Restorative Yoga: Find Mind-Body Balance During Eating Disorder Recovery
Early on in my recovery from anorexia, I learned that healing meant more than getting over fear foods and putting on weight. Anyone recovering from an eating disorder comes to this realization eventually. And when we do, it’s a game-changer.
Our inner landscapes need just as much attention as our physical bodies. Enter: restorative yoga.
Restorative yoga is perfect for those recovering from eating disorders (and anyone, for that matter) because it restores mind-body balance without physical exertion — which is especially important if you haven’t been cleared for exercise.
A restorative yoga practice helped me deepen my connection with my body and Self, laying the foundation for recovery. But it does look a lot different than your traditional yoga. Let’s find out how.
What is restorative yoga?
Restorative yoga is a gentle, healing practice that incorporates the use of props (like bolsters, blankets, and blocks) to support our bodies in resting poses. It’s also slow-paced, meaning each posture is held for 5–20 minutes, giving us time to really sink into relaxation and give our thinking minds a break.
My yoga instructor jokingly referred to the restorative practice as “organized napping” as it wasn’t uncommon for someone to doze off during practice. (If that doesn’t sell you, I don’t know what will!)
Unlike the more traditional types of yoga where we flow from one pose to another, restorative yoga allows us to embrace stillness. And props are used so that we can rest in our postures without straining any muscles or joints. From this place of support and comfort, our bodies and minds can begin to heal.
Gail Grossman, E-RYT 500 and author of Restorative Yoga For Life, explains: “Restorative yoga works on the parasympathetic nervous system. Specific poses and sequences are set up to stimulate what needs to be stimulated, and calm down what needs calmed. It is much harder to calm down than it is to create tension or stimulation, but restorative yoga has techniques that effectively create this wonderful state of calm.”
How can restorative yoga help me recover from an eating disorder?
When I was deep in my eating disorder, I had completely lost my sense of self. My body was unfamiliar. My personality was unrecognizable. Anorexia and orthorexia had laid a tarnish over my entire being. But with restorative yoga, I began to strip away at those layers.
I practiced every week, but each week was different. Some days, I would completely surrender and experience profound moments of release. And other days, my practice was — at its best — a reason to get out of the house and challenge my self-imposed isolation. If you try restorative yoga, know that this is totally okay, and sometimes even necessary to help us cope with triggers.
Here are just some of the ways that restorative yoga helped me recover:
1. It taught me how to listen to my body.
The tiniest micro-adjustment with our bolsters can mean a world of difference in our ability to relax into a pose. With the restorative practice, we learn to cultivate awareness of what our bodies are trying to tell us. I took this practice off the mat and wove it into pretty much everything, but especially intuitive eating.
2. I learned to be with my thoughts without judgment.
Restorative yoga is a great segue into meditation since it gives you the chance to be present with your thoughts. Many of us, ED or no ED, are quick to distract ourselves with our phones, to-do lists, and food whenever an uncomfortable thought comes up. In practice, there’s nowhere to be and nothing to do, but be here now. Coming face to face with your thoughts and your core without judgment is essential for recovery.
3. It gave me the time and space to focus on myself.
Listen, making time for ourselves is sometimes much harder than any of us wish for it to be. So carving out a specific hour every week to give myself permission to just be and breathe and relax was revolutionary.
Final note
Our paths to recovery are meant to be unique, but here’s what I know to be true for everyone: inner healing should never be an afterthought. Otherwise, recovery is like looking up directions and only punching in the destination. To know our point of departure, we need to take time to check in with ourselves here and now. At this threshold, we can move forward to true and lasting healing.
Now, I’d love to know: Have you ever tried restorative yoga? What worked for you? What didn’t?
Can you share any other tools or practices that help to dial up the volume of your inner voice?
Drop a comment below and share your wisdom. A few words might have the most positive and profound effect on someone’s healing journey.