Welcome to the latest post in our “What yoga props mean to me” guest blog series, in this post yoga teacher Michelle Howard explores her relationship with props
Oh props! How I love you so.
Though, I can honestly say that my relationship with props hasn’t always been a love story. Prior to my teacher training I was a vinyasa or nothing kind of girl. All about the flow. At the time I felt the need for props was minimal in this practice for me, I have been practising yoga since I was 15 years old, straight out of dance school and so the poses felt very natural to my body. I didn’t know then that my hyper-flexibility wasn’t helping my alignment and that the “goal” wasn’t about touching the floor.
My teacher training completely changed how I practiced yoga. It completely changed how I practiced life. I started using blocks in trikonasana and found so much more space in my torso, an activation in my abs and more room to breathe – bingo. My 200-hour training was also a time when I was practicing for hours upon hours over the course of 12 weeks, my body would feel tired at times and just the simple act of using a bolster under my knees in savanasa helped me to rest deeper.
My love for props was blossoming.
But it wasn’t until I was diagnosed for the second time in my life with major gut dysbiosis and adrenal fatigue that props really came into my periphery. My body had been in a state of fight, flight, or freeze for so long as it tried to cope with ongoing SIBO, Candida, parasites and yeast in my gut and my life as a fashion designer wasn’t helping my inner stress gauge. Eventually I started to feel overwhelmed over the smallest things, sick after eating anything and absolutely exhausted. My vinyasa practice wasn’t honouring where my body was at and so I started to slow everything down. This is where I found yoga nidra.
I went to a monthly yoga nidra class, and we were always encouraged to “make a nest” with blankets and bolsters and cushions and pillows and for my tired-out body and mind it was bliss. I searched out a yoga nidra training and booked on to Uma Dinsmore Tuli and Nirlipta Tuli’s retreat over one New Year. 5 hours of dipping in and out of yoga Nidra a day, I was hooked. I came home from the retreat and ordered bolsters, eye pillows, candles and essential oils. This was for me.
It was around this time that I started to practice restorative yoga too, and my knowledge of props and all their uses really began to grow after taking a 50-hour teacher training with Anna Ashby. Weekends spent draped over props left me feeling so soothed. It was as if I could hear my body craving for the stillness, and the support. We would use sandbags to ground around the hips in a heart opener and suddenly you felt protected in what can be such an exposing pose. Two bolsters, two blankets, a chair, eye pillows and straps were mandatory for these classes, and we learnt how to ensure the body was balanced externally, so we were able to balance internally. The journey that goes on within yourself during those 90-minute classes of being held and supported, can take time for our busy minds to get used to, but it is incredibly worth staying still for. It’s in these moments, where we feel we can physically let go and soften into the hold of the props, that we learn just how much we are holding on to. The props become the therapist, the parent, the partner, the self. They offer you a shoulder to literally lean upon when you need it the most.
Teaching restorative yoga allowed me to encourage students to use props and to allow themselves to be comfortable. Its humbling to realise how much we resit comfort or assistance and props help to ease that acceptance. When a student drops into the hold of a prop completely, normally about halfway through a class when the resistance of being still has lessened, it’s an honour to experience. Suddenly the energy in the room shifts, just as it does when everyone is in flow with their breath in a vinyasa class, and you know that yoga truly is at work.
I would have to say that my firm favourite prop is a bolster. I find them the most versatile and I don’t think you can beat pouring yourself over a bolster in a wide leg child’s pose. The folding forward, and therefore inward, over a support is one for the most comforting yoga poses to me. If you have yet to try this, then I would highly recommended. It’s a great one to do before bed too. In complete contrast laying your spine on a bolster in supta baddha konasana is glorious, with enough assistance from blocks and blankets you can raise the bolster to sit at the perfect angle for you to open your heart and hips and soften your shoulders down your back. This is also my favourite restorative assist, tucking hands underneath the shoulder blades and realising the shoulder down. You can actively see the tension release.
It has taken me time to build a relationship with props in my yoga practice, but it is one that blossomed at the exact moment it was meant to, and I will cherish it (and them) forever. So, I encourage you, if you have yet to start your love story with yoga props, maybe now is the time.
Michelle Howard is a yoga teacher and the founder of Re. a recycled active wear business slowly made in the UK. Made in gorgeous hand drawn prints, Mische creates super small, thoughtful collections have sustainability at their core.
Like myself she juggles this alongside teaching yoga in her community.
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