Restorative Yoga works on the mind through pranayama techniques and the support of props such as bolsters, blankets, blocks, and straps, helping the practitioner reach deep relaxation, stillness, inner peace, and a wide range of physical benefits, including improved memory, increased concentration, enhanced immune function, and awareness of the subtle body.

Gentle Heat Restorative is a restorative yoga practice created by Livia Oliveira at Casa Opy in Florence, where a small hot water bag, similar to hot stones but softer, is intentionally introduced into restorative yoga postures, placed on specific points of the body.

Each placement has a precise therapeutic purpose: to release chronic tension, ground the body in the present moment, and guide the mind into a deep sensory meditation.

The heat reaches what stretching alone cannot touch. The gentle weight invites the nervous system to shift from alertness into rest. And because heat carries memory, the memory of being held, of being safe, of being cared for, the release that unfolds is not only physical. It moves through the body as sensation, as emotion, as something older than words.

During the practice, live therapeutic sounds accompany the experience, tones that the body receives before the mind can name them. Sound reaches where touch alone cannot, deepening the state of rest.

Created by Livia Oliveira
Gentle Heat Restorative was born in Florence during a cold winter, from an intuition and a simple hot water bag. What began as a practical solution became a method, refined through years of listening to bodies that needed something beyond stillness alone.

Casa Opy · Via Sant'Egidio 8 · Florence · January 2026