Vinyasa (aka flow yoga) has been the most popular form of asana practice for a while now. Based on concepts introduced through Ashtanga Yoga, vinyasa features a yoga “routine,” a flowing movement sequence. In most popular classes, students flow through the sequence at a pretty good clip. Moving quickly from one pose to the next raises the heart rate. In some classes, teachers turn up the heat, which induces sweat. This makes sense for Western practitioners.

In the West, exercise has almost always included these two factors, among others. So as yoga has integrated into Western culture, it looks like a combination of asana practice and Western exercise. Putting together a unique yoga flow gives teachers an opportunity to flex their creative muscles. Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutation) has taken all kinds of fun and innovative flights of fancy in the advent of vinyasa’s popularity.

But some of us, old-school yogis and more meditative types, like to cool the temperature. I enjoy linking poses in a sequence, but I prefer to slow my flow. For me, yoga practice is a time to calm my nervous system through mindful movement. I prefer weight training and walking in nature to build muscle and raise my heart rate. What I love about yoga asana is its ability to foster mindfulness. Slowing my flow fosters the body-mind connection.

Here’s Why You Should Try Slowing Your Flow Yoga

• Unfolding: When you spend time in each pose, your body has a chance to unwind soft tissue resistance. It takes time to move into stillness in a pose. Our bodies and minds need time to adjust to each new position, and it’s only when we can relax into the pose that yoga’s “magic” can unfold. That magic is the integration of body and mind, through letting go of effort. Remember that “mastery” of asana in the yoga sutras is defined like this (in Alistair Shearer’s translation): “It is mastered when all effort is relaxed and the mind is absorbed in the Infinite.” Taking your time in each pose, allows you to make adjustments so that you can relax effort.
• Mindfulness: One of the key elements of practicing mindfulness is slowing down. Practicing slow flow yoga gives us time to tune into the ever-changing process of every asana. Slowing down allows us to feel the process of breathing, how the breath moves our bodies, and the process of letting go of effort so that we can “be” the pose rather than “doing” the pose.
• Props: It’s quite challenging to incorporate yoga props into a fast flow. By the time you’ve set your props up, the rest of the class has often gone on to the next pose. Yoga props help us practice with structural integrity. That structural integrity allows us to let go of effort and be the asana.
• Transitions: This is probably my favorite way of slowing the flow. I think of each vinyasa as one long asana. Rather than seeing flow yoga as a succession of poses, I make the transitions between poses just as important as the formal asanas. Slowing down makes this easier. Try giving equal attention to the movements between the formal poses. This promotes mindfulness in motion.

Your Individual Flow Practice

If a fast-paced yoga flow is your favorite practice, by all means, continue. But sometimes, you might want to try slowing it down. Get to know each asana in a different way. Feel the transitions. Slowing your flow practice at times might enrich your fast flow practice.

Practicing yoga has so many benefits. The best known of these include stress relief, along with physical strength and flexibility. But there’s more. Practicing yoga can help us navigate the ups and downs of our lives. The Yoga Sutras (sutra 2.48) state that “mastering” asana renders us “no longer upset by the play of opposites” in our lives. Early on, I discovered another important benefit: yoga’s ability to help us change habits. It’s not always easy, and it requires one important quality that yoga helps us cultivate: mindfulness.

I started practicing yoga when I was 26 years old, and just out of college. My college years had not been marked by a quest for clarity. They were, instead, all about altering my mind as often and in as many ways as I possibly could. It was the ’70s after all, and I was at Indiana University, which at the time had the distinction of being the U.S.’s number one party school. By 1982, this phase was winding down for me, but my lifestyle was still not entirely healthy.

A Gradual Shift

About three weeks into my yoga practice, I discovered that an unpredictable shift had taken place. The evening before this particular class, I drank a few beers. In class the next evening, I felt shaky and weak. I didn’t like the feeling. Even the tiny amount of sensitivity I’d uncovered over just three weeks of practice had shone a light on the effects of alcohol on my body.

Since then many unhealthy habits have fallen away, not through force, but because they just don’t feel good anymore. Just this morning as I sat waiting for my car to be inspected and registered, I looked at the panoply of candy bars at my garage’s front counter—Mounds, Reese’s, Snickers, etc.—all candy bars I loved as a kid. But this morning I was not even tempted. Nor have I been tempted for quite a long time. Looking at the bars brought back the feeling I used to have after eating them:  agitated, ungrounded, with a “sick” stomach.

It’s not that I’m averse to consuming a glass of wine once in a while. But I drink it knowing that during and after drinking, I will feel a certain way, and it’s not a feeling I enjoy so much anymore. The point for me is that drinking is a conscious choice, not a mechanical habit.

Change Your Brain, Change Your Habits with Mindfulness

A while back, the Huffington Post interviewed Dr. Timothy McCall. He spoke about how practicing yoga changes your brain. Here’s the quote that most resonates for me:

“When yoga is practiced with sensitivity and attention, it gradually increases awareness. It awakens your ability to feel what’s happening in your body, heart, and mind. When you become more aware of your body, more aware of your mind, more aware of your breath, you start to notice the consequences of your behavior. So a particular food that might not be so healthy may taste good to you, but you may start to realize that when you eat it, you feel crummy. When you notice that connection, you say, ‘You know what, I don’t think I want to eat this anymore.’”

In the interview, McCall talks about neuroplasticity, the ability the brain has to change itself. When we perform an action, the brain makes connections that make that action easier to perform again. This is how we create habits. The good news is that we can cultivate the habits we want, habits that help us feel stronger, calmer, healthier, clearer, etc. and override the habits that make us feel sluggish, agitated or weak. Practicing mindfulness helps us become aware of how our actions affect us.

