After class, I learned that the big gong in the corner wasn’t just for show, it was the source of this wonderful, mind-clearing noise.  I would make a point of going to that class even when I really wasn’t in the mood just to experience the gong at the end.

If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.  – Nikola Tesla

Last month I joined my dear bar (method) friends for a new moon sound bath event.  The organizers schedule these events to coincide with the moon cycles – either the new or the full moon.  I made sure to get myself on their email list so that I would always know when the next one is coming up and was so thrilled when they did it again last week.

The organizers are these really lovely women, Consuelo and Arvindjeet.  Consuelo leads us through the yoga postures at the beginning with her sweet, smiling voice.  When she speaks, she sounds like she is just so full of love and happiness for her fellow human beings that it can’t help but pour out of her.

Arvindjeet is very soft-spoken, but in a very grounded way.  She leads us through three oms with power and confidence and is responsible for all the sounds in the sound bath.

Side note: the practice of chanting om in yoga class has fallen out of fashion in recent years and I wish that it would come back into style, it really is centering and helps to focus the energy of the group.

The workshop begins with a bit of restorative yoga – just a few gentle postures held for a while, yin style.  Interesting things happen when you hold an easy, comfortable yoga posture like child’s pose for two minutes or longer.  The poses help work out some kinks, relax the body, and quiet the mind.  Then into shavasana for the sound bath.

Arvindjeet has these beautiful singing bowls, different chimes, this wonderful drum that sounds like rain, and an amazing gong that she will use to make different sounds.  It’s called a sound bath because the sound feels like it washes over you.  You don’t just hear the sounds, you feel vibrations all throughout your body.  Consuelo and Arvindjeet refer to the sound bath as, “giving sound healing.”  If you go back to what Tesla said about frequency, vibration, and energy, these sounds could be the keys to the secrets of the universe.

I know that I always feel different/better after one of these experiences.  Keep your eyes open for an opportunity near you and don’t be shy to check it out!

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When I was younger it felt like a waste of time.  Why would I want to spend time relaxing in comfortable postures when I could be sweating?  I usually found myself spending those last few moments of class in shavasana (corpse pose, the traditional last posture of yoga class) thinking about what I was going to eat after I left.

In my previous post about yoga, I mentioned that I am more interested in doing less strenuous yoga these days.  I still like my regular yoga practice to include a good sweat and at least a few moments of “yikes!”  But I also have an appreciation for the occasional restorative yoga class.

My neighbor around the corner goes to the same gym as I do and one day we were chatting about our various workouts and the different yoga classes that our gym offers.  He mentioned that sometimes he likes to take this one restorative yoga class that uses lots of bolsters and blankets – it was like having nap time.  I admitted that I have fallen asleep in restorative yoga classes before.  One time I am pretty sure that I was snoring!

Usually restorative yoga classes will move through a few postures in a slow and gentle manner, then transition into an extended shavasana (or, as I seem to think of it, nap time).   Substituting a quick nap for your workout is not the point though.  The ultimate purpose of any style of yoga is to prepare you for meditation.  Restorative yoga just chooses to go about this in a different way than more active, physically strenuous styles.

Props

A restorative yoga class will tend to make extensive use of props such as blocks, bolsters and straps.  As someone who was once young, aggressive and extremely flexible in yoga class, I have only recently developed an appreciation for using these kinds of props.  Using props in various postures as a sort-of bridge to connect your body and to the ground isn’t about making something “easier.”  The connection enables the body to release tension and you can experience a posture more fully, if not more deeply. 

Yin Yoga

One restorative yoga class that I would take from time to time was a yin yoga class.  In yin yoga, you hold each posture for at least two minutes.  Fortunately, the postures are not balances or inversions, but mostly seated and laying-down positions.  It is a really interesting practice because you when you spend so much time in a posture, you really have the opportunity to look into all the dark corners that are easy to ignore when you aren’t holding the position for as long.  I discovered things that I didn’t like about postures that had been my favorites like baddha konasana (aka bound angle pose, or butterfly stretch).  Even holding child’s pose for two minutes can be intense.

When I don’t fall asleep in shavasana, I do still find my mind wandering.  But another advantage to restorative yoga for me is that it doesn’t have to be done on an empty stomach, so I can often coax myself out of obsessing about food for at least a few minutes.

Wisdom, kindness, and love. Namaste.

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