The Subtle, yet Powerful Effect of Yin Yoga. My story.
Squat pose pictured here (without block/support)
This blog post is intended to share my experience of and knowledge of YIN YOGA, as both a teacher and a practitioner.
I’ve been practicing yin yoga for over 5 years now, teaching it now for 4 years. When I first started the practice I thought it was so hard. Being still (relatively), holding postures which were mostly floor based for a set time. Even though the practice looks simple, as you don’t really move dynamically from pose to pose, instead you’re holding postures in what appears to be “easy” positions where you hold in stillness and for time. You’re not really using your physical strength, the point is to try to relax the muscles and let go of any tension in the body. But how do you do this? And how hard can this practice of “yin yoga” really be? The look of it, looks simple and easy. But the practice itself you quickly learn is not easy.
From years of practice is where I noticed where the challenge sets in and the subtle way that yin yoga was powerful to my body, but also my mind. I realized I couldn’t be still. I wanted to fidget. I wanted to think and overthink about everything and move, move, move.
Realizing that it’s the physical stillness factor that was and still is the hard part about yin yoga blew my mind, but more importantly challenged it and trained it.
Yin Yoga teaches us to be better Meditators.
The introspective nature of this practice was a gateway to truly challenge my MEDITATION skills. In yin yoga you’re not really moving physically, but your mind keeps moving. I was a meditator but I think max time was 5 mins, then I would get bored or want to go about my day.
Whereas, when you do a yin yoga class and get into the postures, you’re actively practicing meditation too, as you’re noticing becoming aware of what’s going on in the body and what’s coming up for you mentally, or even emotionally during the LONGER HOLDS in the postures. Combined with the fact that you usually practice in a class that’s maybe 30- 60 mins, well you get the idea. You’re meditating for way longer than 5 mins, and repeatedly.
Yin yoga, sets up the space and time for us to practice meditation. As we watch our breath, as we notice the sensations, we notice our thoughts and in a class setting this ends up being for longer periods of time and the fact that we aren’t moving dynamically in and out of postures forces us to really watch the mental chatter, whether we like it or not.
Yin Yoga must be Experienced
Teachers of yin yoga, that I’ve studied with and consider yin gurus (very knowledgeable yin yoga teachers and trainers), like Bernie Clark and Josh Summers remind us and say ,“one must experience the practice to know what yin yoga truly offers”. For each person it will be unique take aways and releases. Our own personal experience happens in each posture, no two people will look a like and no two people will physically feel the same thing in a posture. I know exactly what they mean now, as from my own practice, the release I started to feel in my body and eventually my mind, was profound.
If I didn’t do the practice I would’ve never truly known or felt the benefits of this still and INTROSPECTIVE PRACTICE. In talks with my students and asking them where do they feel something, also taught me that the human variation was real, as some students felt intensity in the hips holding squat pose for example, but others could stay for a long time with no discomfort. Visually too, you see how different students bodies end up looking in the “posture” you’re trying to direct them to go in.
Intention of Yin Yoga
In yin yoga the intention is to keep the muscles relaxed, as we want to get into the deeper connective tissues (which are made up of our fascia, tendons, ligaments, joints) and it is best to resist the urge to fidget, scratch, adjust. Once we move, even a little bit like a fidget, the muscles activate and engage and the deeper connective tissues won’t get nearly the benefits this practice is intended to bring, as our deeper connective tissues benefit the most when we hold a given posture in STILLNESS and for TIME.
For me this brought challenges to someone that was kind of a fidgeter, someone that liked to move, scratch an itch, react to whatever urges I got and adjust my body. With the above intention described, what also happens is a dull achy-ness is felt in the targeted area. Let’s use squat pose again as our example. in Squat pose you may feel a dull achy-ness in the hips, but also some may feel it in their ankles, achilles tendons and even the knees (if you feel it in your knees back out of postures, not good).
