Yin Yoga

My personal experience of Yin Yoga is a deep, enriching, unravelling of the unconscious spirit and concious physical body. It is a unique healing modality which allows me to start to re-balance my nervous system by breathing and letting go into the pose and staying there releasing, unravelling, restoring and repairing in the space. Yin Yoga appeals to me because it draws me into a peaceful, serene, tranquility. However the realistic side of the practice is there is still an amount of mental and emotional dispersing to be done while holding the pose. Easing into and revealing a weakness, observing the sensations, letting go and being real to myself help me to delve deeper into the sensations my physical body experiences. Emotions bubble up to the surface and I breathe in the good shit and exhale the bullshit.

Changing my habits and responding rather than reacting to the sensations is a strengthening lesson for me. Feelings of suffocation and overwhelming volcanoes can explode with the impatience of the 3-5 minute holds. However Yin Yoga teaches me to stay, not run, face the uncertainty and deal with the pain. Im learning to turn that pain into power and realise that I exist in the deepness of the experience.

Yin Yoga encourages the cold yin tissue of the fascia to open, release and expand. This helps the fascia to develop a stronger hold on the muscles and become more nourished and juicer. In this unravelling of the tissue I am better able to feel my body lengthen in the space between the breaths.

By relaxing into a pose and holding it invites me to take a look at myself and introspectively unlock the emotions bound by my expectations. Potentiating a letting go and facilitating a continual breathing allows me to release and repair myself starting deep within my Yin, my inner being, my inward, closed, private, introverted self.

A profound and powerful shift and transformation has occurred for me through practising Yin Yoga due to the unravelling of my physical tissue and my spirit. My constitution is naturally very Yin, very Kapha, very soft, nurturing and yielding. My lesson through experiencing Yin Yoga has been to “do the practice, all is coming”, as profoundly spoken by Sri K Pattahbi Jois. I have realised I need to raise the Yang tapas fire within me, to rise out out of the Yin nature of motherhood and back out into the world of action. Yes I need more Yin in the nature of rest, sleep, space and restoring too.

Learning to unlearn our years learnt behaviours when practicing a Yang style yoga where we are taught to hug the muscles to the bone so the joints are protected in a yoga asana. Yin Yoga has taught me the dual nature of Yoga and the symbiotic relationship and importance of practicing both styles to balance Doshas, unite the Yin and the Yang and create homeostasis. Yin Yoga is my nurture place. It is where I go to reteach myself unconditional love, gratitude and nurturing. It is my time to unravel.