Blindfolded Hot Yoga: 3 Reasons you Should Try Eyes Wide Shut

Many people begin their yoga practice as a means of exercising, moving their body, and maybe even reaching some health and fitness goals. However, when you begin practicing, usually it doesn’t take long before you’re diving deeper into all that yoga has to offer. 

It’s hard to deny there’s something different about yoga. You’ll find an increased emphasis on your breathing during the physical practice, sure, and maybe more emphasis on accepting your body, honoring your limits, and not comparing yourself to others. But it goes even deeper than that. Asana, or the physical postures, is just one small piece of yoga. The other aspects of yoga include:

• Yamas (social guidelines)

• Niyamas (personal observances)

• Asana (postures)

• Pranayama (harnessing breath power)

• Pratyahara (sensory withdrawal)

• Dharana (concentration)

• Dhyana (meditation), and

• Samadhi (union with the divine)

We’ll dive into each of these limbs of yoga in future blogs, but for now let’s talk about how Eyes Wide Shut, or blindfolded yoga can help you dive deeper into your personal yoga practice beginning with what it is.

What is Eyes Wide Shut Blindfolded Yoga?

As you might have guessed, blindfolded yoga is the physical postures performed with the eyes shut. You can simply keep your eyes closed through practice, or use a physical blindfold to prevent you from peeking. 

At Society Yoga, you’ll experience all the signature elements you’ve likely come to expect from us:

• Powerful and inspirational messages

• Skilled teachers

• Intentional flows

• Heated studio

• Atmospheric lighting, and

• Powerful music

At Eyes Wide Shut, you’ll also be invited to dive deeper into your body and mind. This specialty class will be slower and more intentional than our Power Heated classes, similar to our Power Burn classes where poses are held a little bit longer so that you can fully experience them.

What are the Benefits of Eyes Wide Shut Yoga?

If the idea of flowing through yoga poses with your eyes blindfolded is a bit out of your comfort zone, you are not alone. But don’t count it out just yet. Here are three top reasons you should give yoga with a blindfold a try:

1. Eyes Wide Shut is a Unique Opportunity to Experience Pratyahara

Pratyahara means to withdrawal the senses. To travel inward, we have to stop paying as much attention to the thousands of pieces of data our sensory organs deliver to our brains every minute. It’s about tuning into your soul and out of your human experience. 

However, sensory withdrawal is a difficult thing to experience in our busy day to day lives. Sure, you can meditate daily or try float therapy, but it takes conscious effort to experience tuning out of your sensory world.

Blindfolded yoga offers another way to experience sensory withdrawal. Removing your vision from the equation and practicing yoga, whether you’re new to the physical practice or not, presents a unique opportunity to be in your mind in a totally different way. 

2. Blindfolded Yoga can Increase Body Awareness

While pratyahara is about reducing the noise from our senses, Eyes Wide Shut yoga can also help you to better connect with your body. Our eyes, obviously, play a huge part of our brain’s understanding of our positioning in space. However, there is more to it that just what we see. There’s also the under-awknowledged fact that we often don’t see ourselves clearly without biases, and we, of course, cannot see inside our bodies.

One of the other pieces in our brain’s understanding of our body’s existence is through proprioception. Proprioception refers to tiny receptors in our fascia, muscles, joints, and tendons that provide feedback about our bodies from the position, down to what’s going on internally. 

Proprioception is one of those things that we all have, but whether or not we’re tuned in is a completely different story. Fortunately, like most things in life, proprioception can improve with time and practice. That’s one reason yin-style yoga practices like Yin and Restorative Yoga are so important. However, blindfolded Eyes Wide Shut yoga is another way to tune in and tune up those proprioceptor organs. You can gain a better sense of what’s happening inside your body while you flow without your sense of sight.

3. Eyes Wide Shut Offers a Chance to Learn More about Yourself

As with all yoga, Eyes Wide Shut offers yet another unique experience for you to explore yourself and learn more about who you are and what makes you tick. Does the idea of flowing without your eyes make you feel powerless? Take a moment to ask yourself why.

When you get to this specialty class, you’ll have time and space to notice emotions, thoughts, stories, and maybe even anxieties come up. Rather than being overcome by them, maybe you can take time to observe and become inquisitive about why you may be feeling these things. 

If nothing else, blindfolded yoga may be a once-in-a-lifetime experience and there really is no better way to get to know yourself than to experience something new–especially if that something is very much out of your comfort zone!

When and Where Can I Experience Hot Yoga with a Blindfold?

Our first Eyes Wide Shut specialty class is February 26th at 4:30 p.m. at Society Yoga in Lafayette, Indiana. This is a 75-minute class where the first 5 minutes or so will be reserved for a brief explanation, followed by 60 minutes of intentionally flowing. Afterward, you’ll have time to reflect and debrief with the instructor, Kate, and enjoy an (included) Vybes CBD-infused wellness drink.

You won’t want to miss this class! If you’re interested, we encourage you to book your spot ASAP, as space is limited to allow for ample room to flow while blindfolded.