It All Comes Down to Mindfulness

The key is paying attention—being present to what we feel when we eat, drink, exercise and when we practice yoga. Each individual’s experience is going to be different. For me, alcohol just doesn’t feel very good. For others, it might be the best thing to take the edge off a stressful day. We all have the power to decide for ourselves, if we take the extra care to be mindful of how our actions make us feel. The ability to change your habits depends on understanding how these habits play out in your life.

Tune in to how you feel after eating, drinking, exercising and practicing yoga. I like to pause and tune in after each asana. Mindfulness of the effects of a pose helps me to understand the effects of each pose and the quality of my effort. Does the pose I just practiced cause me to feel agitated or calm, tense or relaxed, frustrated or peaceful, edgy or smooth?

This, of course, can apply not only to what we ingest or our physical practices. It also applies to our mental/emotional habits. How does greed feel? How does generosity feel? How does it feel to hate someone, or to love someone?

Yoga practice has the power to change our habits, and our lives, for the better. When we are mindful of the present and future effects of our behaviors, we have the power to cultivate them—or change them.

It’s early January. The festive lights have dimmed, the last of the holiday treats are gone, and life is settling back into a familiar pace. While the holiday season may leave you with beautiful memories, it can also bring a sense of imbalance. Your body might feel stiff from long car rides, heavy meals, or late nights, and your mind may still be humming with holiday buzz.

Now is the perfect time for a gentle yoga recovery process: a slow, intentional way to reawaken your practice and restore harmony in body and mind. Think of this period not as something to “fix,” but as an invitation to nurture yourself. Below, we’ll explore how to ease tension, rebuild energy, and pave the way for a steady start to the new year. We’ll also touch on how to transition mindfully back into more dynamic styles like Vinyasa or Ashtanga when you’re ready.

1. Start small with gentle movement for your yoga recovery

After weeks of indulgences and irregular schedules, jumping straight into intense flows can feel jarring. Instead, begin with simple, soothing poses that help your muscles gently unwind. A yoga recovery approach highlights comforting postures that release tension, especially in areas that tend to tighten during busy times—shoulders, neck, hips, and lower back.

Suggested Poses:

• Child’s Pose (Balasana): Enhance the relaxation factor by placing a yoga bolster beneath your torso. Letting go in this posture can ease tension from your spine and hips.
• Supported Bridge (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana): Using a foam yoga block under your sacrum allows a gentle backbend that opens the chest and realigns the spine.
• Neck Stretches: Slow head rolls and side bends release the neck and shoulders, helping to melt away holiday stress.

2. Rediscover your breath

To truly reset, look to your breath. Deep, mindful breathing can soften the edges of post-holiday tension, shifting your state from scattered to serene. By paying attention to each inhale and exhale, you create mental space to refocus on yourself.

Try This:

• Three Part Breath (Dirga Pranayama): Inhale slowly, filling your belly, ribs, and chest, then exhale just as steadily. This simple technique clears mental clutter and reconnects you with the present moment.

Pro Tip: Enhance this quiet time by draping a blanket over your legs. The comforting weight reminds you to slow down, settle in, and embrace your yoga recovery journey.

3. Embrace restorative yoga for deep reset

Restorative yoga is a powerful method for yoga recovery, encouraging profound rest and balance. With bolsters, blocks, and blankets, these postures require minimal muscular effort, letting you linger in each pose and gently reset your nervous system.

Restorative favorites:

• Reclined Bound Angle (Supta Baddha Konasana): Lie back on a bolster placed lengthwise along your spine, allowing the chest to open. Support your knees with blocks or folded blankets. This heart opening pose can lift holiday heaviness and welcome in fresh, compassionate energy.
• Legs Up the Wall (Viparita Karani): Resting your legs against a wall soothes weary legs and fosters calm. Drape a soft blanket over your belly for warmth as you let gravity and time do the work of relaxation.

4. Releasing the need to “Make Up” for the holidays

Your yoga recovery period isn’t about punishment or burning off those extra holiday cookies. It’s about healing and honoring your body’s current needs. Swap out any guilt driven thoughts for a mindset focused on replenishment and kindness. Yoga should always be a space of self respect and compassion, not a chore.

Gentle Flow ideas:

• A few rounds of Cat Cow to awaken your spine.
• Low lunges to stretch hips tight from sitting.
• Gentle twists to aid digestion and help you feel lighter.

By listening closely to your body, you create a space where yoga becomes truly nourishing rather than another stressful item on your to-do list.

5. Returning to your vinyasa or Ashtanga practices

Once you’ve spent time nurturing yourself with gentle and restorative yoga, you may feel ready to reintroduce more dynamic styles into your routine. Vinyasa and Ashtanga practices, known for their flowing sequences and building internal heat, can eventually help restore your strength, flexibility, and stamina.

Tips for transitioning back:

• Shorter Sessions: Start with a shorter Vinyasa flow or a Half Primary Ashtanga sequence. Just 20–30 minutes of focused movement can rekindle muscle memory without overtaxing your body.
• Extra Props: Even in a more dynamic practice, props are friends, not crutches. Use blocks for stability and modify postures if you feel any lingering tightness.
• Pace Yourself: Don’t rush back into advanced variations. Focus on foundational poses first. Sun Salutations, standing sequences, and gentle backbends. Only adding more complex asanas as your body regains strength and fluidity.

Remember that yoga recovery isn’t a separate world from your regular practice. It’s a stepping stone, a gentle bridge that leads you back into the rhythmic flow of Vinyasa and the disciplined structure of Ashtanga, but without risking burnout or injury.

6. Set intentions for the new year

As you navigate this yoga recovery period, consider what you’d like your practice—and your life—to feel like in the coming year. Maybe you want more patience, steadiness, or joy. Your mat can be a sacred space to set these intentions, allowing them to guide both your slower sessions and your stronger flows.

