Relaxing on my yoga mat with Zoom, finally!

Relaxing during a yoga session on Zoom might seem easy, even to those reading who have never rolled out a yoga mat.  But relaxing in my early weeks of trying yoga remotely was tricky.  There is a whole art to working out how to follow instructions on Zoom, especially when my sound quality was so poor I was guessing over half the words.  Added to this, the yoga teacher is about 6cm tall on the screen as opposed to normal in person size.   I nearly abandoned Zoom after two weeks, but in the spirit of kindness for myself and new technology, I persisted.

This week a small miracle happened -  I can now hear all the instructions clearly.  A combination of technology adjustments plus long conversations with my partner about things such as bandwidth and slow internet connection.  And the added issue that everyone in the world is now on the internet trying to maintain some kind of work or human connection.  Being able to hear and connect to others for a yoga class or mindfulness group is making such a difference to my time "at home".  

The relaxation element of yoga is my main reason for my dedication.  Even though I have practised daily for years, I often enjoy the gentler forms of yoga.  Recently I have been studying the main ancient text of yoga (the Yoga Sutras) and was relieved to learn that the main purpose of Yoga was never to bend into amazingly difficult postures that you may see on Instagram.  In fact, the actual physical postures are barely mentioned in the 196 Yoga Sutras.  The main focus of yoga is to calm the "chatter" of the mind and to find inner contentment. 

Modern day yoga includes plenty of practices to help relax both the stressed busy mind and the equally tense body.   What I find fascinating is that if I relax my body a little, my mind starts to have calmer thoughts.  If we could go to a yoga class in person right now, the teacher would be helping us find some inner peace and even boost our immunity through this pandemic.  And we could all get a few hugs.  But thanks to the amazing technology that I can now work, I can get some of these benefits in a class from my own lounge (although the hugs will have to wait).

Yesterday evening, I joined with 15 others and Charlotte Watts (Yoga Teacher and author of The De-Stress Effect) in a relaxing 90 minutes of Yoga and Somatics.  Which means easy yoga, mostly lying on the floor.   We did have to stretch a little and even made it into one or two postures.  And then, the best bit, like the chocolate dessert at the end.  Restorative yoga.

Restorative yoga is my favourite of all types of yoga because it is designed for one thing- you guessed it- relaxing.  Even though I love it, I rarely practice it at home because I find it hard to lie still for this long.  But with Charlotte guiding us through, I got to lie for 10 minutes surrounded with cushions and blankets and just relax.  And it actually works.  For the whole time I could feel my body sink into a comfortable place that I would happily stay in.  Maybe this is like the glass of wine or camomile tea of yoga, although they don't mention this in the Yoga Sutras.

Ah, that's better!  Can't wait for next Tuesday evening for more relaxing!



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