The Power of Stillness: Exploring Restorative Yoga and Meditation as the Days Shorten

The beauty of winter lies in its stillness, how your senses become heightened by every little movement and sound in nature around this time of the year. Many species choose this time to hibernate, restore, and conserve their energies while we humans put on the layers and continue to socialize, connect, and spend time with our families. The joy of winter is incomplete without dipping our toes in the silence and rest this season offers. Don’t know how to? Here’s how you can explore warming yogasanas and meditation to dive deep within and make the most out of these longer nights, the chill in the air, and stunning silence!

As per Ayurveda, this is the time when Vata qualities like lightness, cold, and dryness are heightened in nature. So you ideally need a yoga routine that is grounding, a bit fiery, and warm.

Here’s a Restorative Warming Yoga Sequence that You can Practice!

1. Child’s Pose (Balasana)

Get in touch with your inner child with this pose. The global spiritual master Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar says every baby is a yogi. A child does every asana with ease and zero effort.

Here’s how the Child Pose is done:

1. Kneel on the mat with toes touching and knees wide apart.
2. Sit back onto your heels and extend your arms forward, forehead resting on the mat.
3. Breathe deeply into your back and hips for 2–5 minutes.

Benefits: Calms the mind, and gently stretches the spine and hips.

2. Supported Bridge Pose (Setu Bandhasana)

This asana gently opens the chest, spine, and hips. It provides deep relaxation and improves the blood and lymphatic circulation in the body. Using a block under the sacrum can provide the right support, making it restorative and calming for the nervous system.

Here’s how it is done:

1. Lie on your back with knees bent, and feet hip-width apart.
2. Place a yoga block under your sacrum for support.
3. Rest your arms at your sides, palms facing up.
4. Stay here for 3–5 minutes, focusing on deep belly breathing.

Benefits: Opens the chest, improves circulation, and relaxes the lower back.

3. Reclined Twist (Supta Matsyendrasana)

With this, you release the tension in the spine and improve your digestion as the asana gently massages abdominal organs. This pose also enhances flexibility and calms the nervous system.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Lie on your back with your legs extended.
2. Draw your right knee to your chest, then guide it across your body to the left.
3. Extend your right arm to the side and turn your head toward it.
4. Hold for 1–2 minutes per side, then switch.

4. Legs-Up-the-Wall Pose (Viparita Karani)

Legs-Up-the-Wall Pose is a very special calming inversion that improves circulation, reduces fatigue, and alleviates swelling in the legs if any. It relaxes your nervous system and gives a loving gentle stretch to your lower back.

Here’s how you can do it!

1. Sit sideways against a wall, then swing your legs up while lowering your torso to the ground.
2. Adjust so your hips are close to the wall.
3. Rest your arms by your sides, palms up, and close your eyes.
4. Stay here for 5–10 minutes.

5. Supported Reclining Bound Angle Pose (Supta Baddha Konasana)

This restorative posture opens the hips and chest while deeply relaxing you. It calms the mind and encourages gentle stretching of the inner thighs and groin.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Sit with your knees bent and the soles of your feet together.
2. Place blocks or cushions under your knees for support.
3. Lie back on a bolster or rolled blanket with arms at your sides.

Stay for 5–10 minutes, focusing on soft, even breathing.

6. Yoga Nidra in Savasana (Corpse Pose)

No yoga practice is complete without giving your body and mind enough rest after the practice.

For corpse pose, lie flat on your back with arms relaxed by your sides, palms facing up.

For the next steps, you have to do nothing but simply follow the audio instructions here for a guided yoga nidra or yogic sleep which is a meditation in restful awareness that gives you deep rest and relaxes your body in just 20 minutes.

Any practice you do for your body, especially yogasanas, ideally puts you in a space of silence within, even if for a few minutes every day and that is important for your practice to be successful. When you add the power of pranayamas or breathwork to this routine, the silence gains even more strength. It is not about getting into the postures, doing some breathing, and walking out with the yoga mat.

Deepening the Stillness with Meditation

All year round we have been carrying various kinds of stress–emotional, physical, or financial on our body and mind complex, and stress is the number one enemy of our immune system, as chronic stress means an overactive sympathetic nervous that keeps the body constantly in the fight or flight mode where the vitals of our body are tense and rising. An effective antidote to stress, recommended by the WHO, is meditation.

Yoga can become a great tool to prep your body and mind to dive deeper into the stillness of this season and get into meditation. This time of the year is conducive to a deep meditative experience. Meditation, according to Gurudev, is the art of doing nothing. It is not about having to sit and focus or imagine or hold affirmations. It is simply letting go of all that we have been holding on to in our minds, ever so gently.

Those who like the taste of the momentary silences they experience on a day-to-day basis can take a deep dive by signing up for longer four or five-day silence retreats. The practice of Mouna is now a popular part of yoga and meditation retreats.

How Can You Include Meditation in Your Chilly Winter Days?

Sometimes silent meditations can be challenging. You could be dealing with restlessness in the mind, a fidgety body, and an inability to follow through instructions.
There are endless ways you can make meditation easy and effortless for you. You can include them in the form of short guided meditations if you are a beginner, or you can learn the powerful SKY breathing technique that effortlessly puts you into a space of meditation, or you can simply observe the stillness in nature, the skies, trees, birds, gentle flow of the river, the heave of the air and become one with it. Become a witness to everything including your thoughts and reactions to every situation arising around you. You will see the stillness and silence within you grow. If none of this helps, just sit for a kirtan session and let the vibrations of timeless ancient chants wash over you. What you cannot achieve by engaging your intellect, you can do it by simply going with the rhythm!