"We don't use the body to get into a pose. We use the pose to get into the body. " Bernie Clark
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Most people are familiar with the words "yin" and "yang"; with the curve of opposites and integration that represents peace and balance. The term "yin" can be found in one of the oldest medical books in the world, The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Chinese Medicine from the 2nd century BCE, and can be translated as "shady" while "yang" can be translated as "sunny". Yin is cooler, slower, inner, while yang is warmer, faster, outer. They can be thought of as the balance between night and day, moon and sun, acceptance and ambition, water and fire, earth and sky, implicit and explicit, but within yin there is always some element of yang and vice versa. The word "balance" is key. With balance, there can be perfect harmony.
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The words "yin" and "yoga" were probably not used together until the mid-1990s, when yoga practitioners such as Paulie Zink, Sarah Powers and Paul Grilley began to share sequences and classes and workshops designed around the idea of holding posers for several minutes at a time. However, this way of practising yoga was not new. Krishnamacharya, teacher of BKS Iyengar and KP Jois, wrote in 1934 that ..."one can stay with the forehead on the knee for between five minutes and half an hour". Staying in a yoga pose, sometimes with the aid of blocks and other props in order to help support the body, has long been recognised as a way of stretching deeper than faster yoga sequences allow. It also fosters a meditative frame of mind; a way of allowing the mind to rest and settle along with the muscles.
"...We are simply inviting ourselves to interface with this moment in full awareness, with the intention to embody as best we can an orientation of calmness, mindfulness, and equanimity right here and right now." Jon Kabat-Zinn.
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The yin yoga of today not only targets the deep fascia and muscles that other forms of exercise merely skim over, it provides a vital balance to the yang lifestyles that most of us lead. The world we live in is a yang world. The pace of life is fast and hard, leaving little room for contemplation, introspection or rest. Even many forms of yoga are becoming more demanding, to accommodate our desire for quick (and fashionable) exercise that gets the job done. With yin yoga, we encourage the body and the mind to slow down. We go deeper into ourselves both physically and mentally. We practise, in Sarah Powers' words, "unhurried postures unstained by striving". With the perfect balance of yin and yang, we can achieve the perfect harmony of health.
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The five principles that commonly guide a yin practice are pausing, softening, connecting, allowing, and listening.
It's a wonderful complement to the more dynamic Sivananda practice which you can find here.
It's a wonderful complement to the more dynamic Sivananda practice which you can find here.