Try Journaling:

After each practice, note how you feel. Over time, these reflections become a guiding compass, helping you identify when it feels right to step up intensity, or when to continue gently nurturing yourself.

7. Consistency is key in all phases of your practice

Whether you’re easing into a gentle flow or gradually reigniting your Vinyasa or Ashtanga routine, consistency helps solidify positive habits. Start small, a few minutes each day, and trust that time will bring clarity and comfort.

Consistency Tips:

• Short Sessions: Begin with short practices to rebuild trust and stability in your body.
• Identify your best time: Mornings can gently wake you up, while evenings help release the day’s tensions.
• Visual cues: Keep your props visible and accessible. Seeing them is often all it takes to remind you of your intention to practice.

Conclusion: A compassionate path forward

The holidays may have left you feeling scattered or fatigued, but embracing a period of yoga recovery allows you to move back into harmony with yourself. By starting gently and focusing on nurturing postures, you can gradually reintroduce more dynamic practices like Vinyasa or Ashtanga as your body and mind become ready.

This new year, let your yoga journey be guided by kindness, patience, and a steady, supportive foundation, no matter which style you return to. As you step onto your mat, remember that you’re always allowed to pause, adjust, and honor the place you find yourself in today.

Ready to build a supportive environment for your yoga recovery and beyond? Explore Hugger Mugger’s mats,bolsters, blocks, and blankets to create a cozy, welcoming space that nurtures your body and spirit at every stage of your practice.

1. Yoga for Stress Management

Yoga provides an effective way to manage and reduce stress. By focusing on breath and mindful movement, yoga helps calm the nervous system and promotes relaxation.

• Practice gentle poses like Child’s Pose and Legs-Up-The-Wall.
• Use a yoga bolster for support in restorative poses.
• Incorporate deep breathing exercises to calm your mind.

2. Improve your sleep quality with yoga

Struggling with sleep? Yoga can be a natural remedy for insomnia. Gentle evening practices and guided relaxation techniques help prepare your body and mind for a restful night.

• Engage in calming poses before bedtime.
• Use a  eye pillow for complete relaxation in Savasana.
• Practice Yoga Nidra to guide you into a deep state of rest and relaxation.

3. Boost your mood

Yoga has been shown to elevate mood and reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression. The combination of movement, breathing, and meditation helps release endorphins and promotes a sense of well-being.

• Start your day with a gentle yoga flow.
• Practice sun salutations to energize your body.
• Use a quality yoga mat for a more grounding and uplifting experience.

4. Cultivate Mindfulness

Mindfulness is the heart of yoga. By staying present on the mat, you learn to observe your thoughts and emotions without judgment, fostering greater awareness and emotional balance.

• Focus on your breath when feeling stressed.
• Practice body scans in Savasana.
• Sit on a cushion and meditate for 5 minutes

5. Increase self-compassion

Yoga teaches us self-acceptance and compassion. Instead of striving for perfection, you learn to honor where you are in your practice, cultivating a kinder relationship with yourself.

• Practice yoga with awareness and listen to your body.
• Use props like a strap or yoga block  for support.
• Set a positive intention at the beginning of your practice.

6. Enhance focus and concentration

Yoga improves your ability to focus and concentrate. Balancing poses and breathwork require mental clarity, enhancing your cognitive abilities off the mat.

• Practice balancing poses like Tree Pose.
• Use alternate nostril breathing to clear your mind.

7. Release emotional tension

Yoga can help release deep emotions stored in the body. Hip-opening poses and heart openers are particularly beneficial for emotional release.

• Incorporate deep hip stretches into your practice.
• Practice heart-opening poses, like puppy pose, to release emotions

8. Support your nervous system

Yoga balances the autonomic nervous system, reducing the fight-or-flight response and promoting rest and digestion. Breathwork and restorative poses are key for nervous system support.

• Practice restorative yoga using a bolster and blankets.
• Incorporate pranayama techniques like 4-7-8 breathing.
• Use as much yoga props as needed for ultimate relaxation.

Conclusion

Yoga offers a wealth of mental health benefits, from stress relief to improved focus and self-compassion. Whether you are new to yoga or a seasoned practitioner, incorporating these practices into your routine can foster greater well-being and balance in your life.

Explore our range of Hugger Mugger yoga props to enhance your practice and support your journey to better mental health.

The tech age has brought with it several well-known maladies. I wrote about Text Neck and Text Claw way back in 2015. But I found out only recently about yet another physical byproduct of too much desk sitting with a rather dramatic name: Dead Butt Syndrome.

By now, you’ve probably heard the phrase “sitting is the new smoking.” Research has shown that sitting for long hours in front of a computer can cause a range of adverse health effects, and can even shorten our lives. Here’s what the Mayo Clinic has to say:

“Research has linked sitting for long periods of time with a number of health concerns. They include obesity and a cluster of conditions — increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist and unhealthy cholesterol levels — that make up metabolic syndrome. Too much sitting overall and prolonged periods of sitting also seem to increase the risk of death from cardiovascular disease and cancer.”

While the Mayo Clinic didn’t mention Dead Butt Syndrome, we can add that to the list.

What Causes Dead Butt Syndrome?

Dead Butt Syndrome, more delicately called “Gluteal Amnesia,” occurs when we habitually sit for long periods. Jobs that require lots of computer time, or simply living a sedentary lifestyle and eschewing exercise can be culprits.

When we sit for long periods, over time, our hip flexors shorten. This causes an anterior tilt in the pelvis that keep the glutes from being able to contract fully. Not only can this cause the glutes to go dormant, but it can also cause problems in the low back and legs.

