yin yoga
been described as separate or different to yin yoga, but I regard the
vast array of tremendously beneficial practices known as restorative
yoga to be the very essence of yin yoga. Restorative yoga is far
from simply a practice for ailment or injury, but rather a powerful
preventative and curative medicine for a wide range of mental,
neurological, energetic as well as physical conditions. In today’s fast
and often furiously challenging world, adrenal fatigue, exhaustion,
anxiety disorders, trauma, depression, insecurity and fear-fuelled
reactivity are seemingly ever more commonplace. Never before in
the history of humankind has there been a need, even necessity,
for peaceful, self-supporting, nourishing and self-empowering
practices to balance the externally orientated and commercialised,
separative and comparative way of being in the world of today. In
this era of advancing technology, un-social media, and alarmingly
aspirational advertising in every area of life from body image
to material possession and everything in-between, the human
inclination toward a sense of personal and societal separation is an
aggressive epidemic. Patanjali recognised this human tendency in his
treatise over 2,000 years ago, and the yoga sutra’s teachings are a
significant support to the more physical, neurological and energetic
alchemy of a yin asana practice.
The opportunity to practice dynamic or conscious stillness, and
the rewarding journey toward the immediate experience of non-
dual presence is, I believe, potentially more accessible within the
yin practice than any alternative approach to yoga. But not without
its mental challenges. In a predominantly yang practice the flowing
physical movement and alignment detail alongside conscious
breathing enhance concentration (dharana) and the awareness of
our inseparable body-mind existence. Within the wide array of more
quiet and still yin poses, our mind has more space to go ‘walkabout’,
yet conversely more opportunity to dive ever deeper into the rich
and multi-layered realms of the self. The form of the asana and its
immediate experience are influenced by gravity and breath as an
unending gift to each moment. Action is replaced by allowing, doing
by not-doing while our conscious breath offers itself as a thread that
weaves through the tapestry of our immediate experience. When
wandering thoughts percolate up into our consciousness, our breath
and best friend is always there, ready and willing to bring us back to
‘atha’, now, and now, and now.
Sustaining presence
The duration of time spent within yin asana in a led-class format,
commonly at least 4-5 minutes and beyond, does offer space for a
multitude of different and potentially valuable teacher offerings such as
Buddhist and yogic dharma talks, anatomical information, psychology
and philosophy teachings and guided breath awareness to name but
a few, while mindfulness guidance describes perhaps more generally
the most frequently served fruit upon this smorgasbord of spoken
teachings. In my own teaching I choose to offer vignettes from each
of these resources, while usually reducing the spoken word over the
course of a practice, allowing students to be more within themselves
and their unique and personal experience of the present moment.
Sustaining presence is perhaps one of the most challenging
aspects of such meditative practice, as the monkey mind does what
is does, often jumping from one thought to the next, occasionally
with multiple wheels of thought in play. I describe the practice of
addressing this natural behaviour of mind as the art of ‘coming
back’. Noticing that the mind has wandered, we again and again
take the reins of the mind and direct our attention to the feelings,
sensations and internal experience of the asana, the influence of
gravity upon it, and its accompanying breath within it. I often employ
traditional and contemporary pranayama techniques within the yin
practice to additionally engage the mind. The support of the ground,
or the yoga props that we can employ to settle our bodies upon and
within provide ever present sources for our attention. My students
describe how their practice of meditation is more comfortable and
effective within the yin yoga practice, and the consistent practice of
‘coming back’ within a variety of forms is a pillar of neuroplasticity.For Equilibrium, a Blessing:
Like the joy of the sea coming home to shore,
May the relief of laughter rinse through your soul.As the wind loves to call things to dance,
May your gravity be lightened by grace.Like the dignity of moonlight restoring the earth,
May your thoughts incline with reverence and respect.As water takes whatever shape it is in,
So free may you be about who you become.As silence smiles on the other side of what’s said,
May your sense of irony bring perspective.As time remains free of all that it frames,
May your mind stay clear of all it names.May your prayer of listening deepen enough
to hear in the depths the laughter of god.John O’Donohue,
To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings