BETTER BREATHING: Restorative Yoga, Relaxation, Meditation - A Mini Immersion

BETTER BREATHING is a one-day only mini-immersion created especially for enhancing your breath capacity to balance the nervous system & ignite your innate healing capacities. 

Yogic breathing alongside breath training, restorative yoga stretching, relaxation, and meditation masterfully combine to foster the body's drive for optimal health, while calming a racing mind and encouraging deep physical and emotional release of tension. The portal and prize is BETTER BREATHING.

Busy and stressful lives lead to depletion. We all need to replenish our energy reserves, as well as clear the information, sensory, and physical overload.  This session will help you release tightness as you open the body, cool down, and rest. Better breathing is our doorway & goal.  

Better breathing is also THE most important foundation for aspiring meditators & spiritual seekers. Better breathing cultivates more inner stability and sweetness.

This session on BETTER BREATHING has only been offered twice before, and it proved to be a favorite! It sold out  quickly each time; we even had to turn people away at the door. If you are interested, please save your place early. Direct experience will help you find out why it's so popular. We also have some added treats for this session!

Though yoga is popularly associated with fitness, at its core, yoga is a spiritual practice: It soothes, nourishes, and redirects the mind to harness your energies for happier connection to your thoughts, emotions, sensations, as well the world around you.

Your mini-immersion will begin with a few moments one-on-one with your teacher to breathe, center, and connect. You contemplate what in your life you are ready to leave behind, and what you want to cultivate. Known as a “Gating Ceremony,” this personal moment helps release mental & energetic burdens, as you become more focused and better resourced to foster your best self.

Then we come together as a group & shift our energy inward, as Virginia guides a visualization to open our sacred circle. This helps you attune to how you are feeling and connect to innate wisdom. This simple creation of sacred space makes the entire practice more potent and benefits more lasting. (Plus, you can use this technique throughout your life in everyday settings too!)  

You'll enjoy the vibration of mantra yoga practice, which soothes even as it inspires every layer of our being.

Now, we are prepared to go inward, stretch, & breathe. Rejuvenation & renewal are the hallmarks of restorative yoga.  It counteracts the tension that hectic schedules, arduous workouts, sedentary jobs, and modern life in general tend to create.  Because it is deep yet slower placed, it is also one of the BEST methods to explore & expand optimal breathing for vitality and healing.

Are you new to RESTORATIVE YOGA?  Then be sure to read my article about it, so you know what a delicious treat is in store for you!  Find that here. 

 

This restorative session for BETTER BREATHING uses lots of luscious bolsters, blankets, and other soothing props so that the body gradually releases into this comforting support as supine and prone positions are held for long periods of time.  Restorative Yoga is the perfect practice for hectic times, helping to overcome fatigue and overwhelm, while creating spaciousness in body and mind.    

 

Restorative Yoga is different than a "regular" hatha yoga session, because you will have all the time you need to really relax into restorative postures, work with the breath to unwind fully, work on side stretches as well shoulder openers to support the lungs, and then guide the mind to a great sense of tranquility and well-being.  

This softening of gripping and increase in healing is facilitated by diaphragmatic breathing as well as breath training techniques.   This is different than pranayama in many regular yoga classes. You'll experience easy exercises to keep the diaphragm muscle, the major muscle of respiration, strong yet supple.  This mini-immersion will teach you two breath training methods particular to the Himalayan tradition, including how to use sandbag weights to strengthen and extend your breath, even as you lie down.

Other postures - especially supine side stretches & twists -  will help release the small intercostal muscles between the ribs to help the lungs expand more fully & easily.  We'll also gently work the pectoralis group, muscles at the top of the chest, to release compression that often inhibits breathing.  

These restorative poses will also help passively work the thoracic spine, which needs to move fluidly each time we breathe.  All of these points foster an overall sense of ease to breathing, creating space and relief.    

And, of course, this mini-immersion will conclude with a guided systematic relaxation  practice. Never underestimate the deep benefits & lasting results of precise relaxation techniques . This mini-immersion will lead you through Shithila Karani , or 75-breaths practice. This breath-sweeping process provides one of the most extensive, pervasive healing possibilities of all the relaxation practices. 

We'll round out your better breathing sequence with two time-tested, ancient approaches to breath-centered meditation. You'll experience firsthand why and how we tend the body then guide the mind towards immersion into prana, the essential animating life force within and available to you for your highest well-being. You'll learn how taking breath awareness into precise parts in and around the body lead to specific energetic results that are long-lasting even though they are simple to do.

Mini-Immersions differ from typical asana (stretching) classes because you have time to learn the WHYS of yoga. This helps get the racing mind on board, so you are more likely to REMEMBER & build on what you learn experientially during our time together. 

     - The anatomy & mechanics of breathing and WHY it has so many health benefits;

     - The 3 main influences on breathing, and how to use that to your advantage;

     - What makes the respiratory system different from ALL OTHER physiological systems & thus a spiritual portal;  and

     - Why the breath is an important healing strategy & often accelerates the healing process.

In addition to breath training, restorative asana (stretching & poses), relaxation, & meditation, as part of this mini-immersion you will also receive helpful study guides in PDF (digital) format, so you can come back to this wisdom long after our studio time is complete:

- Breath Training Essentials, including info on the five qualities of optimal breathing;

- Breathing to Masterfully Work with Emotions & Lessen Suffering, including precise points or rhythms to use for specific emotional states as well as physical pain; &

- BRAND NEW! Recipes for Better Breathing, including Virginia's favorite essential oils to open the airways & an old time recipe for Pine Needle Tea. 

No experience is necessary. It is required that you can lie down on the floor & also get up without assistance. 

You must BRING YOUR YOGA MAT. 

All other props (CHAIRS, bolsters, blankets, blocks, hand weights, eye pillows, straps, etc) are provided; if you have preferred personal props, feel free to bring those.    

Connect with me if you have any questions!  I would love to hear from you.  

In service,

Virginia Hill, AHA Yoga Teacher

Interested in other immersions & series, or want to know more about me, my teachings, and the studio?  Then email Virginia at [email protected] and you will be the FIRST to know about new opportunities and enrollment openings. 

You are also welcome to send me any questions, including existential dilemmas - those are a specialty of yogic philosophy, and I can help!  If you need support for specific life challenges or big ambitions, I also offer Embodied Wisdom, a private yoga meditation & coaching intensive.

Looking forward to hearing about your goals, how I can support you, and sharing these wisdom teachings. Let's bring MORE JOY into your life, and help you savor every moment.