Our glutes, including gluteus maximus, medius and minimus, work together to keep us upright. They’re key in propelling us forward when we walk or run. The glutes stabilize the pelvis and keep it aligned. These powerful muscles are the primary hip extenders. They, along with other muscles of the posterior chain, allow us to walk, climb stairs, pick things up off the floor (and rise back up to standing), carry heavy objects and stand on one leg. In a word, strong glutes are vital to everyday functioning.

How Do You Know if Your Glutes Have Gone Dormant?

Here are a few of the indications that you might be experiencing Dead Butt Syndrome:

• Tight hip flexors can cause difficulty in standing upright. This could result in low back pain and poor posture in general. If you find that your torso leans forward a bit, this could be the result of tight hip flexors.
• Dead Butt Syndrome can cause poor balance. When our glutes can’t contract, our whole bodies lose stability. If we’re chronically bent forward because of inactive glutes and tight hip flexors, our skeletons can’t align properly, which can throw our balance off.
• Inactive glutes might cause you to feel weakness in your lower body during exercise such as yoga, hiking, walking, running or bicycling. You might feel as if your glutes don’t engage when you try to contract them during yoga or other exercise.
• Over time, you may begin to experience knee or foot pain because of the misalignment of your skeleton.
• You may be more prone to issues such as patellofemoral syndrome, iliotibial (IT) band syndrome, piriformis syndrome and herniated discs.

How Can Yoga Help Reawaken Your Glutes?

The good news is that Dead Butt Syndrome does not have to be our permanent state. With targeted exercise, we can reactivate our glutes, often within a few months. There are lots of yoga poses that strengthen the glutes and/or stretch the hip flexors. In addition to strengthening, stretching the glutes to facilitate blood flow is also a good idea.

While the poses below are not the only ones that can help wake up your glutes, they’re all easily accessible to yoga practitioners of all body types and experience levels. Once you’ve practiced these for a while, see if you can come up with more poses that activate your glutes.

6 Yoga Poses for Dead Butt Syndrome

Parsva Balasana (Bird Dog Pose with Variation)

Parsva Balasana stabilizes the core (front and back), promotes balance and activates the glutes. This post describes the basic version of the pose.

If you’d like to juice it up a bit, loop a resistance band around the insteps of both feet. Stretch your right leg back, then return to hands and knees, keeping both hands on the floor, and keeping your torso stable. Repeat this action 10 to 15 times, then switch to the left leg. You’ll want to start with a light band and progress to the next level of resistance band when the exercise starts to feel too easy.

Anjaneyasana (Crescent Lunge Pose)

In order to be able to contract the glutes completely, the hip flexors must be able to lengthen. Lunge poses stretch the quadriceps and hip flexors. There are other poses that can help you stretch your hip flexors, such as Supta Ardha Virasana (Reclining Half Hero’s Pose). But Crescent Lunge is easier on the knees, since your back knee is not hyperflexed in the pose. While you’re in the pose, engage the glutes of your back leg. Take 5 to 10 deep breaths on each side.

Virabhadrasana I & II (Warrior I & II Poses)

Warrior I & II are similar to Crescent Lunge in that they stretch the hip flexors. They also give you the opportunity to actively engage the glutes of your back leg. I find this glute action to be particularly helpful in Virabhadrasana II.

Salabhasana (Locust Pose)

Baby Backbends are some of the most powerful poses for strengthening the back body, including the glutes. When you practice Locust Pose and its variations, the muscles in your back body are the sole drivers of the action. In poses such as Bhujangasana (Cobra Pose) and Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (Upward Facing Dog Pose), the support of your arms takes some of the work out of the back. But in the Salabhasana, your back muscles, including the glutes, are doing all the work. The variations where you lift your legs are the most powerful glute activators.

Setu Bandha Sarvangasana (Bridge Pose)

Bridge Pose, like Locust Pose and many other backbends, activates the back body muscles. You can increase the butt-busting benefits by practicing with a 10-pound Yoga Sandbag placed across your hip joints. You can either stay in the pose for 5 to 10 deep breaths, or do 10 to 15 repetitions, moving relatively slowly in and out of the pose.

Supta Ardha Padmasana (Reclining Half Lotus Pose)

After practicing engaging the glutes, it’s important to stretch them out as well. This will help increase blood flow to the muscles. Gomukhasana (Cow Face Pose) is one of the most effective poses for stretching the hip rotators and extenders. But Cow Face Pose can be tricky for some people’s knees. Reclining Half Lotus Pose is a more accessible option. You can always practice both poses, of course. But practice Reclining Half Lotus Pose first, to prepare your hips for Gomukhasana.

Wrapping It Up

The poses above are some of the most effective poses I know to counteract Dead Butt Syndrome, but there are plenty more in the yoga canon. Also, the poses listed above don’t include any twists or lateral bends. Be sure to sprinkle some of these movements into your practice so that you address all the different ways your spine can move out of its neutral position.

Then, just as important, take time to practice Savasana (Corpse Pose) after you practice. This will help you integrate the work you’ve done.

Vinyasa (aka flow yoga) has been the most popular form of asana practice for a while now. Based on concepts introduced through Ashtanga Yoga, vinyasa features a yoga “routine,” a flowing movement sequence. In most popular classes, students flow through the sequence at a pretty good clip. Moving quickly from one pose to the next raises the heart rate. In some classes, teachers turn up the heat, which induces sweat. This makes sense for Western practitioners.

In the West, exercise has almost always included these two factors, among others. So as yoga has integrated into Western culture, it looks like a combination of asana practice and Western exercise. Putting together a unique yoga flow gives teachers an opportunity to flex their creative muscles. Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutation) has taken all kinds of fun and innovative flights of fancy in the advent of vinyasa’s popularity.

