A yoga eye pillow can be used during final relaxation or almost any pose of restorative yoga to help the body relax. The eye pillow’s most obvious benefit is to shut out light. But the benefits of the eye pillow actually go deeper than turning off the lights. Because of their weight and soft textured fabric, eye pillows also stimulate the Vagus Nerve and Oculocardiac Reflex. Stimulation of the Vagus Nerve allows for signals to be sent to your parasympathetic nervous system (the body’s “rest and digest” regulation system) that it is time for the body to relax and recuperate. Stimulation of the Oculocardiac Reflex lowers your heart rate and regulates your mood, allowing you to move deeper into relaxation. The weight of the eye pillow also enables a light pressure on your eyes that signals for the rest of your facial muscles to relax. This is important as we often hold tension in the forehead and jaw without even realizing that we are doing so. (Check right now. Take a moment to focus on relaxing your forehead and/or jaw. Were you holding tension there without realizing it?)
Simply placing the eye pillow over your eyes during final relaxation, cuts out the visual stimulus of light, activates the parasympathetic nervous system, lowers heart rate and signals for you to automatically relax all the muscles in your face. Your body and mind need to relax in order to recover faster from hard work-outs and the daily stress of our lives; an eye pillow is a great tool to help you do just that!
Numa is here to help you experience this relaxation! Eye pillows will be available for purchase at Numa for $24 starting on Saturday (2/15)
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