Yin Yoga is for Everyone

Yin Yoga is a gentle and uplifting practice that helps us heal both our hearts and minds. It is the ultimate nurturing self-care, enabling our bodies to commune with us. It differs enormously from Vinyasa yet is the perfect complement! Instead of merely focusing on movement, Yin Yoga emphasises the importance of slowing down through stretching, rest and introspection. Like a cool breeze on a hot summer’s day, Yin Yoga provides the user with a quick respite from the pressures that often burden us in this modern age.

A heightened awareness through Yin Yoga
The various poses and stretches that are utilised in Yin Yoga allow for the participants to step into a deeper psychological awareness with themselves, as well as with their own emotional and transpersonal awareness. It enables one to step gracefully into the natural flow of life, allowing one to accept life in all its challenges as it swiftly ebbs and flows. By bringing the participant into a greater sense of unity and awareness, a higher state of observation is achieved, where a heightened understanding of life is awakened.

Push your physical boundaries
Yin Yoga positions aren’t always comfortable. It’s about stretching the body, the mind and the emotions to allow you to expand and grow and shake up your boundaries. Poses should test the body and could allow for discomfort, this is perfectly normal. However, do not continue if you are finding it increasingly painful or aggressive.

Using props for a more comfortable rhythm
Yoga isn’t all about poses and stretches. It’s about finding your inner point of silence, relaxation, or reflection. Props, such as bolsters and blankets, can help you to relax and ease into the process of working with your targeted areas, thereby allowing you to relax without tension.

Challenge yourself with gentility instead of force
Remember that Yoga is a doorway through which you are able to enter into a deeper sense of communication with your body. It is important to push yourself, but not beyond what the body is willing to endure. Deep breathing and a state of clarity and calmness are equally as important as moving the body. Therefore, try to use only 70 to 80 per cent of your body’s maximum ability. The rest of the space will allow the breath to flow. Hold your poses for up to five minutes and utilise this time for deep inner travel and reflection.

It’s all about the breath
Yoga is a time for deep meditation and mindfulness. Use your breath as a pillar of support to guide you through the emotions or thoughts that may arise. Like water, allow it to flow as your thoughts, both pleasant and unpleasant, move through you and transform you. You may even want to try directing your breath and intention to areas of the body that require deeper relaxation.

Using Yin Yoga to nourish your spleen and liver
By assisting you to embrace reflection and kindness to yourself and all facets of your being, Yin Yoga is able to support healthy muscles, ligaments and tendons. Yin Yoga has also been used to support the liver and spleen – which are both responsible for the flow, distribution and nourishment of blood.