This morning on my walk, I was whining to my walking partner (14 years!) about having done nothing at all yesterday except lie around and feel bad. Then I mentioned that I had done yoga, but it was all restorative. She laughed. “Get that ‘but’ out of there!” she said. “You DID do something yesterday. You did yoga, and it was all restorative.” Wow. Changing ‘but’ to ‘and’ made a huge difference.
On Saturday and Sunday, Mary Obendorfer was at our yoga studio for a workshop. This is the first time I haven’t been able to attend the whole weekend’s worth of classes. Mary is just great – warm, funny, sarcastic, a wonderful teacher with an enormous storehouse of knowledge.
I went to Pranayama classes both mornings. Needless to say, I gave her a heads up about my health before class. She was very alert to what I could and couldn’t do, and gave me different instructions at various points in the class. In some ways, this illness is the universe’s way of getting my attention and getting me to start a pranayama practice for real. Kind of a brute force method, but OK, I’m listening.
Mary also told me to do restorative inversions (rope Sirsasana, chair Sarvangasana, Dwi Pada Viparita Dandasana, Setu Bandha Sarvangasana, etc.) with very long holds of 10 or 15 minutes. She said it would make a big difference to my nervous system. Sounds good to me. AND it’s all restorative. No buts about it.
Restorative means I’ll be restored. I like that.
Practice Notes 
Hooray for the good walking partner! I’ve wondered about your mentioning doing restorative yoga in a way that makes it sound like inferior yoga, which of course it isn’t at all. I’m glad you’re seeing ands rather than buts.
And doing long holds! Excellent! I remember when you taught me Legs Up The Wall, years ago, when I was utterly exhausted and overstressed from my work situation. We were following a Patricia Walden video, and when I got into LUTW I refused to get out of it. The video went on, the video ended, you finished up, and I felt so completely at rest with my legs upside down that I stayed that way for several more minutes. Nothing like giving your nervous system a good break when it needs it.
Mary Obendorfer has a finger on your pulse, for sure.