DISCLAIMER: Always consult with a healthcare professional before starting any new routines, programs, or nutrition plans to ensure you receive the best medical advice and strategy for your specific individual needs.
Yoga comes in a variety of styles and types to suit different levels of ability, needs, and preferences. From high-intensity Vinyasa and Ashtanga to more relaxed Hatha and restorative yoga, there is a style that might just be right for you. Restorative yoga, in particular, is a slow-it-down type that focuses on body and mind relaxation and healing.
By definition, the word restore, as in restorative yoga, means to bring back and return to an original or former condition. That’s what many of us need as today’s busy and hectic life can leave us feeling overworked, overwhelmed, and far from our original condition. Toxic environments, traffic congestion, convenient foods, and competing demands often make us feel stressed and weighed down physically and mentally. We need time to disconnect, relax, and restore.
This is what restorative yoga is about, helping us slow down, relieve stress and tension, and find comfort in our body and mind. And sometimes you just need to get away from everything, switch off, and get a restorative break. A yoga retreat can help you do just that – recover, recharge, and nourish your mind and body. Whether in Sri Lanka, Mexico, or Thailand, this is an opportunity to wind down, relax, build yourself back up, and just be.
What Is Restorative Yoga?
Restorative yoga is a more restful and slow-paced practice that’s meant to release tension and stress and unlock your body’s natural healing ability. The main focus is on emotional, mental, and physical relaxation to let your mind and body unwind.
Unlike some more vigorous styles, the intention is to relax into poses and put in as little effort as possible. Props like straps, blankets, bolsters, and blocks are often used so that you feel comfortable and supported in various poses. While maintaining a pose, you pause and pay close attention to your breath and your sensations. You follow your emotions as they come and go, without trying to make them change or disappear. It’s like dropping the storyline to connect with your emotions and taste and live them completely.
A healthy recipe for mental catharsis, deep release, and relaxation, this therapeutic yoga style promotes deep inner peace and healing. Creating deep ease in the mind and body, restorative yoga also benefits a whole range of conditions, from insomnia and anxiety to backaches, headaches, and chronic pain.
Restorative Yoga Benefits For Women Over 40
Restorative yoga is particularly beneficial for women over 40 who often feel stiff, anxious, tired, and lacking energy and strength. The many yoga benefits for women include improved body flexibility, stress relief, increased physical energy, and better overall well-being and quality of life.
Body Flexibility
Flexibility training is especially important when you approach perimenopause. With age and hormonal changes, your tendons and muscles lose elasticity and become tighter and less flexible, making your joints more susceptible to damage.
As restorative practice calls for holding poses for longer than in conventional classes, you gradually get deeper into a pose so that your muscles stretch slowly and gently. The goal is to release muscle tension and in turn improve flexibility rather than push your muscles and joints to their limit.
Stress Management
As middle age is the busiest time in life, fighting stress may feel like a constant battle. Luckily, restorative yoga can be a powerful tool for stress relief. As poses are held for longer and props are used to support the body, it allows you to slow down and relax.
Also, the focus is on breathing, observing feelings and sensations, and staying in the moment. When you are stressed out, you are often thinking about things you cannot undo (the past) or find yourself consumed with future possibilities. With yoga, you just let your thoughts wander and feel what you feel.
Breath Control
Practiced alongside yoga, deep abdominal or belly breathing involves using the diaphragm to take deep breaths. As it requires less energy and effort, this encourages the body to relax and reverses the stress response.
Practicing deep breathing also promotes muscle relaxation and helps reduce tightness, spasms, and pain. As an added benefit, breathing deeply supplies more oxygen, improves blood oxygenation and circulation, and allows our organs to function better. The technique lowers blood pressure and the heart rate, aids digestion, and supports the movement of the lymph, thus boosting the immune function.
Research has also shown that deep breathing has beneficial effects on respiratory and cardiovascular function, including in patients with asthma and hypertension. Breathing deeply is also associated with reduced anxiety and fatigue and improved cognitive function and emotions.
Complex Rejuvenation of the Body and Mind
Restorative yoga is a meditative, slow-paced practice that promotes full relaxation and tranquility of mind. It prioritizes stillness, feelings of serenity and peace, and a calmer state of mind. By using props like straps, blankets, and bolsters to support the body and practicing long, passive stretches, therapeutic yoga allows you to relax in each pose, release tension, and return to a state of balance.
How Does a Restorative Yoga Retreat Support Women’s Health?
