I love all the benefits I get from yoga. I love the way it makes me feel.

I love the benefits you can’t see the most, but still I can’t help to feel a little envious when I see someone who is more flexible or someone can do an advanced pose more graceful than me. I know this is a conflict with the philosophy of Yoga, but I’m only human.

I do both dynamic and meditative yoga and I must admit that my heart lies with meditative, which I also teach the most. More than either I love to teach restorative yoga because I see how much people gain from it.

Here are 5 reasons why you should do restorative yoga:

1. Restorative yoga can be done by everyone. I primarily teach people with injuries, conical diseases or disabilities. As a student you don’t even need to be strong or flexible. You can be a beginner or you can be a yoga teacher yourself, and still gain tons from the class.
2. Restorative yoga brings you total relaxation. When the body is supported by props and put in restful postures you create the base for relaxation and security. With props your body will be able to get further into certain poses and surrender deeper to the pose.
3. Restorative yoga also give you many of the same benefits as more mainstream yoga does, like flexibilty of the spine, positive effects on the hormone levels and nervous system . It stimulates and soothes the organs, strengthening the immune system.
4. Restorative yoga gives you a golden opportunity to exam your mind. While relaxing you will have time to practice mindfulness and really listen to yourself. I believe the biggest challenge in restorative yoga is your mind. Be able to be present, be aware and just feel yourself.
5. Restorative yoga always gives you a feeling of being revitalized. You will leave the class with an amazing feeling of calm and peacefulness. For a long time when I did dynamic yoga I thought I got the same feeling, but the more I did restorative yoga the more I realize that dynamic yoga didn’t always leave me calm and peaceful, but just tired and exhausted.

Some of the comments I got from my students is that they feel tired and sad when entering class and they leave happy and with new energy. They love the world of peace they think I give them.

I always tell them that I only open a door and they themselves chose to walk into a new room. This new room is inside themselves. They have not all realized this, and I love when they figure it out. You see, sometimes we think we just want to disappear, but all we really want is to be found. What can be more beautiful than you finding you?

By the way I have never got so many hugs as I do from this group of students.

Gitte Lindgaard lives in Denmark with her husband and two daughters. She has a degree in Nutrition and Health and specializes in empowering people to be aware and take responsibility for healthy living. Gitte practices yoga and after recovering from whiplash, she began teaching yoga to people with disabilities. Gitte believes in doing something every day that her future self will be proud of. Follow her on Twitter here.

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Editor: Ryan Pinkard