But some of us, old-school yogis and more meditative types, like to cool the temperature. I enjoy linking poses in a sequence, but I prefer to slow my flow. For me, yoga practice is a time to calm my nervous system through mindful movement. I prefer weight training and walking in nature to build muscle and raise my heart rate. What I love about yoga asana is its ability to foster mindfulness. Slowing my flow fosters the body-mind connection.

Here’s Why You Should Try Slowing Your Flow Yoga

• Unfolding: When you spend time in each pose, your body has a chance to unwind soft tissue resistance. It takes time to move into stillness in a pose. Our bodies and minds need time to adjust to each new position, and it’s only when we can relax into the pose that yoga’s “magic” can unfold. That magic is the integration of body and mind, through letting go of effort. Remember that “mastery” of asana in the yoga sutras is defined like this (in Alistair Shearer’s translation): “It is mastered when all effort is relaxed and the mind is absorbed in the Infinite.” Taking your time in each pose, allows you to make adjustments so that you can relax effort.
• Mindfulness: One of the key elements of practicing mindfulness is slowing down. Practicing slow flow yoga gives us time to tune into the ever-changing process of every asana. Slowing down allows us to feel the process of breathing, how the breath moves our bodies, and the process of letting go of effort so that we can “be” the pose rather than “doing” the pose.
• Props: It’s quite challenging to incorporate yoga props into a fast flow. By the time you’ve set your props up, the rest of the class has often gone on to the next pose. Yoga props help us practice with structural integrity. That structural integrity allows us to let go of effort and be the asana.
• Transitions: This is probably my favorite way of slowing the flow. I think of each vinyasa as one long asana. Rather than seeing flow yoga as a succession of poses, I make the transitions between poses just as important as the formal asanas. Slowing down makes this easier. Try giving equal attention to the movements between the formal poses. This promotes mindfulness in motion.

Your Individual Flow Practice

If a fast-paced yoga flow is your favorite practice, by all means, continue. But sometimes, you might want to try slowing it down. Get to know each asana in a different way. Feel the transitions. Slowing your flow practice at times might enrich your fast flow practice.

Over the years, countless people have asked me what benefits my students feel when they practice asana. A quick Google search on the benefits of yoga (i.e., asana) yields an astounding 697,000,000 listings. While I confess that I did not get much past the second page of the list, the sampling I read largely listed physical and physiological benefits. These include flexibility, increased muscle tone, weight loss, stress relief, and of course, the much-touted “yoga butt.”

It is quite true that these benefits of yoga, and many more, can be experienced through asana practice. However pleasant these benefits of yoga might be, they are secondary at best, and are meant to serve the deeper benefits of asana practice. According to the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the primary benefits of yoga practice are far more extraordinary and life-changing than any of these.

What Are the Traditional Benefits of Yoga?

Sutra 2.48, as translated by Alistair Shearer, states that once the practice of asana is mastered—and I will define “mastery” according to the sutras later in this article—we are “no longer upset by the play of opposites.” T.K.V. Desikachar explains this further in his translation: “When these principles are correctly followed, asana practice will help a person endure and even minimize the external influences on the body such as age, climate, diet and work.”

We all are subject to the play of opposites in our lives. This is the reason that the Buddha claimed human birth to be such a precious opportunity for evolution. Living as a human being gives us ample opportunity to experience the pain that can lead us to deeper inquiry. But we also have the capacity for great pleasure, a quality that softens the pain we will inevitably face. When pleasure and pain appear alternately in our lives, we are better equipped to meet gain and loss, praise and blame, fame and disrepute—qualities that everyone will experience countless times in our lives.

Benefits of Yoga on the Nervous System

How can a physical practice help us to develop the mental/emotional stability that allows us to remain balanced no matter what difficulties we might face? What asana does best is relax the nervous system. The slow, gentle movements of asana practice, combined with relaxed, deep breathing, help us shift from the sympathetic (fight or flight) side of our autonomic nervous system to the parasympathetic (rest and digest) side. When our physical bodies are at ease, our minds have a harmonious place to dwell.

In 21^st-century America, most of us spend a great deal of our time in our sympathetic nervous system—working long hours and scheduling ourselves so that we leave no time for such “non-productive” practices as relaxing. When we do decide to relax, we often entertain ourselves with intense, adrenaline-pumping TV shows and films. We like our music loud and fast. As a culture, we’re “sensation junkies,” as I once heard meditation teacher Sylvia Boorstein put it. Constant stimulation makes us feel alive.

We avoid quiet. Silence brings up a different—and much more unsettling—type of noise. When we quiet our outer world, the normally neglected voices of our inner world speak up—often with a megaphone. Their message is not always pleasant, and it is quite often humbling, challenging our ideas of who we are. No wonder we love to drown out the mind’s cacophony.

Asana offers us a way to walk through the chaos of our inner and outer worlds with grace. We learn to be present with whatever comes our way with acceptance and curiosity—neither clinging nor resisting.

Resting in Asana

Asana means rest. Moving slowly and mindfully in asana practice allows us to become aware of the subtle sensations—physical, energetic, emotional and mental—usually obscured by our frantic lives. As we gain access to the pleasures of subtle sensation, we can unhook ourselves from the need for ever-more extreme stimulation.

As we detach from our addiction to stimulation, we drop into pratyahara, often defined as “retirement of the senses.”Most of us have experienced pratyahara in Savasana (Relaxation Pose)—in those times when you’re aware of sounds and sensations around you, but remain undisturbed by them. In the scheme of the Eight Limbs of Yoga, pratyahara is the bridge between the physical and meditative practices.