Joining a restorative yoga retreat is a wonderful way to press the pause button, deeply restore, and find balance in your body and mind. The focus is on clearing out negative vibes and old energies while accessing your mind’s ability to transform so you can move forward with peace, strength, and clarity.
Sitting in a circle, sharing nutritious meals, practicing yoga, chanting, taking labyrinth walks, and exploring your connection with your source and yourself will help you rest, heal, recharge, and let go.
With themed retreat workshops, daily meditations, mindfulness classes, and wellness circles, a yoga retreat can be an empowering journey to self-love and self-care. Balancing the nervous system and rejuvenating the body, a restorative retreat helps reduce stress and tension, regulate digestive issues, balance hormones, and reduce menopause symptoms.
5 Best International Women’s Restorative Yoga Retreats
Here are a few of the best women’s restorative yoga retreats you should consider.
Sen Wellness Sanctuary, Sri Lanka
Offering Ayurveda treatments, meditation, yoga classes, and a bespoke healing program, the Sen Wellness Sanctuary is a space for healing, empowerment, and self-discovery.
With a team of Ayurveda doctors, intuitive therapists, osteopaths, and yoga teachers, the sanctuary promises a complete body and mind makeover. Blending modern medicine, ancient healing arts, and Eastern wisdom, Sen Wellness offers a holistic approach to well-being and individually crafted programs to restore your hormonal balance and metabolism and reset your biological rhythms.
In between treatments and yoga sessions, your stay will be interspersed with cooking demonstrations, lifestyle talks, visiting local markets, watching turtles and whales, and letting the healing power of nature take over.
Ananda in the Himalayas, Rishikesh, India
An award-winning full-service spa resort in the Maharaja Estate, Ananda is an escape from the ordinary stresses of life to a world of relaxation and tranquility. High above the Ganges, Ananda Spa boasts a unique combination of spiritual location and breathtaking views of snow-white peaks above and the Ganges Valley below.
You let your mind wander and commune with nature while your wellness journey begins. A qualified Ayurveda doctor determines your dosha, checks your pulse, and recommends a diet and a treatment plan for your stay. Treatments range from chronic pain and stress management to Ayurvedic rejuvenation and holistic detox.
A team of doctors and therapists administers the treatments to eliminate toxins, boost your immunity, regulate your hormones, reduce inflammation, and heal from within. As well as Ayurvedic cuisine, aromatic baths, and a spa, you can sign up for temple trips, reiki, yoga, or cooking classes, rafting, trekking, or squash, or just enjoy a lazy afternoon around the pool.
THOR Retreats, Tennessee, USA
Nestled in the Smoky Mountains, THOR offers tailor-made wellness programs for women over 40. In addition to yoga and meditation, the programs cover healthy lifestyle behaviors, overcoming emotional eating, the challenges of menopause, and coping strategies for anxiety and depression in your 40s.
Employing expert coaches, THOR Retreats is a hub for exploration, learning, strengthening your emotional core, and becoming a stronger you. If you need some serious emotional, mental, and physical returning, you will find ample opportunities to recenter your body and mind. Plus, there is downtime to meditate, explore, see wildlife galore, and tune in with nature and yourself.
Sanará, Tulum, Mexico
A wellness center on Tulum beach, Sanara puts equal emphasis on relaxation, restoration, introspection, and self-discovery. Combining nutritional programs, wellness treatments, and yoga sessions, Sanara will leave your body energized, your mind tranquil, and your spirit aligned.
A beachfront sanctuary for healing and self-care, this boutique wellness resort offers a wealth of treatments for an ultimate tune-up of the body and mind. From bio-magnetic therapy, Mayan-inspired treatments, and crystal healing to yoga classes, meditation, and spas, Sanara welcomes guests for a bespoke healing experience.
Wrapping Up
Suitable for people of all levels, restorative yoga combines passive asanas and deep breathing to release tension and calm the mind. With restful poses and the use of props, the restorative practice seeks to let the body and mind into complete relaxation, leaving you rejuvenated and balanced.
Practicing poses for an extended period gives you the chance to explore your feelings and your surroundings, opening the door to a deeper and more intimate relationship with yourself and your emotions.
And if you are looking for a more serious mental and physical reboot, a restorative yoga retreat can be a catalyst. With curated wellness programs, restorative retreats are designed to help you relax, sync with the flow of nature, and be nourished in spirit, body, and mind.
DISCLAIMER: Always consult with a healthcare professional before starting any new routines, programs, or nutrition plans to ensure you receive the best medical advice and strategy for your specific individual needs.
