Yin Yoga refers to gentle and slow movements, poses held for longer periods of time, and a general sense of turning inward. Since it doesn’t take much energy, yin yoga is perfect for when you are feeling sick, run down, or over stimulated. It encourages circulation and energy flow to the joints and internal organs through passive poses that require little muscle engagement. When held for several minutes the poses place pressure on energetic pathways called meridians (think acupressure points) activating energy flow along these pathways. This helps to bring us into balance energetically. Since yin yoga is a quiet practice, it’s best done with soft music or complete silence.
How is Yin Yoga different from regular yoga?
While most modern yoga practices incorporate movements that flow from one pose to the next, yin yoga is slow and still. Rather than engaging in muscles to build strength (like in plank) yin yoga focuses on relaxing muscles in poses that are held for longer duration. Some forms of yoga are very stimulating, enhancing muscles, and building strength. There are tremendous benefits of this, however, if this is all you do, something is missing. Yin yoga targets more deeper connective tissues like ligaments, joints, and bones, to increase mobility and flexibility. This is why Yin Yoga is great for the aging population. It’s a quiet and simple practice, though simple doesn’t mean easy!
Why do Yin Yoga?
Though you won’t expect to build up a sweat in a yin yoga class, what you will gain is increased flexibility, relaxation, and inner peace.Yin yoga can help improve energy flow to internal organs, as well as joints and deeper connective tissue that often gets tight as we age if not taken care of. Yin yoga also helps us live in the present moment, and deeply explore what’s happening right now. This is essential considering the hectic, stressed out world we live in. I feel like I need a yin yoga class every time I turn on the news.
Some general guidelines to remember when trying Yin Yoga for the first time:
Come to each pose with sensitivity to the limitations of your body. Go to your appropriate edge- that place between it being too easy and too painful.
Relax your muscles in each pose. Tensing up will stop the flow of energy, so feel your skin soften up a bit and maybe back off a little if you find yourself tensing up in a pose.
While it may look easy, most people find it challenging to be still for long periods of time, so I recommend starting by holding each pose for 1-2 minutes and gradually working your way up to 5 minutes per pose.
Deep emotions can surface when you become more reflective and aware of your thoughts. This is a good thing. Whatever thoughts and emotions come up during these poses, let it come up. We can’t eliminate our thoughts but we can make peace with them.
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I know how it feels to get stagnant in your practice. I’m a yoga instructor for goodness sake and I still only find that I get my best practice in when I go take a class with someone else. There’s just something about someone else telling you what to do that makes me push myself harder. When I take my practice home with me, I’m so gentle with myself and do mostly stretching and slow asana flows.
A regular yoga practice can easily feel stagnant.
I was teaching a client today and I started to realize that if we do the same practice day after day our muscles get bored and we stop growing. We also start to lose connection with our body because it becomes second nature and we can go through the motions without giving it much thought. So, I started to give cues for more fine tuned alignment, and all of a sudden the same poses felt so different.
There are small tweaks you can make in your regular poses to get more out of your practice.
So I wanted to share some really easy ways to kick up your yoga practice a notch, without adding any more challenging poses. Maybe you’re not ready for headstands, or inversions freak you out. Well this is for you! Do these three things next time you take a yoga class or do your home practice, and you’ll be amazed how different a familiar practice becomes.
Here are 3 simple ways to spice up your yoga practice
Hug Midline– This means that when you are in a standing pose you squeeze your legs in toward one another. Now this won’t mean that they touch. Keep your feet firmly planted directly below your hips, but engage in the muscles of the inner thighs by pulling the legs toward the midline. This simple action will transform seemingly simple or passive poses like mountain pose, forward fold, warrior 1/2, and downward dog. Hold these poses even longer while hugging midline, and you’ll feel so sore the next day! This can also be done in poses where you have weight on your arms such as table top, downward dog, and forearm stand.
Lift Your Toes- This will challenge your balance. First start small my trying it in non balance poses like mountain pose, lunge, or warrior. Not only will it improve your balance, but it will also require you to use more muscles to stabilize, eating you get more bang for your buck in a simple practice. You’re feet and ankles don’t always get strengthened so this is a great way to give some attention to your foundation. Once you are more comfortable try it in balance poses like tree pose!
Close your eyes– Not only will this bring your awareness inside and limit the external distractions, but it will also force you to rely on your own body awareness for balance and movement. We often know how we are moving only because we can see ourselves, but try moving from a place of feeling. This will challenge your balance and also force you to use more muscles and really explore your body in a new way.
I challenge you! The next time you do your practice try out these three actions. Suddenly forward fold and downward dog feel like a whole new experience.
Hi, I’m Caroline! Welcome to Bloom & Spark, an intuition led, wellness based lifestyle blog. With a focus on mindfulness and sustainability this space is for creating authentic engagement in what it means to live well. Here you will find insights and lifestyle tips for yoga & meditation, simple recipes, purposeful living, and realistic sustainability. Manifesting Generator, Gemini,
