Yin Yoga is a deeply healing practice which offers a wide range of profound physical and emotional benefits while helping to alleviate tension, pain, stress, anxiety, and helps to improve overall well-being.
It is a passive style of yoga which involves holding each pose for a longer period of time, while paying attention to your breath, observing your thoughts, emotions and any body sensations. Each pose is then followed by a short period of 'rebound' (total relaxation in stillness = lying down) for your body to process the work.
Holding the poses for longer helps to release any tension held in the body, while the extended breath will help reduce cortisol levels, lowering stress levels, guiding the participants into a deeper state of relaxation. In addition, these long-held poses have a lengthening effect on the fascia - a network system of connective tissue fibres which surround all our muscles, ligaments and organs, and which, in fact, is considered the 'fabric of our whole body'. As we age, our production of collagen decreases, and this fabric - our tissues, joints and ligaments start losing their suppleness, and can become quite rigid over time. In Yin practice, these tissues get exercised, so that they may remain supple, ensuring healthy mobility and vitality into our older years.
At the mental and emotional level, Yin Yoga activates the parasympathetic nervous system giving our body the space and time, allowing us to rest and heal, reaping all the healthful benefits a meditation brings.
On a physiological level, as mentioned above, Yin works on the deep connective tissue (fascia), releasing any built-up tension. Tension within our muscular and fascial systems may restrict our natural body flows (blood, lymph, nerves and the neurological/electrical pathways). Once the tension is released, these 'flows' will be able to move more freely throughout the body, so your lymphatic, digestive, reproductive, and endocrine systems can function optimally, bringing your body back to the state of homeostasis.
Combining this deep awareness with the conscious movement, Yin practice aims to harmonise the vital energies of the body and improve overall sense of wellbeing. By practicing Yin Yoga, you'll be able to support all your body’s systems, and its natural ability to remove toxins and waste products from the body.
There are several free online options or subscriptions to dedicated platforms such as Yoga International or Gaia. You can also try a local yoga studio near you.
If Yin Yoga is for you, you can delve deeper with this 7 day course:
Yin Yoga series designed by Jeff Lester