The Yoga Sutras tell us exactly how to practice for pratyahara and the wider equanimity that follows. Sutra 2.46 is the first of the three yoga sutras concerned with asana. Alistair Shearer translates this as: “The physical posture is steady and comfortable.” Other translations are quite similar, using such opposite companion concepts as “firm and soft,” “steady and easy,” and “alert and relaxed.” Judith Hanson Lasater, Ph.D., translates this verse as “Abiding in ease is asana.”

Yoga and the Physiological Basis of Calm

How do we fit this concept into our practice? And how does it lead us to be undisturbed by the play of opposites in our lives? For me, the concept of steadiness implies a resolve to abide in a pose over a period of time. In this definition, steadiness in asana yields physiological and psychological benefits.

On the physiological level, when we stretch a muscle, it takes 30 seconds for it to habituate to a longer-than-usual length. Before 30 seconds, the spinal cord sends a message to the muscle’s motor neurons to protect it by shortening it. Psychologically, if we never stay in a pose long enough to explore and make peace with the discomfort that can arise, how can we expect to find the equanimity to remain undisturbed by the difficulties in our lives?

For the first seven years of my practice, Paschimottanasana (Seated Forward Bend) filled me with intense fear. The fear was profound and primal; the pose felt suffocating. Every time I practiced I would take myself just to the edge of the fear before letting the pose go, a process that usually took about 15 seconds. One day I resolved to stay in the pose no matter what happened. The fear turned to intense panic, but I remained steady and continued to soften my body and mind around the anxiety. After several minutes, the fear dissipated. It has never returned.

Steady and Comfortable

Sutra 2.46 asks us to remain steady in our resolve, to hold our poses long enough and mindfully enough that we become acquainted and possibly even make friends with the discomfort that arises. We achieve this by breathing into and softening around the difficulty. While we may often employ the strategy of coming out of a pose at the first sign of discomfort, we just as often create even more stress by meeting discomfort with aversion and/or trying to muscle our way through it. The latter response often leads to injury.

Balanced effort is not too tight, not too loose. When we stay in a pose long enough to relax into difficulty, we uncover the subtle energies that lie underneath the gross, surface levels of sensation. The longer we practice in this way, we cease to feel a need for extreme levels of stimulation to feel alive. Not only do we find more balance in our lives, but when we abide in ease in our asana practice, we move toward what the Sutras define as mastery.

Benefits of Yoga: Resting Like the Cosmic Serpent

According to Shearer’s translation, Sutra 2.47 says, “[Asana] is mastered when all effort is relaxed and the mind is absorbed in the Infinite.” Barbara Stoler Miller, in her book, The Discipline of Freedom, offers my favorite translation: “It is realized by relaxing one’s effort and resting like the cosmic serpent on the waters of infinity.”

Mastery of an asana, according to the sutras, has nothing to do with our level of performance. Whether we can perform a straight-armed backbend or hop across the room in Chaturanga Dandasana (Four-Limbed Staff Pose) is irrelevant. Asana is mastered when we recognize our asana as complete in each moment, regardless of whether it bears any resemblance to our own or the wider yoga culture’s idealized concepts of what it should be. Mastery can happen in any moment, in any pose, no matter what we look like. The trick is to let go of ambition and expectation.

In this interpretation of mastery, we abide within our calm center as we practice asana. It is the same center that allows us to stay at ease, flexible and creative in the face of all the many peaks and valleys we will traverse in our lives. It is this balance of mind that allows us to remain peaceful and open in the face of pleasure and pain, gain and loss.

Practicing “Big Yoga”

I once heard Judith Hanson Lasater say that she hoped people wouldn’t say at her funeral, “We loved her so much. Her hamstrings were so loose.” Judith, like most of us, would rather be remembered for wisdom and compassion. Judith’s practice is about what she calls “big yoga,” the yoga that we live in all the moments of our lives, not just when we’re practicing asana. Asana is one step along the way, an invaluable gift to all who practice in its ability to point us in the direction of graceful living.

This doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the physical benefits of yoga such as flexibility and balanced muscle tone. Please do enjoy them and all the other nice sensations you feel during and after your practice. But keep in mind the inspiring possibilities that lie beyond the simple physical benefits of practice. Remember that mastery depends less on what you do than what you are willing to stop doing. Let your practice bring grace to each moment of your life.

Here’s the third part in a series about yoga for insomnia. Here are Parts One and Two.

Roger Cole, Ph.D. in sleep physiology and longtime Iyengar Yoga teacher, lists four things that must occur for relaxation to happen (not necessarily in this order):

1. Relax the breath.
2. Relax the body.
3. Relax the nervous system.
4. Relax the brain.

All these processes are interdependent; when you relax one component all the others follow suit.

Before beginning any of the following practices it can be helpful to sit quietly in a comfortable position for at least a few minutes. Turn your attention to your breathing, aligning your awareness to an area of the body where the breath feels clear. During the following practices it is helpful to anchor awareness to whatever physical sensations you feel.

Relax the Breath

Knowing how breathing affects the nervous system is essential to allowing the body to relax. Breathing is the one thing all living beings have in common; it carries the essence of life. It is so important that it is the only physiological function that we can directly control.

The breathing rhythm interacts with the heart rate in a process called sinus arrhythmia. When we inhale the heartbeat speeds up; when we exhale the heartbeat slows. Therefore, when attempting to calm the nervous system it is helpful to emphasize the exhalation, making it a bit longer than the inhalation.

Author and yoga teacher Donna Farhi’s The Breathing Book contains lots of detailed information about the physiology of breathing and ways to use breathing practice to alleviate insomnia.

