Well it’s been a wee while! It only took a global pandemic for me to get around to another blog post. Now, hopefully, there is a bit more time available to us, and there are undoubtedly many activities and practices vying for your attention; You could learn a new language, take up knitting, start to run (I really don’t recommend it!) or just dig deeper into the Netflix offerings? You could do an online course, bake all of Mary Berry’s Absolute Favourites, or read the books you’ve been meaning to read for the last months and years.
I would imagine you’re hardly short of options. And now I’m going to throw another one into the mix - hear me out though! This option is really pretty impressive;
What if I told you that you could practise yoga, meditate, fine-tune your judgement, become an expert feeler, master your emotions, enhance qi flow, really, like really!, get to know yourself better, improve your discernment, become more accountable, AND increase your mobility … all at the same time?!
Efficient? Yes!
Effective?! You better believe it!
Maybe even vital?
You know, I honestly believe it is, yes.
Here’s the thing; We desperately need to slow down. As a collective, nationally, globally, individually, and in our communities. Now, more than ever, we are being called to slow down. The time has never been more ripe. Truthfully, this is the epitome of a yin period.
As COVID 19 has forced me to step outside my own comfort zone and fully embrace the power of teaching yin yoga online, I got to thinking about just how much my beloved practice can help us during these days. The benefit people are feeling thanks to the practice know no bounds. And I guess I wanted to share this with people who might not yet be frequenting life ‘on the yinside’.
So, here we are, my top ten reasons (really had to narrow them down!) why yin yoga is THE practice to embrace right now:
Yin yoga teaches us to be ok with uncertainty
And what’s more, it teaches us to be patient with uncertainty. We cannot plan. We don’t really know what the future looks like. We have no idea if, and for how long, these current restrictive conditions will be extended. We are unsure as to how we will navigate the months to come. There is absolutely nothing certain about our situation as a collective right now. And it is entirely out of our control. So, be still a while. Feel. In your body. Notice where the breath is. Feel the strongest sensation. Accept where you are. Surrender into that place. Could there be a better lesson for these days?
2. Fascia is fascinating, and you need to get acquainted with it!
Yin targets the fascia and the joints in the body. When we practise in a yin way, we apply stress to these tissues which do not ordinarily receive stress. All living tissues must be stressed in order to remain healthy. Yin yoga truly is the other half of your yoga asana practice. Hey ho! And you won’t need your physio half as much, or at all! That has come to me from many a student. I ain’t making it up! :-) Not only that but the recent research suggests that our memories are stored in our fascia - mind-blowing stuff:
“The body uses its skin and deeper fascia and flesh to record all that goes on around it. The body remembers, the bones remember, the joints remember, even the little finger remembers. Memory is lodged in pictures and feelings in the cells themselves. Like a sponge filled with water, anywhere the flesh is pressed, wrung, or even touched lightly, a memory may flow out in a stream”.
Clarissa Pinkola Estés
3. Meditation is so much easier when we introduce it in yin yoga.
Yin is the best way I know to introduce students to meditation. Each pose is a mini-meditation. That’s why I give people time, and then some peace and quiet. It’s so much more accessible that going straight into a seated meditation practice. And when and if you do, yin yoga will ensure that you can sit for longer periods of time without encountering the aches and pains that you would have otherwise.
4. Stillness is an art, and we get to practise it in yin!
Yin helps us to be still, and stillness is the most advanced practice there is. It’s so crazy how much we resist it sometimes. And yet, only when we learn to be still do we truly see clearly. If we want to enhance our perspective, and see things the way there are, rather than the way we are, then we must practise stillness. It is a practice, and human beings get good at what they practise. So, yin! :-)
“It's what I learn from the great actors that I work with. Stillness. That's all and that's the hardest thing”.
