Adore Bullock: Yoga Journal Blog

As I reflect on my semester-long experiences of yoga, I find that it has caused me to make new impressions, observations, and feelings about the practice. Although I was unable to be present in an authentic physical yoga environment or meet the people who frequent the classes and make up the yoga community in my area, I was able to be a part of the yogic environment created by my professor and the various yoga instructors who mediated the practices through technology. This modality of instruction was sufficient for someone like me, as a beginner, to learn yoga. Almost every instructor had their own way of producing an environment that was conducive to a restorative yoga practice. For instance, Amita and David held their sessions inside of their yoga studios, while Jenn taught from inside of her home but in a space filled with natural light and plants spread around the room. Each of them also demonstrated the practice while they were teaching. As a viewer and student on the opposite sid...

     For today’s practice I decided to incorporate meditation since we have studied the yoga sutras over the past week. The online session I chose in dedication to this weeks topic is a Youtube video titled “Restorative Yoga + Meditation | No Props 35-min Relaxing Practice”. The session was instructed by a young woman whose channel goes by her name, Jessica Richburg. To begin, she informs me that we will be holding each pose for 1-2 minutes and that there will be a gentle warm up and cool down sequence, plus a short meditation at the end. She explained that this particular practice is intended to be slow paced to reset your nervous system and help with any pent up stress or anxiety.        I was relieved to hear that we would be working slowly. I’m realizing, that I am more able to immerse myself into the practice when I have time to take in each posture comfortably and with the proper breath. I found that Jessica’s voice was perfect for this kind of v...