Yin versus Yang?

Hi Yogi’s!

I am on a mission to get people to practice more yin yoga! The benefits to our bodies and minds are immense. However, it is often the more yang style of yoga in which we find ourselves practicing. So what is yin yoga and how does it differ to yang yoga?

Yin yoga, similar to Accupuncture and Reflexology works along the meridians to clear and release blockages in certain organs within the body. Many deep rooted emotions can be released. The hips in particular store mainly our negative emotions like anger, fear and sadness so I often tell students to warn their partners in case of mood swings and to perhaps bring a box of tissues to dry their eyes upon leaving!

Yin is a slower style of yoga practiced in a non-heated room where asanas (poses) are held for longer periods of time, anywhere from 1-10 minutes. In my classes, most asanas, however, would be held from 3-5 minutes. Yin is a passive form of yoga that focuses on the Shakti (female energy) along the left side of the body. It represents the receiving parts of ourselves, in essence the Mother and the cooler months and seasons (think hibernation in Autumn). Yin is slow. It is meditative. It calls for us to slow down, to breathe deeply, to settle into our parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest). Yin is an amazing practice for flexibility and range of motion as rather than use muscle strength, the asanas work on fascia and deep connective tissue.

Yang, on the other hand, represents the right side of our body the masculine part of ourselves. It is a faster paced, warmer style class and is represented by the warmer months and seasons. Asanas move from one to the other quite quickly so muscles are worked and strength is at the forefront.

Yin can be described as being the opposite to a yang (active) class, but when you look at a yin/yang symbol you will notice the small dot of white within black, and black within white. One cannot exist without the other because they are defined by their opposition to each other

So it is important to have both styles in our lives, just as we need a balance between both types of energies, the yin and the yang, the feminine and the masculine parts of ourselves. The problem nowadays, as I often share in my classes and at my retreats is that we live in a world where our masculine energy takes precedence. We rush from one thing to the next (I am so guilty of this), our minds are busy and most of us are living at a pace that does not allow for the yin part of ourselves and at a pace that we simply cannot keep up for the rest of our lives🤦‍♀️. Stress is a major inhibitor to yin and living in our fight or flight or sympathetic nervous system has become the norm.

This is where yin both on and off the mat comes in. Yin can be taking a bath, putting the phone down, turning the tv off, sitting in silence, lighting a candle, cuddling your kids, getting out in nature, walking on the beach barefoot, having a warm cuppa tea or just a lazy, stay in pjs kinda day. It can also be practicing a yin yoga sequence. There are lots on YouTube and at no cost at all! I will one day put up videos of sequences to work on different meridians and organs. There, I have said it, now I HAVE to do it!!

If you do practice at home to an online video, please do remember 4 basic Yin principles:

🧘‍♀️Come into the pose to your comfortable edge ( this will differ for every body, what you are looking for in yin is a strong sensation, maybe discomfort, but never pain.

🧘‍♀️Hold the pose for a longer period of time (usually 3-5 minutes)

🧘‍♀️ Be still. There are two exceptions to this final principle 1. if you start feeling pain, you get out of the pose. 2. If you would like to move deeper into the pose.

🧘‍♀️Try to practice Patience. If you are new to yin, you may find it INCREDIBLY frustrating, the silence and stillness is something most of us are really not used to in our busy urban lives. It is also difficult to hold back when the desire is usually there to push ourselves into the deepest variation of a pose.