Morgan Freem
5. We get up close and personal with Discomfort, because it brings us into the magical zone!
Yin yoga attunes us to discomfort and teaches us not to be scared of it. It even helps us to realise that it is inextricably linked to our growth. If we want to live a more fulfilled life, have the courage to seize opportunities when they are presented, and continue to evolve into the best versions of ourselves that we can be, then we are going to have to learn how to get comfortable with discomfort - yin is one hell of a teacher in this regard! Kindness and compassion for ourselves and for others are central to this growth. We gently nudge ourselves into the ‘places that scare us’, because our deep knowing already senses that
“Growth and comfort do not coexist”
Ginni Rometty
6. Increased range of motion is on offer!
Yin helps to increase our mobility and range of motion. There’s only so much yang-style stretching you can do to get into the splits - if that’s what you want! Come to a yin practice and give dragon a go. You will even learn about where you might be blocked by compression, so you can find a different way to work towards your goal. Yin yoga will give you an anatomical understanding of where your bones stop you progressing in the pose, so you know where you can ‘improve’ and where you need to ‘accept’. We need both practices - yin and yang. I think they call it balance or something! :-)
7. Expert feelers we will all become!
Yin helps us to get much better at feeling, to become better at being and sensing in our bodies. When we direct our attention to energy flow in the body, we enhance our interoception - our ability to sense the internal state of the body. And the better our sense of interoception, the better our capacity to self-regulate, and self-manage! I love to work on it so much I have started calling it Yinteroception. Yinspired, right? ;-) After your practice you can then tune into how much more relaxed you feel, and how much more fluid your movements are. And you’ll know why we want to do it again and again and again!
8. Greater Accountability is guaranteed.
This one mightn’t sound so appealing at first. But the truth is that you will struggle to achieve anything you want in this life if you do not hold yourself accountable for your actions. Yin will bring up questions, and you might not like them. But if they arise, they arise for a reason. And in our willingness to explore them we understand what it is we truly want, and we can ask ourselves whether we are really doing what is necessary to get it. It’s that balance between effort and ease. Doing what is necessary, and then stepping back. Setting up the pose in the right conditions, and then getting out the way, and letting the pose work though you. That’s a really sweet spot to explore!
9. We can start to respond, rather than react!
Getting intimately acquainted with the habit pattern of the mind - if this is what you would like - is something that you can definitely count on in yin yoga. The mental layer of the practice - for many, the biggest challenge - is first coming face to face with how much the monkey mind acts as a barrier. Just observe. Watch. Tune into the witness. Find the space. Linger a little. Realise that there is an option to choose a different response to the reaction pattern you have known.
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
Viktor E. Frankl
10. How are you with silence?
It’s a tough one for many. And I do accept it’s a deeply personal perspective. But for me, some silence is needed during a yin yoga. We live in a noisy world. Unless you are regularly sitting 10-day vipassana meditation retreats, you are probably not exposed to much silence for a long period of time. And even if you go get the odd few minutes of quiet time, are you really still for them? Silence combined with stillness is a powerful teacher. But it’s both a hugely revealing, and often confronting experience. I would go so far as to say that your capacity to be in silence is directly linked to the work you have done on yourself, and your capacity to hold the space for others. This one is for the teachers too - trust that your presence is enough, and watch where you fill the silence, just because you yourself are uncomfortable with it. If you can get on top of that, your teaching will improve greatly as a result, and your students will reap the benefit:
“In most places where people meet, silence is a threatening experience, it makes us self-conscious and awkward; it feels like some kind of failure. So the teacher who uses silence must realise that a silent space seems inhospitable at first to people who measure progress by noise… Once we learn that we make progress in being quiet, silence becomes a potent space for learning… Words so often divide us, but silence can unite”
Parker Palmer
Now, I know that’s 10, but I’m taking an 11th!
What about Rebound?!
I had to leave this until last. The most integral part of this yin yoga practice - taking the time to come out of the pose and come into stillness, lie on your back, and feel. And nothing else.
It is in the rebound that we get really good at feeling. It is in the rebound that we understand the nature of all things, and life itself, is impermanence. It’s where we tune into qi flow and cultivate moment-by-moment sensing. It’s where we pay attention to tingly toes, dense legs, heat and cold, joy and sadness, forgiveness and grief, deep listening, and the odd glimpse of truth so pivotal to your self-awareness, that you almost wonder if you imagined it.
You didn’t.
It is truly the most magically powerful ingredient of this practice.
And it ain’t yin without it.
“Yin Yoga is simple, but simple does not mean easy.”
Bernie Clark
Nothing worth doing ever is. But yin gives us such a good return for our investment, and I don’t think it has ever been more needed.
See you all soon on the yinside. It’s always a privilege to guide your journey.