LOOK OUT FOR OUR NEXT RESTORATIVE YOGA SEASON AS ‘SPRING BEGINS’
Restorative Yoga Evening for the Winter Solstice (冬至 dōngzhì)
We warmly invite you to join us and take time to let go stress and unwind with a wonderfully relaxing and blissful, 2 hour Restorative Yoga evening on the longest night, influenced by the Chinese Solar Calendar.
At the Winter Solstice in China (冬至 dōngzhì), we believe that the bodies Yin energy (prana) is at its lowest point and is a time to slow down the pace of life and to store our energy for the long cold days ahead. Though in these modern hectic times with the coming of the festive season, the winter days and nights may seem more stressful and busier than at any other time of the year.
For 90 minutes Lily will take you slowly through a relaxing restorative yoga practice which unwinds deep tensions helping you slowly let go of stress; Then David will guide you through a 30 minute Yoga Nidra—known as yogic sleep—a meditation and conscious relaxation practice that induces total physical, mental, and emotional relaxation.
Who is it for?
Restorative yoga is suitable for ‘every body,’ whether you are new to yoga or a regular yoga practitioner. Just bring yourself, warm stretching clothes and socks, and if preferred your favourite warm blanket (blankets not required as we supply, but if it feels more cosy with your own, your welcome to bring one).
The postures practiced in this style of yoga are passive and designed to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, inducing a state of relaxation and enabling the body to move toward greater balance.
Open to all levels, from complete beginners to more experienced students.
Cost: £22
Fully booked
Date & Time:
Thursday 21st December at 7:30PM – 9:30PM
Venue: St John Ambulance HQ. 21 Blackmoor Gate, Furzton, Milton Keynes MK4 1DA
What is Restorative Yoga?
Sometimes you’ve just got to slow everything right down.
When your life is racing full-speed ahead, so is your mind. Restorative yoga helps provide that physical and mental balance to prevent stress and anxiety, through the use of props that allow you to hold poses longer, giving you all the benefits of deep, passive stretching.
Poses like Child’s Pose, Legs-Up-the-Wall, and Savasana are held for up to 15 minutes using bolsters, blankets, pillows, straps, blocks, sandbags, walls, chairs and eye pillows, to support your body in a full, long, and comfortable, relaxing stretch so that tension can slowly be released. The more fully your body is supported, the deeper your sense of relaxation and surrender will be.
Because the body and mind relax, literally becoming softer, we also create space to get in touch again with our natural qualities of compassion and understanding of others and self.
Benefits of Restorative Yoga
Here are the top reasons to spend a little extra time opening up and breathing in the benefits of this nourishing yoga practice.
- Benefit from full and deep stretches
- Enhances flexibility
- Deeply relaxes the body
- Quiets the mind
- Improves capacity for healing and balancing
- Balances your nervous system
- Boosts your immune system to help recover from illness
- Develops qualities of compassion and understanding toward others and self
- Enhances mood states
- Heal emotional pain
Benefits of Yoga Nidra
Yoga Nidra (yogic sleep) brings an incredible calmness, quietness, clarity an deep relaxation. Creating a state called samadhi, it is among the deepest possible states of relaxation while still maintaining full consciousness.
- Yoga nidra counteracts stress and is prescribed by GPs in many countries
- Provides effective relief for depression and long standing anxiety
- It is an efficient way to obtain sleep
- Clears the mind for learning and absorbing new material
- Releases tension for body and mind
- Relaxes the mind
- Helps with creativity
“When we take the time to create ease in our lives, we not only affect ourselves and our own bodies, we also affect the quality of our actions…and the choices we make…and then we begin to affect the world. When we act from deep ease, we will affect people we haven’t even met!”
冬至 dōngzhì
冬至 dōngzhì is the 22nd Solar Term in the Lunisolar Calendar and can be traced to the Chinese belief in Yin and Yang, which represent balance and harmony in life. It is believed that the Yin qualities of darkness and cold are at their most powerful at this time, but it is also the turning point, giving way to the light and warmth of Yang. For this reason Dong Zhi is a time for optimism and renewal.
Venue:
St John Ambulance
21 Blackmoor Gate, Furzton, Milton Keynes MK4 1DA
