If you would’ve asked me what I thought about yin yoga 6 years ago, I’m sure you wouldn’t have heard much of anything positive. At that point in my life, I had given yin yoga a solid three classes before I determined I would never practice it again.
The Bikram studio I was attending at the time had started offering yin and yoga nidra classes. I had fallen in love with Bikram yoga at the time, and was looking to expand my yoga practice, so naturally I decided to give these new classes a try.
After only a few classes, I discontinued the yoga nidra classes (mainly because I would accidently fall asleep 5 minutes in, and was always super embarrassed when I was woken up at the end of class). Now that I have a schedule that allows me to get a full night’s sleep, I love yoga nidra as a way to de-stress and unwind from a busy day. My reasons for discontinuing yin yoga, however, were completely different. And perhaps if I was introduced to this style by a different teacher, I would’ve also fallen in love with the practice.
The first yin class I remember taking, I remember walking out pretty annoyed that I didn’t get a good sweat in. After all, Bikram yoga, and other very yang types of yoga practice like Power Yoga and Ashtanga, were pretty much the only yoga I had practiced at that time, and if you’ve ever taken Bikram or other hot yoga classes, you know just how sweaty it can get and how exhilarating it can feel afterwards. At that point, I was still near the beginning of my yoga journey, so I was really looking for a great workout and hoping to conquer all of those super impressive looking poses you saw people doing on the internet.
The second class, I distinctly remember being super uncomfortable: mentally and physically. My mind was in a constant state of, “Am I even doing this right?”, “God, when will this pose be over? It feels like it has been FOREVER.”, on top of all of the anxious thoughts I normally had running through my mind at any given second. Physically, this class seemed much more challenging. I was being humbled in ways I didn’t even know I could be humbled in. For example, staying in seal pose for what was probably 5 minutes or so was a supreme struggle. Getting the challenge I was initially looking for in the first class, I decided to continue going to class.
The third class I took, was very similar to the second class that I had taken, except this time the teacher was very hands on with her adjustments. In Swan Pose (which is similar to Pigeon Pose), she came over to me and quietly said, “Here, bring your shin so that it is parallel to the top of the mat”. Before I could even finish explaining to her that I had tried but my body didn’t move that way, she continued to yank my shin parallel to the mat and press my hips down. When we switched sides, she approached me again and yanked my body into the same position. I know this teacher meant well, you could even tell by her words and the expression on her face that she thought she had just shown me that my body did what my mind thought it couldn’t. Her pride left me walking out of that class feeling like I had definitely overstretched a hamstring or two. And from then on, I vowed never to take a yin class again. However, because of this experience, I am definitely a lot more aware and conscious of how I adjust students in my classes today.
Fast forward about half a decade later, I began teaching yoga myself. I mainly practiced and taught Ashtanga yoga at the time, but one studio I taught at asked if I could teach a slower paced style. Knowing of the potential benefits of Yin yoga, I decided that that is what I would teach. I completely immersed myself in Yin Yoga, learning and practicing as much as I could. I absolutely fell in love with the practice, and for a while maintained it as my main form of yoga practice. Yin yoga is so different from many of the yoga styles that are practiced and promoted today, and it has completely changed the way I think about the physical practice of yoga. Whether you are just getting started with yoga or are wanting to explore new styles, there are so many reasons to get started with a yin yoga practice. Here are 10 reasons to incorporate yin yoga into your life.
- Yin yoga targets the joints and the fascia (two things that often get neglected in our day to day lives).
Unless you are regularly triggering myofascial release through massage or frequent stretching, chances are you are not showing your fascia much love. Even more so if you are chronically dehydrated, tend to slouch, sit a lot, or don’t get enough movement in during the day. Fascia is one of the largest tissue structures in the body. You can think of it as like the thin white casing separating segments of an orange, or like a layer of cling wrap underneath the skin, supporting and holding together your muscles, nerves, organs, and bones. We keep our fascia healthy by staying hydrated, moving our bodies regularly, stretching regularly, and keeping good posture. Our fascia is an amazing tissue that always tries to protect us, so when we have an injury or we maintain bad posture fascia can thicken in the areas in which our bodies need more support. This thickening can be most clearly seen in older people who have “hump backs”, from where fascia has thickened to support bad slouching posture. (If that is not enough of a reason to keep up good posture, I don’t know what is!) Speaking of aging, have you ever thought about how to keep your joints healthy and strong throughout your life time? Yin yoga is excellent for maintaining the health and range of motion throughout our lives because it keeps us flexible. Maybe you don’t have a desire to do the splits or to be crazy flexible, but maintaining a certain degree of flexibility in our joints helps our bodies to age more gracefully.
- Yin yoga is a nourishing way to keep practicing through your menses and relieve menstrual cramps and back pain associated with painful periods.
Some yoga practices state that women should not practice yoga on their menses. And while it is always good to give your body the rest it needs when you feel you need to rest, practicing yoga during this time of the month can often help relieve some of the pain and discomfort experienced during this time by loosening up the muscles and areas that are causing discomfort in the body. This is also a great alternative, if NSAIDs and other pain-relieving medications tend to make you feel generally more ill than better.
