Restorative Yin & Yoga Nidra with Andrea Everingham

Join Andrea Everingham for a deeply nourishing Yin & Restoratives Workshop where you will be guided through a soothing Yin practice which will blend beautifully into the still and calming qualities of Restorative yoga, restoring our nervous system and letting go of fear and tension.

We will be focusing on the element of fire, which as a season, corresponds with summer, when everything is in full bloom. The element of fire, associated with the organs of the heart and the small intestines, describes a stage of peak power, celebrating that which has become. ​

Through nurishing gentle restorative and yin yielding asanas and breathing practices, we will release stagnant energies in the body, remove obstructions to energy flow and allow for equilibrium and harmony. Each practice blends the ancient wisdoms of TCM and Yogic science, while moving with the natural rhythms of the planet. Embedded into this workshop are mindfulness techniques, stress reduction tools and profound relaxation tactics. All of our practices are suitable for every level and uniquely tailored to the students present.

Every organ corresponds to the energy of a certain emotion, and every disease stems from an imbalance in an organ or its meridians (energy channels). This is a fundamental idea in Chinese Medicine. Many times a physical disorder linked to a certain organ actually stems from an imbalance in the emotion associated with that organ. The reverse could be true: an imbalanced organ can heighten the specific emotion experienced by an individual. It can become a vicious cycle.

All emotions are inevitable, physiologically normal and will not cause disease when they arise in daily life. Chinese medicine only considers emotions as pathological when they are repressed, contained, or expressed intensely, often without control, or out of context.

Our Heart is connected to the Yin element, whereas our small Intestines share the qualities of the Yang element. The heart is considered the most important (the ‘emperor) of the 5 yin organs in Chinese medicine, the other yin organs being; the liver, lung, spleen and kidneys. When we talk about organs in Chinese medicine we include, as in allopathic medicine, a whole host of different functions and associations.

From a Chinese medicine perspective, the heart is an organ that:

• Strengthens the digestive system (spleen/earth)
• Controls the lungs (metal)
• Is controlled by the kidneys (water)
• Flares upwards
• Is most likely to be overactive in summer and most likely to be weak in winter
• Emotion is joy (too much and too little are damaging)
• Taste is bitter (too much and too little are damaging)
• Tissue is the vessels
• Shows in the complexion

Functions of the heart in Chinese medicine

• Pumping the blood around the body
• Controlling the blood vessels
• Being the psychological and emotional centre for the body (shen)
• Controls sweating
• Opens to the tongue, controls speech

Imbalances of the heart cause these

• Issues with moving the blood around the body (arrhythmia, thrombosis, palpitations)
• Hardening of the blood vessels (atherosclerosis)
• The heart always has a role in mental ill health conditions (depression, anxiety, insomnia, psychosis)
• Spontaneous sweating, particularly during the day
• Shortness of breath
• Chest discomfort
• Changes in complexion
• Coldness in the extremities
• Poor memory

Emotions and the heart

The main pathogenic factors that affect the heart are the emotions.  Sadness and grief weaken the heart qi and can cause tiredness and depression, while excessive joy can lead to manic states, although this is rarer. Anger creates heat and can cause agitation and insomnia, and worry stagnates the heart qi and causes distention in the chest, depression and cold hands.

“The skin is not separate from the emotions, or the emotions separate from the back, or the back separate from the kidneys, or the kidneys separate from the will and ambition, or the Will and ambition separate from the spleen, or the spleen separate from sexual confidence”

Diane Connelly

Bring your own pillows, blankets, yoga mats and eye pillows, and whatever else supports your rest!

With Love Andrea Everingham

xxx