The term ‘Yin Yoga’ has become associated with a wide variety of passive, predominantly non-muscular practices and teachings. The commercialisation is a relatively recent phenomenon – at least as far as the label ‘Yin Yoga’ is concerned – in the ever-broadening spectrum of studios’ and teachers’ offerings, while the roots of the practices are grounded in the earliest of yoga’s teachings.

The advent and ever-increasing popularity of yin yoga is a direct human response to the ever increasing need for rest, recovery, personal reintegration and realignment with the rhythms and cycles of nature from which we have become increasingly divorced. Individuals have discovered, through direct experience, the immense value of this more peaceful and gentle approach for body, mind and breath.

Just as predominantly yang practices have innumerable complexions, so also do yin practices, from intense to effortlessly passive, with limitless variations of how yin yoga’s teachings can be shared and applied.

Of all the many benefits that the Yin Yoga practice generously offers, I regard the most important to be those that affect the brain, mind, consciousness, emotions and the nervous system, rather than a focus of the body’s flexibility, which is often, unhelpfully, the primary rationale for yoga practice. Patanjali’s Yoga-Sutra opens with atha yoga anusasanam, which means ‘now come the teachings of yoga’. A useful re-interpretation may embellish this meaning as ’yoga is about the ‘now’, about this moment and about being present within each moment’. Additionally, we can take from Patanjali’s opening verse that ‘these teachings are for now, for this day and every day, as they have been each day since their inception’.

Concentration (dharana) within the practice, with the stillness of body and mind cultivated, can lead to a deep sense of calm meditative awareness and sustained presence (dhyana). An ever-widening range of scientifically researched benefits of meditation (e.g. neuro-plasticity) impact on the brain and thus every aspect of our being toward wellness and potential longevity. The variety of asana forms offer a range of ‘anchors’ for the mind for ongoing inner enquiry and for our journey towards peace of mind and calm in body – the two always impacting upon the other. 

Additionally, Yin yoga is also an essential balancing medium to your active, muscular yang practice. It is for these reasons that I choose to emphasise the more passive, slow, restorative approach to Yin Yoga. I also recommend that students approach the deeper stretches that impact on joints and connective tissues with great care and respect to the human form. Excessively enthusiastic long-held stretches can result in unhelpful over-stretching of ligaments and de-stabilisation of joints. Ultimately I approach yin yoga primarily as a meditation practice during which we have the time and space to offer body, mind and breath an elixir for health and healing at the deepest levels.

In this article, I offer two asana to be approached with a yin attitude. They offer an accessible ground for inner enquiry into our breath, mind patterns, emotions and energetics. These more passive asana offer fertile ground for positively affecting the brain and its many processes, not least of which are its innate cleansing and rebalancing processes, such as those of the glymphatic system.

The asana illustrated are a reflection of the content of my Yin Yoga App for iPhone, which is now available from the Apple Applications store. They are also an example of some of the practices you can experience at my forthcoming Yin & Yang Yoga Retreat at Kamalaya, Koh Samui, Thailand, over the Chinese holiday period of September 24-28, 2015.

Please follow the guidelines for asana entry and exit carefully, with attention to detail. Within each asana, stay attentive to the influence of the form of the asana upon your breath. Be equally aware of the influence of gravity and your breath on your physical experience and the ever-evolving form of the asana. Whenever your mind wanders, come back to the breath and return to ‘sensing’ your body’s ongoing dialogue with gravity and breath. Stay present, progressively cultivating a state of dynamic stillness, or ‘presence’.

Postures:

Pretzel Pose:

Lie on your right side and bring your right hip to where the floor meets the wall. Swing your legs up the wall and align your spine, shoulders and pelvis. Dorsiflex your ankles and spread your feet open, and then relax your legs and ankles. Remain with your legs inverted for a minute or two,  and then spread your legs wide for another minute or two. After a few minutes, flex the knees and hips and place both feet against the wall. Push with the feet to send you back along the mat until your body is shin’s length from the wall. Outwardly rotate and abduct your right hip and place the dorsiflexed right ankle to the left of the left distal femur. Relax the ankle, hip and shoulders completely, and allow your breath and the shape of the asana to work together to open your right hip environment. Focus your calm breath into the right hip, as if your lungs had been relocated at the hips. Remain here for 3-5 minutes, and then repeat on the left side.

Sleeping Mermaid:

Place a bolster down the centre of your yoga mat and bring your right hip to the near end of the bolster. Position your right leg at 90 degrees to the bolster and rest your left leg just below the right leg, with the arch of the right foot offering a resting place for the left ankle. With your hands on either side of the bolster, dorsiflex the feet, engage the pelvic floor and deep abdomen, and lengthen through the spine as you inhale. As you exhale, rotate the thoracic spine and fold down along the bolster. Take 2-3 breaths to complete the rotation before coming to relax completely along the bolster, with the head turned in the opposite direction from the knees. You may need to rest on the right side of the head until the cervical spine is ready to accept the full rotation of the spine. Remain here for a minimum of 5 minutes, breathing into the kidneys, pelvis and hips. Notice the movement of the diaphragm within the torso. Repeat both sides.

Enjoy your practices!