Fight or flight? Or, rest?
As I have heard friends and students discussing surgeries and illnesses this week, I am keenly aware of the importance of evangelizing "restorative yoga."
Perhaps you are in a period when you know that you long for the calm and renewal of yoga, but don't have the energy or ability to do vigorous, moving poses. This is why restorative yoga exists. Sometimes we need constructive rest. Each poses aligns the spine and supports the joints in a way that allows the inner systems of the body to do their natural processing. Digestion gets flowing again. Lungs oxygenate. Lymph moves. The immune system refills its well.
In the teachings of Judith Lasater, a yoga teacher and physical therapist focusing on restorative yoga, I have heard the term "Rest and digest" as an option to "fight or flight." This might mean to digest our food, or it might mean to digest life issues---joys, griefs, mysteries.
When I consider the time to digest mysteries, I am reminded of the prayer practice lectio divina. In this method, a passage of sacred text is read multiple times. I have heard the metaphor of taking a bite, tasting it, savoring it, digesting it, allowing nourishment. This is what makes lectio divina different than prayer that is vigorous or heated, like some kinds of yoga.
In Psalm 23, the author says that his shepherd leads him beside still waters and restores his soul. Restoring. Restoring the soul.
Isn't that what we all need time for? I wish for you to find restoration through prayer and yoga---to digest what life has brought you.
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