OmYogaMagazineFebruary2019

Why is yin

so in?

Miriam Rodway explores why yin yoga has become so popular as a counter to the

everyday stresses of modern life

I

n my 15 or so years of practicing yoga I’ve tried many different

styles with many different teachers. After I took my first class,

like so many people, I was hooked almost immediately. At the

time, I had a busy job and raising a young family on my own,

so I craved the permission yoga gave me to just stop and

focus on one thing for an hour or so. I’ve never really understood

why some people don’t stay for savasana – being able to lie still

and not worry that the kids would be jumping out of bed or that the

phone might ring was for a long time one of the main reasons to

attend the class.

After many years of different variations of ashtanga, Iyengar,

vinyasa flow and Body Balance, here I am, a committed yin yogi (or

Yinster as I hear people call them). I’ve been following a yin yoga

practice for 10 of my 15 years of practice, and it has gradually

taken over as my preferred yoga style. The more I immerse myself

in my yin – there is the regular weekly class, the monthly afternoon

workshops, the annual retreats, and the books to read in between

• the more I notice that everybody else seems to be doing yin
  as well. Hmm, I thought it was just me who was attracted by ‘the
  quiet practice’, the intensity of the long holds and deliciously deep
  stretches. I’ve notice the vinyasa teachers starting to add more
  restful five minute twists to the end of their dynamic sun salutation
  classes. And the Iyengar devotees are letting us find our comfortable
  edge in some postures instead of striving for perfect alignment.
  What is going on in the yoga world?

The joy of yin

This shift towards a slower practice is causing confusion. Some time

ago, I heard someone comment that yin yoga should be called ‘easy

yoga for beginners’. More recently, on a teacher training at Yoga

Barn in Bali, it was being described as the most advanced practice

for very experienced yogis. Something has definitely changed.

Somewhere in our busy lives, as we rush from one appointment to

another, our phones alerting us to yet another message, we are

starting to realise that what we really need to do is to slow down, to

let go, get still and find out what happens. Of course, a yin practice

is not going to appeal to fitness fanatics who want to build up a

sweat in their yoga class, to burn those extra calories or are working

towards a particularly sculpted body shape or muscle tone – at least

not yet. But I see more and more people tiring of exercise-based

classes or practices, whether this is through injury, exhaustion or just

a sense of their bodies and joints getting a little too tight.

The great joy of a yin yoga class is the way that after a short time

of regular practice you start to notice a sense of freedom and space

when you work into the joints by relaxing into a position, instead of

using your muscles. It is all about the fascia, the connective tissue,

the meridians and energy systems. But that is getting a bit technical.

Yin yoga is much more than just the physical – the flexibility that yin

classes bring to your body is great, but it is the flexibility it brings to

your emotions that sets yin apart from most other practices. After

an early morning Saturday yin session, students describe a feeling of

floating out of the class and being ready to face the weekend.

Slowing down

Based on my own experience as a student of yin (and many other

types of yoga), here are my thoughts as to why more of us are

turning to yin yoga:

1. We secretly don’t want to be busy all of the time and yin is the
   perfect antidote to a hectic life. Filling your life with busy-ness
   doesn’t actually help make the things you are trying to avoid go
   away. The ability to stop and not shy away from doing nothing,
   allows emotions to arise and it is a skill that has to be relearned. Yin
   provides a a safe, teacher-led environment to just let go.


2. Our bodies need to unwind. Yin balances the tightening effect
   of intensive muscle or strength-building exercises as well as
   the stiffness that comes with a sedentary lifestyle at the other
   extreme. And it’s not just the physical tightness that is the problem.
   Increasingly, we are recognising that our bodies carry emotional
   issues in our tissues and hold them there as tension. It’s not unusual
   for people to experience extreme and unexpected emotions during
   a yin class: fear, tears or even joy can arise spontaneously and pass
   just as quickly in those five minutes of stillness.


3. It allows you to discover how your emotions link to your body. It
   is in those long, slow holding yin poses that we release tension and
   emotion. It may feel good to get that adrenalin rush from a dynamic,
   hot practice but the feeling when you leave a yin class is very
   different and more pervasive, a sense of coming home, of being kind
   to your body. “Yoga is more about psychology than exercise,” noted
   one of my teachers.


4. Yin allows you to take back ownership of your yoga practice.
   In yin, you, the student has to decide how far to go and for how
   long, where to back off, and where to delve deeper. You are given
   time to focus on your breath (instead of trying to focus on your
   alignment or keeping up with a fast moving routine) and learn to
   use your breath to control your stretch, to opening your body, and
   to explore yourself.

But don’t just take my word for it, try yin yourself. You won’t look back.

Miriam Rodway is a yoga student at Yoga Orchid, with Regina

Kershbaumer, a regular participant in workshops and retreats

across the London and surrounding area and has recently returned

from Bali where she qualified as a vinyasa yoga teacher through the

School of Sacred Arts.

yin yoga