- Yin yoga is a really good way to slow down (especially for those that have a difficult time relaxing).
In our culture we are taught to keep working, keep producing, keep hustling by all means necessary. This mentality contributes to the stress and fatigue that fuels a lot of the world’s most common diseases: such as high blood pressure, heart disease, depression, and adrenal fatigue. Yin is part of the duality that is yin and yang. Everything in life can be broken up into these two categories. When we look at the image of yin and yang we see a circle, half white and half black, in equal proportions, with a white dot in the black half and a black dot in the white half. This symbolism suggests that you can’t have the one without the other. You can’t have light without dark, heat without cold, masculine without feminine. Both sides are equally as important, yet our society favors and encourages yang energy, while disregarding the importance of yin energy. Rest is just as important as work, yet the CDC has reported that nearly one third of Americans are getting enough sleep. Practicing yin yoga is a great way to practice nourishing this yin quality in our lives, helping us get back into a state of balance.
- Yin yoga gives us a chance to tune into the inner body.
So often in our lives our focus is and expected to be turned outward. And especially if you are brand new to yoga, it is easy in many other styles of yoga like Bikram, ashtanga, or vinyasa flow to maintain this outward focus. To feel like you need to achieve the best possible versions of each pose, and if you have a tendency to be hard on yourself this can turn what should be a meditative experience into just another pressure to deal with in life. It has been my experience that yin yoga, more so than other forms of yoga practice, encourages us to dive deep into ourselves. Leading us to tune into our own unique experiences and really feel what is happening in our body.
- Stretching certain meridians in the body can help to develop or decrease certain psychological qualities.
Yin Yoga is connected with Traditional Chinese Medicine. By stretching different parts of the body we activate certain meridians along the body, bringing changes in emotional state. For instance, the Stomach and Spleen meridians deal with feelings of Worry/Creativity, the Liver and Gallbladder meridians deal with feelings of Anger/Kindness, the Kidney and Urinary Bladder meridians deal with Fear/Wisdom, and the Lungs and Large Intestine meridians deal with Sadness/Beauty. Negative emotions, traits or physical symptoms that correspond with these meridians can let us know that chi is not flowing properly through these areas of the body. However, this is a good thing, as it is our body’s way of alerting us to pay more attention to certain parts of the body.
- Yin yoga can help us cope with the stresses of life and can help mitigate chronic pain.
Just like we can encourage or discourage certain psychological manifestations through the activation of certain meridians in the body, exercise and stretching in general are a healthy way to cope with the stresses of life and can help mitigate chronic pain. When you exercise or stretch, your body releases chemicals in your brain called endorphins. Endorphins are responsible for pleasant feelings in the body (for example what people refer to as a “runner’s high”), and have been shown to reduce the brains perception of pain. This is why people who stretch and/or exercise regularly generally experience less pain. This has even been shown to be particularly relevant in people who experience chronic low back pain.
- Find more ease while meditating.
If you are like many people who find meditation extremely difficult, practicing yin yoga may help you get into the mental space of meditation. Originally, yoga looked very different from how it is now seen practiced around the world. In the oldest yoga texts, the only physical postures mentioned were still, seated postures, maintained for long periods of time. Essentially, meditation was considered the primary practice of yoga. Since yin yoga, out of all of the types of yoga nowadays, most represents what yoga used to look like in ancient times, it may help you to get into a space of meditation.
- It’s a great way to show yourself some love.
I like to think of yin yoga as self-massage. If I could get a professional massage every week, I definitely would. Unfortunately, this is just not realistic for many reasons. So, any time I feel my body aching or stiff in a particular area, I like to get on my mat and use yin yoga to target those spots. I always leave my mat feeling like I’ve just left a spa or had a great massage.
- It can be a great alternative to your normal practice when recovering from an injury.
. While of course you would want to check in with your doctor or health care provider to make sure that practicing yin yoga is safe for you while recovering from an injury, generally speaking, it is a great way to keep the body “active” while still giving your body the rest it needs to recover. Also, because many of the poses are done while sitting or lying on the floor, this is great for conditions that may be aggravated by standing postures.
- It is a great way to get to know your body intimately.
It can be amazing to witness how different our bodies are from day to day, morning to evening, or from the left side to the right side. Sometimes it is difficult to really feel into these differences when we are quickly moving from posture to posture, in for example a vinyasa flow class. Sitting in these postures for longer periods of time, really helps us to tune in and feel into what is going on in different areas of our body. Having a more in depth understanding of how our body moves can help us be aware when we are moving our bodies more quickly, and help us to prevent injury when we are doing other tasks.
There are many more reasons why it might be beneficial to start taking up a Yin yoga practice, but I hope this article inspires you to explore your yoga practice in new ways, and find more ways to bring balance to your day to day life. I hope you keep exploring your yoga both on and off the mat.