Cultivate santosha — contentment with exactly how you are right in this moment.
Begin the practice by centering and arriving. This can be done in a comfortable seat or neutral reclined position. Become still, close your eyes or soften and still your gaze. Let go of thoughts and residual energy from your day and relax your body. Release a few open mouth exhales and let go of anything that may be distracting you. Now, find long smooth inhales and exhales and feel your breath moving your body, centering your attention on your breath and body.
Sense the environment you’re in. You can do this with eyes closed or open, if you open the eyes try not to move them around or focus, simply receive the imagery. Notice the sounds near and far, the size and shape of the space you’re in, any smells in the space or tastes present in your mouth and the texture of what is underneath you, what you’re wearing and the air around you.
Arriving can take several minutes.
Centered and arrived, you are in your body, in this space and in your practice.
As you begin to take yin poses, move slowly and intentionally. Do not push, pull or force your way into anything. Notice resistance in your mind and your body. Allow yourself to feel sensation and emotions. Let go of any notions about how this is supposed to look or feel and practice earnestly and curiously. Soften a little bit more with each exhale. Tune your attention into the details and subtleties of your experience. Notice if frustration or ambition show-up and remind yourself it is okay to be exactly where you are now. Honor the unfolding of this practice. There is no such thing as a good or bad practice. Be kind and gentle towards whatever arises.
3 Guides for Practicing Yin Yoga from Sarah Powers
1. Come to an appropriate edge and breathe into it. Move from neutral to interesting. This edge changes day by day and breath by breath. Hold a non-comparative and non-competitive space for yourself. Come in slowly and feel the full spectrum of the pose noticing neutrality, pleasure and discomfort as you ease in. Find appreciation for the details and the process as it unfolds. You are generating a greater sensitivity. Discern between pain and inevitable discomfort — only you can do this because no one else is in your body. Hone your ability to listen to your body for feedback. As you develop more awareness and practice more it doesn’t mean you will live without discomfort. What we learn to do is find a sense of calm while we stay with our experience. Rather than finding distrations or alleviating the discomfort, we do our best to let go of storylines and experience the raw sensations and emotions, observing them compassionately.
2. Become still and relax your muscles. As the muscles become passive the circulation of blood flow and chi will start to pool in the joints. In the case of compromised tissues due to injury or weakness, some muscle engagement can be applied. Try not to fidget, adjust or react to sensations as they arise and instead soften a little bit more with each exhale. Stillness allows the chi to marinate the joints and every time we move we disrupt the concentrated flow of chi. Doing less allows the body to replenish itself.
3. Stay awhile. Yin tissues do not absorb chi as rapidly as muscles do. The potency of a yin practice at every layer (physical, mental, emotional and energetic) is developed through time staying in the pose. When discomfort arises, take a few breaths and lean into whatever you feel. This pause breaks our habit of reaction and opens up choices. After those breaths you can choose to stay, intentionally change something or release the pose entirely and rest back in a savasana position. Beginners start with 1-3 minutes and gradually increase their timing. Experienced practitioners may stay as long as 10 minutes in some poses. The amount of time for each pose varies depending on what pose it is, the practitioner’s level of experience and what is needed or appropriate for the individual on that day.
Transitions for Yin Yoga
1. Move slowly. The way you get into and out of a yin pose is just as important as being in the pose. When you are organizing yourself into a yin shape be curious and creative making adjustments and playing with the props until you find a position you are willing to be with for awhile. Yin Yoga humbles us as we learn that the way we stretch in another (yang) yoga practice is not sustainable in yin. The potency of the posture comes from the duration of time spent being still and breathing rather than the outward appearance of the pose. You may notice that when you set up yin style, with no muscle engagement, that you feel backed away from where you habitually go. This is part of getting into the pose slowly and as you become more accustomed to this approach you find appreciation for the details of the journey, feeling into the differences between beginning, middle and end. The slower you enter a pose the deeper you will eventually go.
2. Moving into a pose, meet yourself where you’re at. Your experience of sensation while doing yin will feel different from yang yoga since you are not targeting muscles. Everyone’s experience of sensation and their perspective on what they are feeling is different. Some people will notice the tractioning of their fascia in yin while others will not be familiar with the yin sensations and wonder if they are doing it right. If the muscular tension cannot be released in a few breaths then it is an indicator you need to back off of the pose and potentially add props. If you “don’t feel anything” then pay attention more, reconnect to the breath, be patient and stay still softening with every exhale.
3. Moving out of a pose, breathe into your experience. Coming out of a yin pose can be more intense than being in the pose and it’s important to stay present for the transition. Move slowly, deepen your breathing and perhaps do a few open mouth exhales. You may notice a rush of tingling or warmth in certain areas of the body (a result of blood and chi flushing the tissues of the body) when you first release and then gradually that experience shifts and mellows out as the chi equalizes throughout your form. Stay with the changing sensations, by going slowly you can maintain your attention to what sensations are present.
4. Pause to feel and mini savasana technique. Before moving to the next pose, pause for a breath or two. You may notice the urge to counter pose or move around, do your best to observe this reaction and choose to be still for a moment reconnecting to the sweetness of your experience. There is so much to feel when you release a pose and don’t cover-up the sensations immediately with something else. Some of the time, try taking a mini savasana between poses. Move consciously and directly into this neutral shape and tune into the ever-changing nature of sensation. Other days, you may choose to slowly take your body into a counter position or gentle flowing movement.
Using Props in Yin Yoga
Props are tools that can enhance and support yin practice. The deep seeded patterns of holding in our body and nervous system will soften when given support. Props are one of the best ways to customize the yin practice. Instead of doing a pose the same way every time, it can be rewarding to try different approaches. Even if you don’t “need” props for a pose, play with them from time to time. You might discover that there is value in different expressions of the pose and that you can expand the benefits of your practice by incorporating props.
Benefits of using props:
Encourage more opening. Example: when you lay over a bolster on your back it passively stretches your chest, opens your heart and lungs and lengthens from the front of your shoulders down your arms to your fingertips.
Induce a greater feeling of ease and release. Example: when you place a block under your forehead in Sphinx pose the muscles in your face, neck and shoulders soften.
Reduce muscular effort and strain. Example: people whose knees lift above their pelvis while sitting cross-legged (Sukhasana or Square Pose) benefit from sitting up on a prop and wedging a block or blanket under each of the knee-thighs. This allows the hip flexors and external rotators to release gripping.
Accessibility. Yin Yoga can be practiced by every body and props make it more widely accessible. Example: people who cannot fully flex their knees for a pose like Saddle can stack blocks, bolsters, blankets or a combination underneath their sit bones and stay upright or lean their shoulders back into a wall.