Yoga for Insomnia: Three-Part Exhalation

In addition to lengthening the out breath, Farhi suggests practicing a three-part exhalation. In this practice, you divide the breath into three equal segments, pausing briefly—a second or two—between each. This exercise naturally lengthens the out breath, which in turn lengthens the in breath. Make sure you are breathing abdominally—abdomen expands on the inhalation and contracts on the exhalation—as chest breathing can be stimulating and creates tension in your neck and shoulders.

According to Farhi’s book the three-part exhalation looks like this:

• Inhale, exhale one third-pause, exhale another third-pause, exhale the rest of the breath-pause, inhale.
• Repeat anywhere from five to 20 breaths.
• It may be helpful to take one or two normal breaths in between cycles, then begin again.
• You can practice this exercise while lying in bed or while practicing a Restorative Yoga asana.

Relax the Body, Relax the Nervous System

Practicing a few quiet yoga asanas shortly before bedtime can help bring the body into balance for more restful sleep. Forward bends, twists, shoulder stand and supine asanas, all have a cooling effect on the nervous system if they are practiced with a patient and relaxed intention. (Sarvangasana (Shoulderstand) will not calm your body if it is challenging for you. Only practice Shoulderstand as a cooling pose if it is relatively effortless.)

These poses help quiet the mind-body to prepare you for sleep. Asanas on the heating or energizing side of the continuum include backbends, standing poses and all inverted asanas except Shoulderstand. These asanas are best practiced earlier in the day to supply you with energy to carry you through your activities. One yoga student told me that the energy generated in one intense evening backbend class drove her to deep-clean her house into the wee hours one night! This blog has a really cool chart that shows heating and cooling qualities of different poses.

Restorative Yoga for Insomnia

Restorative Yoga practice is specifically designed to balance the nervous system, alleviating the physiological effects of stress. Even one 10- to 15-minute Restorative pose can shift your nervous system into its parasympathetic side and prepare you for sleep. When sleep is elusive I often get up and practice one or more restorative asanas for 10 to 15 minutes. More often than not practicing just one pose calms my mind-body enough to shift me into sleeping mode.

Relax & Renew: Restful Yoga for Stressful Times, and Restore and Rebalance: Yoga for Deep Relaxation, both by Judith Hanson Lasater, Ph.D., focus entirely on the practice of Restorative Yoga. A physical therapist and yoga teacher since 1971, Lasater devotes an entire chapter to restorative practice for alleviating insomnia. The chapter gives a series of six poses that take anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes.

One of my favorite Restorative poses to alleviate insomnia is Viparita Karani (Legs Up the Wall Pose). Go to this article to read how to practice it. Feel free to practice the three-part exhalation as you lie in the asana.

Slowing the pace of our lives transforms the mundane into the transcendent. It teaches us how much there is to appreciate in simplicity.

Years ago I took a vacation to Baja, to visit some friends who had relocated. One morning I decided to take a walk on a deserted beach. As my pace slowed due to the mushy sand, I began to notice things along the way that I might not have seen if I’d been speeding along at my usual pace. I noticed a perfectly shaped conch, sparkling pebbles, multicolored sand crystals. One particular pile of tide debris caught my eye. I stopped to look more closely.

Here were minute shells just millimeters long, vibrantly colored, iridescent, unimaginably beautiful. The longer I squatted in the sand examining the debris, the more exquisite the scene became. Even the tiniest shells were gorgeous, painted and lacquered with care as if by miniature artisans. I mused that if I squatted there long enough I might be able to discern the character of each grain of sand in the exquisite pile of debris. I was grateful I had nowhere to go, no important task to accomplish. This reminded me of the sublime beauty of slowing down.

The Practice of Slowing Down

I originally became familiar the practice of slowing down on my first vipassana meditation retreat many years ago. This is where I first learned the formal practice of walking meditation. As the days went by, the practice of slowing down began to filter into everything we did—eating, brushing teeth, washing dishes, showering, drinking a cup of tea, practicing yoga asana.

From the outside, we probably looked a bit odd, maybe a little sleepy and lackluster. But the inner experience could not have been more vibrant. Slowing down and connecting with the myriad micro-movements that make up each action made me feel fully, consciously alive.

“We are all sensation junkies,” said author and meditation teacher Sylvia Boorstein on a retreat I attended at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. We are a culture that craves stimulation, a culture of speed and excitement. As a people we are attracted to driving fast, being scared out of our minds by films, watching competitive sports and listening to loud music. These things are exciting and stimulating to us. Feeding our sensation habit helps us feel more vital.

How Speediness Can Obscure the Moment

The yoga sutras define yoga as “the settling of the mind into silence.” When we speed along at our habitual pace, our actions become mechanical. Our minds are anywhere but in the present. But it is in the present moment where our minds can settle into silence. When we slow down, we can more easily glimpse the silent mind, the infinite sky of awareness.

In the same way the tangled mass of debris on the beach can transform into a fantastic landscape, the sensations of living in our body-mind can be quite compelling. But we have to slow down to experience them. From the vantage point of clarity, what we see, feel, hear, touch, smell and taste can be a celebration.

Through quiet yoga and meditation practice I’ve found the subtle energies moving through the body to be fascinating. When we are willing to slow down enough to look deeply, new worlds open up to us that are profoundly satisfying and enlivening.

However, practicing slowing down on a meditation retreat, where it is a vital part of the practice, is quite different from trying to calm the speed of our daily lives. In 21st-century Western culture, having a full schedule is considered to be a sign of virtue. Taking time to relax is considered to be a sign of weakness or sloth.

It is, in fact, fun to engage in activities that stimulate. But living in a state of constant activity, with no time to slow down or stop, is not a state of balance. It is from the ground of balance—the ever-changing centerpoint between action and rest—that we live most gracefully in the world.

