Yin Yoga-Find your Yintuition

Everywhere in life there is something striving for balance, to find a perfect place of harmony, a balance of opposites. For those of you who think yoga asana (posture) practice is all downward facing dogs, planks and warriors I'd like to take a moment to introduce you to my favorite asana practice, Yin yoga. If you've never practiced yoga before, if your regular practice often masters some of the more challenging inversions, or you do nothing but Crossfit, here's why yin yoga would be a great addition to your wellness routine. Even in yoga we can let our egos take control, striving to hit that most advanced poses, we want to be 'good' at it. We can lose our focus and forget why we are on our mat. Yin yoga marries asana and meditation, which can be challenging because when your body slows down, the mind wants to chime in. But this type of active relaxation may be just what you need to restore and renew. In  our Yang asana practice we work on our Yang tissues, muscles & tendons. It is a masculine, firery energy; and this is our flow that includes sun salutations, warriors and dynamic breath with movement.

In yin we find well, the opposite. Our feminine, nurturing, lunar energy is found and we force ourselves to slooooowww down. We use no muscular engagement, the muscles are cool, not warm. Most of the practice is done close to the mat, working a lot from navel to knees as well as nice ways to open up the chest. We offer the body support with pillows, bolsters, blocks and blankets and we hold poses anywhere from 3-6 minutes. We let gravity to the work and allow ourselves to simply be. Here we work the Yin tissues; connective tissue, facia, ligaments. Our connective tissues are similar to silly puddy. If you remember playing with silly puddy as a kid  you may recall if you take it and try to pull it apart while its cold it tending to have no give, to even snap. But if you're patient, and  you hold it in your hands and roll it around something magical happens. It begins to soften, expand and lengthen more that you thought was event possible! So that's what we do, we work with patience and presence, allowing the body to lengthen and expand.  With simply the weight of your own body and time the body and can reach more flexibility and release the tensions of the mind to find stillness. 

A beautiful balance to any routine, I'd love for you to join me in this most healing, restorative practice. To see the current offerings of this and other classes feel free to visit here for more information. Be well and hope to see you soon. Namaste.