Back to the intention of the posture, yin yoga intends to put you into specific postures that work specific target areas of the body, like in squat post you target the hips and hip joint primarily. The part of the body we are targeting is our deeper layers, our connective tissues, not our muscles. As Josh and Bernie would say, its the other side you’re missing in your yoga practice. I like to add in, yin yoga is an amazing way to counter your busy, hectic, physically demanding life. The intent for me is the practice offers you a time and space to bring in stillness in your life, as when we become physically still the MIND STILLS.
Awareness
Yin yoga being introspective and a relatively still practice moves our attention and energy INWARDS. We notice what is going on within us, both physically, mentally and even the subtle energetic shifts that can occur.
Through the practice awareness becomes second nature over time, as the stillness and time part offers this SPACE and TIME for practice. But I quickly realized when I was new to the practice that it’s hard listening to the body sensations, especially when the mental chatter within the stillness and space given in this practice distracts. The mind just wants to keeps going and going, which interferes with listening to the body sensations.
What I can tell you though, is that with practice all of the above becomes easier. The act of noticing teaches us to notice more. Holding postures for longer becomes easier. Being in stillness becomes easier. Once we NOTICE, the act of practicing to notice, we become AWARE.
The Yin Yoga Beginners Mind
The chatter of our thoughts bouncing from one thought to another. As I mentioned when I started yin yoga I could not calm the mind easily. All I needed to do was NOTICE, but it was hard.
Being new to yin yoga you may be able to relate to this, as when I was new to the practice I found I was thinking about what’s next, and NOT what was happening in my experience. Not in the NOW at all!
We would get into a pose and hold, breathe, hold, breathe.
Because I wasn’t moving I started to stray away with my thoughts, “how long are we going to hold this pose?
Oh what is that I’m feeling?
I’m hungry. No no I’m thirsty.”
All of a sudden the teacher reminds us to breathe, focus on what we are feeling. Bringing me back to the present, to my experience. The teacher asks what do you notice?
Okay I notice a sensations in the targeted area, I’m inhaling deeply, and breathing out.
I stay like this for a little while, but then my mind again…wanders….
“I’m feeling cold on my feet.
Speaking of my feet, I need a pedicure.
Wonder if that one place I go to has availability. Will I have time today to get one? I want to check my phone hmmm to see availability. No no no, I’m supposed to be thinking about the posture. How’s my breath, inhale…exhale…okay I’m into this…
Oh I forgot to close the….!!!”
You get the point, my mind was on everything and anything. Wandering constantly away from my experience.
Body still. Mind working on getting still.
With patience and perseverance, I craved for more physical stillness and the more I practiced and noticed, the more my mind became calmer and more focused. And when I mean still my thoughts, the thoughts didn’t stop, it is more that I noticed my mind racing away from my practice, on what wasn’t important in that moment.
I brought back my focus and ATTENTION to my EXPERIENCE of the yin yoga practice. Each time I redirected my mind to come to my experience I was training my mind. THIS IS MEDITATION, redirecting our mind.
After all it is about the experience being present in it, rather than thinking of what was or what will come later on in your day.
EXPERIENCE and notice the shift of tension release in the physical body.
EXPERIENCE the mental benefits, of calming the mental chatter to help re-focus the mind on the present moment.
Breathe.
Just being.
Bringing it back to the EXPERIENCE rather than away.
Yin yoga is a practice I enjoy sharing and teaching what this introspective practice has to offer others so they too can be guided to self awareness, focus, help the body and mind RELEASE to feel ease physically and mentally. Finding stillness and space allows this.
Yin in (lean in) to the experience. Yin in and discover yourself through stillness. No experience necessary, just start and experience what yin yoga has to offer.
STILLNESS. MEDITATION. RELEASE.
Check out below for more yin yoga articles and resources!
Namaste,
Marzena
Other Yin yoga Resources
Bernie Clark
Josh Summers
https://www.yogajournal.com/videos/yin-yoga-101-discovering-balance-and-ease-through-yin-yoga