By Melissa Blair, 889 Yoga Teacher
I find that when it comes to Yin Yoga there are two schools of thought. There are the devoted practitioners who are converts. Their bodies know the benefits of yin yoga even if they have not intellectualized them yet. And then there are the yogis who “need to move” to whom “yin yoga is just so boring” or they “don’t really see the point of laying around on the floor for an hour”. My hope is that this blog post will speak to both schools and spark your interest in this transformative practice.
In the interest of full disclosure I used to think that yin yoga sounded like a really boring way to spend an hour on your yoga mat. One day I was tired and thought it was time to check out the practice that everyone was talking about. I am so glad that I did. Not only has yin yoga completely changed the way I feel in my body, it has changed my approached to my practice; to my teaching and to the way I look at my body.
Five reasons you should be practicing yin yoga!
- Yin Yoga targets the connective tissue in our bodies. When we are participating in most other forms of exercise we are targeting the muscles (the yang tissue). Yin yoga targets the fascia, tendons, ligaments, and the entire joint capsule. Connective tissue runs though and encases our muscles. The Yin tissue in our bodies needs to be exercised in the appropriate way. Yin tissue responds to a gentle, static and persistent stress. This is why we hold out postures for 3-5 minutes, to allow the yin tissue to respond.
- Yin Yoga helps us manage stress Let’s be honest. We are all over worked and over stressed. Life has a lot of noise. It is important to counteract this onslaught to the nervous system with quite and stillness. Creating space for a peaceful practice in your life (yin yoga, meditation, massage therapy…) will allow you to access and nurture your parasympathetic nervous system. It will allow you to relax…ahhhhhh.
- Yin Yoga doesn’t expect you to be anything In Yin yoga we make the poses work for your body, not the other way around. With the use of props and modifications anyone can enjoy the practice.
- You will really get to know your body Working slowly and deeply into the body will give you an awareness of your body that you may not have known before.
- Yin yoga teaches us about the energetic bodies There are two main models we use in yin yoga- the chakra model and the meridian model. Since we move though the practice slowly teachers are able to explain and expand on these theories in class. Our energetic bodies lie within the connective tissue, which is why we are able to access them so effectively in yin yoga.
I believe we all practice yoga with the goal of bringing our lives into balance. Yin yoga is a very effective tool we can use to meet that goal. I hope to see you in class. To end I wanted to share a quote from a poem by Donna Faulds, “Do yoga with no goal but to be in the moment. This breath, this stretch, this wave of emotion rolling in. Watch it crest, and break, then dissipate”.
