Unwind and Unmind with Restorative Yoga

By: Marla Meenakshi Joy, 889 Yoga Teacher + Living Yoga School Faculty

I came from a Theatre and Dance background, and in 1995, after being to India and learning meditation, sanskrit, chanting and yoga philosophy I stumbled into an Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga class for the first time. I had already been practicing Hatha Yoga, but a more classical style, and after being led through the full primary series I remember I couldn’t move the next day! This intrigued me…the challenge of figuring out this style and the discipline that comes with practicing 6 days a week. For the next 5 years I took it on to progress in the practice.

On retreat in Mexico I experienced my first ever Restorative Yoga class. I was in heaven! My body had a chance to finally unwind from my rigorous practice, and my mind had a chance to “unmind” itself. I floated away in a bubble of bliss and have been hooked ever since.

Yoga constantly teaches me about balance. And to this day I love to balance my Ashtanga practice with Restorative Yoga. For me it is meditation for the body, and a true release for the mind. In our busy city lives we need to constantly find ways to release the stresses we have placed on ourselves.

From a physiological level, the Sympathetic Nervous System (our “fight or flight” system) needs to be countered and balanced out by the Parasympathetic Nervous System (our internal house-cleaning system). And if we are not listening close enough, we wont hear that this imbalance, over days at a time, is placing us in a high stress zone where our capacity to function, mentally and emotionally is challenged to the max and sometimes to a breaking point. The ways in which we interact with ourselves and our environment deserves more and more attention it seems. Science has proven that our conduct in everyday life and the behaviour of our cells are intrinsically linked. Hans Selye wrote in “The Stress of Life” : “A perennial give-and-take has been going on between living matter and its inanimate surroundings, between one living being and another, ever since the dawn of life in the prehistoric oceans”.

Since my experience with Restorative Yoga within nature many years ago, it became my dream to help bring myself and others back into balance in themselves in a natural environment. A couple of years ago this came true when we found property on the ocean in Costa Rica, where the sounds of the jungle are behind our practice space, and the ocean lapping with the rhythm of tranquility in front of us. Here, where we hold retreats and trainings, I love to observe the deep unwinding that occurs in myself and others while breathing full deep fresh air and drinking pure water. Back to nature, back to health and integration, unwinding, and unminding at its fullness. “Re-treating” back to ourselves….connecting once again and in that connection, dreams are born.

Join Marla for her Teaching Restorative Yoga module on December 13 and 14th. Details here: Teaching Restorative Yoga

Marla’s Biography:

Marla Meenakshi Joy first traveled to India in 1988 to study meditation and the philosophy of the Vedas with Swami Shyam, as well as other learned scholars in the Himalayas. She is a Certified Meditation and Yoga Philosophy teacher from the International Meditation Institute in Kullu, Himachal Pradesh, Himalayas.

She spent many years in Kullu as well studying Soma Yoga, as well as the teachings of Blandine Calais-Germaine (“Anatomy of Movement”) as well as Robin McKenzie (“Treat you own Neck”; “Treat your own Back”), as well as later studying with Judith Lasater, Chuck Miller, Maty Ezraty, Richard Freeman, Ron Reid and many great Ashtanga and Iyengar-based yogins.

She is a graduate of Kikkawa College since 1993, and has been a practicing Shiatsu Therapist since then. Her touch and awareness of the body is both healing and informative, gentle and nurturing, yet clear and focused.

She is co-owner and co-director of www.downwarddog.com and teaches Ashtanga Yoga, Swaha Vinyasa Yoga, Restorative Yoga, Yogadance, Meditation, Yoga philosophy, Sanskrit, and Chanting privately and in yoga studios in Canada, the U.S. the UK, Europe and Asia, and she has been teaching Sanskrit many of these practices in Teacher Training courses since 1999, both locally and abroad. Along with her love of the physical side of yoga, she is also a bhakta. She leads Kirtan (call-and-response chanting) with her band SWAHA, with inspired musical compositions with her partner/keyboardist, Ron Reid. She has produced 4 CD’s of Sanskrit chanting Prayer’s, Salutations, Vishnu’s Dream, and Bolo! , as well as a download of music for yoga class entitled “Shanti Pulse”

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