The Importance of Balancing Your Practice

For some people the thought of coming to a gentle or restorative class is just simply not part of their “workout plan”.  A large percentage of students want to come to yoga to get their sweat on and get a work out so they can either loose weight, get stronger, more flexible or attain a certain pose.  I hear these things all the time from students and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with wanting these things out of your practice.  The truth is you may sweat, lose weight, get stronger, more flexible and do fancy hard poses. The importance of finding balance is taught throughout all yoga texts and one of my favorite yoga sutras teach about the importance of finding balance in every pose. There needs to be an understanding that in order to be doing yoga correctly the practitioner must learn to balance the strength of the effort with the ease of the breath and each pose should feel comfortable.  This concept is know as  Sthira Sukha Asana and it applies to our entire yoga practice and eventually weaves into our all aspects of life.  This concept has been a game changer for me and I emphasize the importance of incorporating this into every class I have the privilege of teaching.


In every pose there must be repose.  When the practice is 100% physical are we really finding balance or are we just burning ourselves out.  If a student is only practicing upper level flow classes how much time is given for restoring and rest? Savasana is said to be the most important pose in the practice yet time after time I’ve witnessed only 1-3 minutes allotted.  Technically is takes 8-10 minutes for the body to even settle down let alone drop in for a deep relaxation. 

While training and mentoring aspiring teachers I make it a point to teach the value of giving students at the very least 5-7 minutes because we’re all basically exhausted most of the time. Our society is moving at a such fast pace and our nervous system is often working on overdrive just from the pressure of life and driving and having constant contact at your fingertips all day long with emails, texts and social media.  Everyone is typically overworked and most people don’t get enough sleep at night.  I know this to be true because I witness countless people fall asleep within the first 2 minutes of class if I start them on their backs.  We don’t need to do more postures at the end of class!  We need to rest longer so our nervous system has the chance to make the shifts needed to promote the healing process. Otherwise all we’re doing is adding more burnout to our already burnt out system.

Recently a student came to my restorative class and asked how she could make the poses more challenging.  I was very surprised by her request and as kindly as possible explained to her that we’re not trying to chase a stretch in a restorative practice, in fact we’re trying to do just the opposite by letting the body release and let go.  We all need to learn the importance of simply being instead of always constantly doing.  I believe this is a learned behavior and some of us need to reprogram that thought process.  Being soft doesn’t mean you’re being weak, it means you’ve advanced enough in your practice to know when to slow down and be kind to yourself.  The advanced practitioner is often the one seen in child's pose and unfortunately some students only see the significance of slowing down when an injury has finally occurred.

Typically it’s said that the way you approach and move through your practice is how you approach and move through your life.  If you’re being aggressive on your mat how are you in relationships?  If you’re pushing too hard in your postures how are you treating yourself off the mat? How are you treating others? It’s an interesting concept to contemplate and reflect upon. Incorporating a gentle or restorative class into your weekly routine will only enhance your practice, your energy and your life. So if you’re one of those people that has to keep going because you think you’ll fall apart if you stop, I’m here to tell you that you won’t fall apart.  Give yourself that time to connect and relax and value the idea of just simply “being”.  It might just bring a sense of peace to your life that you never intended or expected.  Thanks for taking the time to read this.  Feel free to leave me any comments or questions.

Namaste’ Sweet People

Xoxo Dani