What teaching Yin Yoga has shown me: physical and emotional benefits
The power of Yin Yoga is time, not effort.
Paul Grilley
As my previous experiences have shown me, teaching different Yoga styles according to different lineages can have different effects on students and can offer precious information around the students’ needs and experiences. What we call Yin practices are usually soft, gentle, offering a doorway to a deeper meditative experience, allowing more space for exploration of the breath and of the postures. The physical goal of the practices is to enhance range of motion that has been conditioned by our background, potential injuries or daily posture. The postures are practiced in stillness and silence for several minutes, with a gradual intention in moving in and out of the pose itself.
But what is the connection between the physical and emotional aspects of the practice itself, combined with mindfulness? I often had students coming out of a gentle Yin practice in tears or deeply shaken emotionally. Why is it that many students experience emotional reactions after or during the practice, in certain postures? Is Yin Yoga efficient in managing stress, anxiety and chronic pain? So many questions arise with this profoundly transformative practice. So many layers to pierce through and explore self-enquiry.
It is true that, on a physical level, some students suffer from chronic pain, but this doesn’t stop them from practicing. Yin Yoga works with our fascia - connective tissues that wrap around our muscles and carry messages from the brain. We are highly sensory beings with complex nervous systems. Therefore, we can retrain and reprogram our minds to manage better the sensations we might experience, to soothe our overcharged nervous system. If we can exercise the nervous system by getting to know our levels of discomfort, we can stretch our pain tolerance gently in time and get better at managing our stress. Mindfulness comes into play here, because we want our full attention and awareness into the present moment, we are not distracting ourselves from the sensation, we become curious to explore, to understand. When we stay with the sensations we feel, whether physical or emotional, we notice them shifting, changing. We become more at ease to identify when we are experiencing discomfort and when we are actually stressed due to pain and this becomes an obvious signal to pause, to step out of the practice. We learn to experience to feel stuck, in order to know how or what to release.
Styles of Yoga like Yin Yoga that emphasize longer holds in poses can bring forward some level of discomfort in the body or brain. Working with our tissues, ligaments and joints go far beyond the present moment, we go deeper into a holistic exploration of who we are, of our past, emotions, reactions, patterns etc. So it comes as no surprise that deep hip stretches often included in Yin Yoga classes can bring lots of emotions to the surface, like sadness, grief or unprocessed anger. Many say that our emotions are trapped in our tissues and bodies involuntarily, so moving in a specific way triggers a certain emotional response. By allowing this experience and integrating it into the practice, a certain feeling of ease and surrender arrives after. Here is where svadhyaya (self-study) and tapas (cultivating resilience) play an important role for the student to deepen the understanding of their individual experience.
Yin Yoga is inviting us to a deeper, more receptive relationship with our bodies and with our minds. As the movement slows down, our thoughts, the constant buzzing of our minds becomes more visible, a familiar sense of restlessness, that impulse to constantly perform and do something. However, this is part of the beauty and challenge of the practice itself. Cultivating patience and compassion with ourselves, our attention can come back to the breath, as an anchor of our practice. Observing without reacting or engaging. Separating the inner dialogue and patterns from the reality and the interconnectedness around us. Extending this beyond the mat becomes a new way of seeing and experiencing the world around us and managing external stimuli. It is a practice of being and staying present, even when it gets difficult. The stillness and silence create optimal conditions for perception to grow deeper, in regards to how we sustain the postures, how our body responds to each one of them, how our attention moves ever so softly. All students are faced with their own samskaras - unconscious imprints that influence the decisions and actions throughout life. According to Yoga philosophy, our sense of self and worldview reflect these sensory impressions, which derive from our current and past lives. However, rather than searching for answers or immediate solutions, Yin Yoga invites us to create a space of discernment and listening, of self-reflection and willingness to meet life wherever and however we are. Also, sitting still with our own minds and thoughts is not always an easy or pleasant thing, our minds might not be the nicest place to be, living in the now means being uncomfortable with not being in control, so sitting with ourselves becomes a very challenging and triggering task. Often, journaling and therapy become amazing complementary tools for Yoga in helping us deepen the understanding of our samskaras, and freeing us from past conditioning, in order to allow new healthier ways of engaging with the external world.
What students can ask themselves during a Yin practice
How can I create mindful adjustments of the pose to trigger a relaxation response or feel more empowered in a certain way?
Where are my boundaries? Should I pause, take a break, go back into a certain shape, if this one doesn’t feel right?
Where is my awareness right now?
Where do I feel my breath mostly?
What teachers can ask themselves during a Yin practice
Am I offering a safe space for the students to modify the shapes, express their level of comfort and need for modifications ?
Am I creating enough presence and space for self-inquiry and deeper meditation?
Am I using the right words, an invitational language or am I forcing, restricting anything?
Yin Yoga is an individual and holistic journey that transforms each one on a certain level, whether emotional or physical. It is not an easy practice, even if it looks like it from the outside. It invites pausing, stillness and contemplation. It is perhaps what we need when life gets busy, heavy or overwhelming, when we experience a lot of resistance in our minds or in our bodies. Practicing Yin can feel very liberating and empowering. And if one fears or dislikes the practice, that is a good start to investigate why and perhaps give it another try :)
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