GUEST BLOG: Georgina Lynch - The Importance of Self Care and Restorative Yoga
Georgina Lynch is a fully qualified therapeutic counsellor, life coach, mentor and yoga teacher.
Last week we attended her beautiful Restorative Yoga workshop to discover how this can play a part in Empowering Wellbeing. We can't recommend it enough!
So, why should you try it, and why is Self Care so very important?
Today George she talks about the Amazing Benefits of Self Care and how Restorative Yoga can have a profound effect in this process.
To find out more about Georgina pop over to her website by clicking here.
THE IMPORTANCE OF SELF CARE, THE CHAKRAS AND RESTORATIVE YOGA IN HEALING AND WELLBEING
I am feeling so inspired by the Chakra theme I chose for my yoga classes this term. It resonates so deeply with me.
The Chakras are the seven centres of spiritual power in the human body. They are described as being aligned in an ascending column, from the base of the spine to the top of the head.
The function of the Chakras is to spin and draw in this energy to keep the spiritual, mental, emotional and physical health of the body in balance. The Chakra blocks we experience are all a direct response to how our mind and emotion's react to life. The energetic block we feel is the struggle, pain and suffering we experience.
I wanted to fully honour the Chakras with two delightful hours in a room full of beautiful souls for our Self Love Restorative Yoga Workshop last Saturday. The morning had the desired effect intended and provided a deeply restorative and soothing experience for all!
Restorative yoga one of the ultimate ways to embrace self care. It is about completely slowing down through passive stretching. You will usually do just a few postures over the course of an hour or two. Your muscles are allowed to deeply relax through long pose holds, and the use of props (rather than your muscles) to support your body. It is a very different experience to many other types of yoga and an excellent way to combat stress.
Since the workshop, I've received messages of gratitude saying how relaxed, peaceful and well people slept! I can't emphasis enough the power of deep restorative and meditative yoga relaxation. The state of peace and stillness I witness in my workshops and classes is palpable. The pure calm people allow themselves to feel is why I choose to teach this style of yoga.
It's my upmost belief that with the busy, stressed out lives that we lead, self love and restorative rest is non-negotiable. It's essential to our whole state of being that we give ourselves the time out we need in order to rest and to BE. To take the time to calm the mind and connect with our hearts - to embrace self care and allow ourselves this time without guilt!
We all lead such busy lives this state of busy-ness can quickly lead to burn out. When we get to this stage, our energy dips and we lose our alignment - in other words we change to an energetic frequency where we begin to attract the things in our lives that we don't want!
Restorative rest, self care, time out, stillness, breathing, eating well, laughing, dancing, movement, yoga, meditation, music, nature, reading, learning - all of these free and attainable things will raise our vibration. They bring us back into alignment with our light, love and joy, the place we need to be in order to manifest abundance in all aspects of our life.
Self care is the ultimate in self love. Make it your number one priority each day! I know that this may seem unattainable and damn right selfish, well it is because you need to be self-ish! Unless you are willing to love yourself you can't expect things to change in a hurry.
I get up before the rest of the house each day so I can meditate, journal and practise kundalini yoga. This to me is a very important part of my day. I feel ready to greet my loved ones with grace and ease. I've had 'me time' and I don't resent doing household chores or the school run. In fact I am deeply grateful for being able to do all of these things!
By making time for self love, you'll soon find you're able to respond to life in a whole new way. You'll sleep better, feel happier and you'll show up in your daily life with ease.
Yes, self care is without doubt my secret to a successful life full of love, compassion and kindness.
For some deeply restorative yoga find yourself a blanket and a couple of big cushions or a bolster if you have one. Come on to your back, place a cushion under your legs (beneath your knees) and put the blanket on top of you. As you lay like this you are in Shavasana or corpse pose (a deep relaxation pose ready for relaxation).
Let your feet fall apart and your fall arms away from the body palms facing up. Relax and soften your face, now focus on relaxing your shoulders, chest, belly, buttocks, legs, feet and arms. Just allow yourself to completely let go, bring your focus to the breath and tune in you heart. Allow yourself to breath (slowly in through the nose, and slowly out through the nose), just concentrate on the breath, and receive love.
For details of free meditations, workshops, upcoming events and 1:1 Coaching programmes with Georgina visit her website here.
Until next time, keep Empowering Your Wellbeing!
Lots of love
P.S. Enjoyed our blog? You may like to take a look at our others:
MEDITATION: The Top 5 Benefits and Why It Will Help YOU!
YOGA: Stress, Life and The Benefits of Yoga