweet relief.
When you step onto your mat, do you ask, “How can I grow today?” or “How can I be more of myself today?” The time on our mat can be used to address these deep questions by recognizing and attending to our individual needs at the moment. Meeting ourselves where we are shines a light on what may be a missing ingredient in many yoga practices: acceptance and mindfulness of what is happening now. Learning how to efficiently use the body and breath as resources to focus, grow, or transform can bring attention to opening and integrating the Light that lives within.
I have a history of tight hamstrings and calves and a tight mid and upper back. This makes forward bends of all kinds my least favorite poses. The variation of Paschimottanasana (Seated Forward Bend Pose) shown in the photo above (and explained on page 91) offers the kind of support needed to move gently into the stretch of my tight legs and back. Yes, it’s a lot of support, but I’m not too proud to accept it. Over the years of my practicing this variation from time to time, it has helped me to make great leaps in my forward bending. It has improved my flexibility, and more important, it has taught me how to be more patient in a pose that I previously considered to be my nemesis.
Make It Calmer
Support also comes in the form of feeling that you are so well taken care of that you can completely surrender. Ahhh — nothing quite like it. The body and mind may require a level of healing in a yoga pose that can be offered only when properly supported.
Tom has had a couple of bad bouts with his lower back giving out. One evening he walked into my house for a casual dinner party I was hosting for friends. I watched him walk with a strong lean to one side, like a crab walking on the ocean’s uneven sandy bottom. After a visit to the doctor and some yoga therapy, his back healed. But there’s nothing more satisfying to someone who has been dealing with back pain than to voice an audible “ahhh” when put into a supported yoga pose that provides both physical release and mental relief.
A well-supported Balasana (Child Pose) — just what the doctor ordered.
STRATEGIC PROP PLACEMENT
Pose Alignment and Misalignment
Much of the time we don’t know what we are doing while we are doing it, even on the yoga mat. All kinds of misalignments occur without awareness, because habits have deep roots that are invisible to us — that’s why they are called habits. Yoga props help us highlight those common and repeated misalignments by preventing us from overworking mobile areas or by stabilizing and stretching underworked ones.
Bringing the Pose to You
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