Slow Down, De-Stress

It is arguable that stress is the plague of our time and culture. Many of us maintain the lightning pace of our lives via adrenaline. Our adrenal glands and nervous system work overtime to keep us on track. The adrenals are meant to help us through occasional stressful situations, not the steady onslaught of a packed schedule. Without occasional rest, they wear down. When they wear down we become tired and feel stressed.

Slow movement may alter our physiological balance in a way that is replenishing to our nervous system. Roger Cole, Ph.D., is a yoga teacher and research scientist who specializes in the physiology of relaxation, sleep and biological rhythms. He studies the benefit of slow movements, such as yoga and tai chi, on the human nervous system.

“They provide steady, gentle, pleasant input to the nervous system from kinesthetic sensors in the body (muscle spindle stretch receptors, golgi tendon organs, joint position sensors),” he says. “Just as when we get a massage, this could help induce reflex relaxation of the muscles and make us feel mentally safe, reducing the ‘fight-or-flight’ response the brain (and thereby reducing the levels of stress hormones circulating in the bloodstream).”

How Slowing Down Might Actually Make You More Productive

Perhaps the physiological benefits of slowing down might even increase our ability to accomplish what we need to do. When I take time each day to drop my schedule and do something completely unrelated to work or to do nothing at all, I come back to my responsibilities with more clarity and equanimity. Some days may allow an hour to slow down; others may not.

On the more tightly scheduled days I might do something simple. This could include:

• taking a leisurely walk around the block
• practicing a few yoga asanas
• mindfully washing the dishes
• playing with my cats
• savoring my dinner
• mindfully drinking a cup of tea

It doesn’t matter what I do to. What matters is that I allow myself to visit the moment fully, to experience its richness and beauty. How much work I accomplish is less important than the spirit and care I bring to what I do. Slowing the pace of our lives transforms the mundane into the transcendent. It teaches us how much there is to appreciate in simplicity.

Practicing yoga has so many benefits. The best known of these include stress relief, along with physical strength and flexibility. But there’s more. Practicing yoga can help us navigate the ups and downs of our lives. The Yoga Sutras (sutra 2.48) state that “mastering” asana renders us “no longer upset by the play of opposites” in our lives. Early on, I discovered another important benefit: yoga’s ability to help us change habits. It’s not always easy, and it requires one important quality: mindfulness.

I started practicing yoga when I was 26 years old, and just out of college. My college years had not been marked by a quest for clarity. They were, instead, all about altering my mind as often and in as many ways as I possibly could. It was the ’70s after all, and I was at Indiana University, which at the time had the distinction of being the U.S.’s number one party school. By 1982, this phase was winding down for me, but my lifestyle was still not entirely healthy.

A Gradual Shift

About three weeks into my yoga practice, I discovered that an unpredictable shift had taken place. The evening before this particular class, I drank a few beers. In class the next evening, I felt shaky and weak. I didn’t like the feeling. Even the tiny amount of sensitivity I’d uncovered over just three weeks of practice had shone a light on the effects of alcohol on my body.

Since then many unhealthy habits have fallen away, not through force, but because they just don’t feel good anymore. Just this morning as I sat waiting for my car to be inspected and registered, I looked at the panoply of candy bars at my garage’s front counter—Mounds, Reese’s, Snickers, etc.—all candy bars I loved as a kid. But this morning I was not even tempted. Nor have I been tempted for quite a long time. Looking at the bars brought back the feeling I used to have after eating them:  agitated, ungrounded, with a “sick” stomach.

It’s not that I’m averse to consuming a glass of wine once in a while. But I drink it knowing that during and after drinking, I will feel a certain way, and it’s not a feeling I enjoy so much anymore. The point for me is that drinking is a conscious choice, not a mechanical habit.

Change Your Brain, Change Your Habits with Mindfulness

A while back, the Huffington Post interviewed Dr. Timothy McCall. He spoke about how practicing yoga changes your brain. Here’s the quote that most resonates for me:

“When yoga is practiced with sensitivity and attention, it gradually increases awareness. It awakens your ability to feel what’s happening in your body, heart, and mind. When you become more aware of your body, more aware of your mind, more aware of your breath, you start to notice the consequences of your behavior. So a particular food that might not be so healthy may taste good to you, but you may start to realize that when you eat it, you feel crummy. When you notice that connection, you say, ‘You know what, I don’t think I want to eat this anymore.’”

In the interview, McCall talks about neuroplasticity, the ability the brain has to change itself. When we perform an action, the brain makes connections that make that action easier to perform again. This is how we create habits. The good news is that we can cultivate the habits we want, habits that help us feel stronger, calmer, healthier, clearer, etc. and override the habits that make us feel sluggish, agitated or weak. Practicing mindfulness helps us become aware of how our actions affect us.

It All Comes Down to Mindfulness

The key is paying attention—being present to what we feel when we eat, drink, exercise and when we practice yoga. Each individual’s experience is going to be different. For me, alcohol just doesn’t feel very good. For others, it might be the best thing to take the edge off a stressful day. We all have the power to decide for ourselves, if we take the extra care to be mindful of how our actions make us feel. The ability to change your habits depends on understanding how these habits play out in your life.

Tune in to how you feel after eating, drinking, exercising and practicing yoga. I like to pause and tune in after each asana. Mindfulness of the effects of a pose helps me to understand the effects of each pose and the quality of my effort. Does the pose I just practiced cause me to feel agitated or calm, tense or relaxed, frustrated or peaceful, edgy or smooth?

This, of course, can apply not only to what we ingest or our physical practices. It also applies to our mental/emotional habits. How does greed feel? How does generosity feel? How does it feel to hate someone, or to love someone?

Yoga practice has the power to change our habits, and our lives, for the better. When we are mindful of the present and future effects of our behaviors, we have the power to cultivate them—or change them.