More Tips for Practising (and Teaching) Yin Yoga
This is long and lengthy. Maybe copy and print rather than staring at a screen. Creating space for absorbing…
Approach this in ways of yin…
After teaching Yin yoga for more than 20 years, here are some thoughts…
❖ In this practice, there is less focus on external form, rather an emphasis on feeling and function — essentially, less about look and more about how does this feel.
❖ It is neither achievement nor the form of pose; instead, a practice primarily grounded in content and intent.
❖ Yin yoga teaches us that life does not have to be loud to be profound, that curiosity is more important than ambition.
❖ Yin yoga can help us to lessen expectations and be more in the experience — and then bring in qualities such as faith, kindness, patience and wisdom.❖ Within reasonable stillness (knowing that of course movement is within stillness), can we be soft and at ease? This might be a way of defining ‘edge’: a shape where we can both stay for a while and feel soft (so without struggle and tension).
❖ More important than strong sensations and deep stretching are approaches that are grounded in ease and flow. Be pragmatic because we are staying in the poses for a while.
❖ Being guided by such wisdom as Sun Simiao (7th century CE Chinese physician): “The way of nurturing life is to constantly strive for minor exertion but never become greatly fatigued and force what cannot be endured.”
❖ Yin yoga is about exploring our own experiences and so can be a practice of deep self- inquiry.
❖ Always new descriptions and new methods within the mix, for example, this practice being “glacial flow yoga”.
❖ Instead of a linear approach (such as a simplistic balancing on a seesaw), we prioritise processes, interactions and flows which are harmonising: “congruity of parts to their whole… a state of balance, alignment and peace among the different aspects of existence… the combination of simultaneously sounded musical notes to produce a pleasing effect… the piece owes its air of tranquillity largely to the harmony.”
❖ Yin yoga can be a means to be better resourced, thus helping us to move away from depletion and fear and towards love.
❖ Good guidance from Rumi: “Let the water settle and you will see the stars and the moon mirrored in your being.” Yin can certainly be part of settling.
❖ With our nervous systems being strained by sensory bombardments, with our bodies under pressure to constantly do, this is excellent advice from an Ayurvedic doctor: “The healing is in the slowness.”
❖ Because the slower we go, the more we might know.
❖ Drawing inspiration from a range of sources, such as The Cloud of Unknowing (a 14th century Christian mystic text): “Sincere words are spoken simply.” What happens when we contemplate those five words?
❖ Yin yoga requires the courage of staying.
❖ With Yin yoga, there is the potential of being less ambitious and less aggressive; rather, calming and contemplative.
❖ This practice does not fetishise poses; this practice orients towards person. Less of a standardised approach (where postures might be imposed), more about enhancing sensitivity and cultivating inner resilience.
❖ This is agency yoga, with the person in charge being the practitioner. Someone wrote to me: “I was in a deep pit of extreme fatigue and you said those magic, permissive words to the class… something like ‘you can do as much or as little as you wish, if you need to sleep, sleep.’ It gave my spirit permission to rest and without making a conscious choice, I rested free from guilt or shame. Slipped into a place of deep healing. It was profound to be given that permission. Something very, very deep happened for me that day…. It was a landmark moment.”
❖ Wise words from Hermann Hesse (author of Siddhartha and many other novels): “Some of us think that holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is the letting go.”
❖ Here is one of my poems that might be apt for this practice: The Buddha’s stone statue sits steady;Silent and serene, an embodied ease;A calm watching and witnessingThe ceaseless flows of this life;Inspiration and aspiration.
❖ Two diverging views about practitioners’ first experiences of Yin yoga: “I hated it. I hated everything about it… I hated the poses, I hated the holding of the poses, I hated it all and was committed to never going back to a yin class again” – and: “The calm feeling of complete ease all over my body, as if my very cells had been filled with a warm, sweet nectar from head to foot, and my mind, body and spirit felt blissfully unified.”
❖ This can be a counter-cultural practice because we live in a culture that is fixed on appearances and worships growth. Outward and upward energies which require a harmonising with downward and inward energies.
❖ Much yoga is like the mainstream: striving, fast and superficial. Yin yoga can be different.
❖ The fact is that consciously encouraging feelings of appreciation and gratitude can help us to be more at ease and more content. This allowing of space (which can be experienced in Yin yoga) could develop such feelings.
❖ In words from meditation teacher Mingyur Rinpoche: “I feel that happiness is really found in appreciation and rejoicing.”
❖ An aspiration for us as practitioners: “The altar is in my heart… I trust the earth to support me… I question my beliefs with curiosity… I remember that nothing is mundane… My life is a sacred ritual.” (Tracee Stanley, ‘The Householder’s Flow’)
❖ At the end of the day, it is primarily about attention, whether that is expressed by psychotherapist Fritz Perls (“boredom is a lack of attention”) or Yin yoga teacher Bernie Clark (“pay attention or pay the price”).
❖ Paying attention — awareness, noticing, observation — to how we go into the poses, our experiences during the poses and (crucial yet often neglected) how we come out of the poses. This could be called ‘exit strategy’ and also includes our experiences after a practice.
❖ Many maps are possible: from the eight worldly winds to the five spiritual faculties, from the East Asian energetic channels to the South Asian chakra system, from modern anatomy to poetic songs.
❖ Though too many maps could be confusing, so an idea can be to see the varied maps as adjacent partners, each shining their own light, each with their own insights and valuable perspectives.
❖ Many spiritual practices point towards the essence of all being love: hearts wide open, recognising commonalities, connections rather than dividing, hand-holding rather than supremacy and dominance and superiority. How might we manifest this when practising Yin yoga?
❖ Life is bittersweetness — and our choices do make a difference (force or flow, a snake or a rope, gripping or gliding).
❖ A possibility of Yin yoga: less escaping, more return; less chasing intensity, more being with multiplicity, nuance and subtlety.
❖ An important teaching: “My actions are the ground on which I stand.” What we do, what we say, what we think all have consequences.
❖ Passivity and denialism reinforce depression and despair. We can choose: kindness over cruelty, careful consideration over boastful blustering, being generous over being selfish. By making these choices, there can then be beneficial ripples.
❖ Better to move in ways that replenish instead of deplete, energise more than exhaust, fulfil instead of frustrate.
❖ In words from a Mary Oliver poem: I’m taking the day off.Quiet as a feather…Stillness. One of the doorsinto the temple.
❖ In words from a Jack Kornfield poem:
If you can sit quietly after difficult news
If in financial downtimes you can remain perfectly calm
If you can fall asleep after a day of running around without a drink or a pill
If you can always fall contentment wherever you are
You are probably…a dog.
❖ In words from a John O’Donohue poem:
May we find calm in the midst of storms, clarity in the midst of chaos
and may our spirit never lose sight of the beauty and wonder of life.
❖ Yoga needs to exist off the mat (as well as on the mat) for it to be yoga.
❖ So study and practice and learn and question and connect — and repeat…
❖ A succinct six-word summation: everything connects, everything matters, everything changes…
Many thanks for reading all of this. I hope that you have found some inspiration and some precious gems within all these words.
