By Elizabeth Henshall

Ashtanga Yoga or Restorative Yoga – how to make the choice

Ashtanga Yoga is very different to the gentle practice of Restorative Yoga. In fact Ashtanga Yoga is a lovely choice for people who are strong and healthy but it would not be a good choice for anyone who has been recently ill, is suffering from burnout or quite chronic stress related conditions such as high blood pressure, severe headaches or chronic fatigue syndrome. The more active forms of yoga such as Ashtanga, with its emphasis on building towards physical strength as well as flexibility, tend to move quickly with the breath of the person doing the practice and form very beautiful flows of movement which are followed carefully by the Ashtanga practitioner. At its best the student can mediate as they do the flow but they have to have good health and a strong body to do this. For those who know a little about yoga sequences like ‘The Salute to the Sun’ is a good example of an Ashtanga flow.

For the person who has been ill and wants to start on a self-help route to recovery and wellbeing this form of Yoga is not advisable. That person’s body needs to rest, refresh and restore itself quietly and gently while it heals. Restorative Yoga helps that happen by emphasising the unique needs of a body whose nervous system has been overloaded and whose immune system has started to break down under ongoing stress – or which is in pain following distress in their muscular or skeletal systems. A restorative yoga session will involve only 4 or 5 postures which will each be held for some minutes but there will never be any strain placed on the body because each pose is TOTALLY supported by soft props. The careful placing of these props means that the body is free to relax and release its own powerful healing system while the person is taken through the most essential postures for their needs. Bodies are clever and know very well when they find their very own balance point as all the systems find themselves supported enough to come down off ‘high alert’. As soon as your body experiences that degree of support it knows it can switch out of overdrive and it heaves a sigh of relief! Experienced Restorative Yoga teachers will take time to help students work out their own Restorative Body Map and show them how to constantly bring their bodies back to balance point and so to healing. A session would typically include a posture to help to gently open the chest and aid breathing, a quiet supported forward bend to ease the spine, a very gentle twist of the torso to ease the digestion and a very beautiful relaxation to help the body fully switch channels from the Sympathetic High-Alert Nervous System to the ParaSympathetic Calm-and-Centred Nervous System.

There is a great contrast in the two styles but underlying them both are age old principles of body care and the use of postures to work through all parts of the body so that health and wellbeing are promoted along with a calm, controlled mind. We just have to find the yoga approach that is right for us at any point in time.

Restorative Yoga Workshops and more information about how to use this form of self healing can be found on Restorative Yoga and Yin Yoga. The Fifty, Fit and Fabulous programme provides a step by step approach to wellbeing through holistic care and is outlined on these sites.