How To Teach A Yin-Yang Class

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yennies, and welcome back

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to a year. Yoga, podcast

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Nyk Danu Yoga: if you’re new around here, welcome.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: if you are a familiar welcome back.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So today’s episode is going to be about how to teach a Yin Yang class.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I see a lot of

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Nyk Danu Yoga: confusion and questions around this topic.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and I’ve attended a lot of Yan classes that were not done very skillfully. Let’s put it that way.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so we’re going to dive into that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: What is a Yin Yang class. Why, it’s always called a Yin Yang class, not a yang to yin or yin to Yang class

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and also the 3 ways that at least at this point in my teaching that I offered those

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Nyk Danu Yoga: 3 different ways that I teach a Yin Yang class. So we’re going to go into all of that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But before we do

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Nyk Danu Yoga: a couple of reminders.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: first reminder, my friends, is that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: this is an adult podcast with adult language and adult subject. Matter.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So if you have small people around, take a moment to put your headphones in now.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: because there may be some colorful language.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Then the second thing I wanted to just touch base on before we dive into today’s episode

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Nyk Danu Yoga: is

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Nyk Danu Yoga: asking you a question.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Are you on the waitlist

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Nyk Danu Yoga: for my yin yoga teacher training my therapeutic yin training.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If not, here’s why you might want to join the waitlist.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So first, I just want to mention that I teach a good combination of people who already have a previous Yin training and people who have no yin training, that my program is actually suitable for both, because we will start at the foundation and work up.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so those of you who have had other Yin trainings will probably find, because my approach is therapeutic, and also because

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Nyk Danu Yoga: it’s steeped in Tcm. And nervous system base that those of you that have previous trainings will still probably find lots of nuggets of information that I cover that weren’t in your previous trainings.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and for those of you that are brand new, you’ll be building a therapeutic yin foundation sort of from the ground up.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So the best way to find out about my training is to get on the waitlist.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Here’s some reasons why you might want to get on the wait list. The first one is that the first people I let know when registration opens is the people on the waitlist before I share it with social media or anywhere else. It’s always those on the waitlist get first crack at signing up.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: That’s the reason. Number one.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Reason number 2 is that those that are on the waitlist.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I have a discount code, and it’s for the first 5 people that sign up, and that is only sent out to the waitlist. So if

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know you want to

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Nyk Danu Yoga: save some money if money’s tight. But you really want to take the training. When you’re on the wait list. You’ll know the coupon code, and if you’re

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Nyk Danu Yoga: one of the first 5 to get in, you’ll get a bit of a discount.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So that’s another reason why you might want to join the waitlist.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: The other reason is that on the way to registration opening, you’re going to get all kinds of yin yoga goodies from me.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: First, you’ll get these podcast episodes in your inbox.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You’re also going to get

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Nyk Danu Yoga: some video practices.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You’re also gonna get some invitations to join my seasonal free yin class or Mini workshop. I usually do one on the on the zoom, and you’ll get an invitation for those free classes or free Mini workshops.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then you’ll also get invitations to join me in my weekly in classes. If you feel like you need a little bit of space held for yourself as a teacher.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And finally, you’ll also get little sneaky peaks. So I’ll send out little videos of what happens behind the scenes in the training. So little clips from previous trainings that you can see as a sample to see what you might be getting yourself

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Nyk Danu Yoga: excited about if you’re going to sign up.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So that’s all of the reasons why you might want to join my waitlist.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: How you join the waitlist is just wherever you’re listening to this

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Nyk Danu Yoga: look into the show notes. There is a link that says, Join the waitlist.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If you click that link, and then you look way up to the top.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you’re gonna see a picture of me, and it’s gonna say, join the wait list. And then there’s a button there that you can push. You just enter your name and email there and then. Bang! You’re on the wait list.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Or if you go all the way down to the bottom of the page, there’s also an opportunity to join the waitlist, and if you’re there for a couple of minutes reading, there will be a slide out from the side, a polite pop up that will also

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Nyk Danu Yoga: add you to the waitlist. So there’s 3 ways on that page to get on the waitlist in my top photograph.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: little pop-up coming from the side and at the bottom of the page. So what you don’t need to do is send me an email via my contact form, telling me to add you to the waitlist. You can add yourself

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Nyk Danu Yoga: right from that link that says.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Get on the waitlist.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: All right, my friends. I wanted to just read a very tiny little bit of feedback that I’ve gotten from a past student. In my in program.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: This one is from Helena Spears. Thank you, Helena.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I learned so much from Nick, and especially loved her trauma informed and accessible method of teaching.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I hadn’t taken yin training before

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m excited to apply these concepts to my own practice.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m excited to move away from the idea of edge or pushing yourself in the practice.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I really appreciate Nick’s direct style of communication, and I felt like she kept us on track during the training.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I highly recommend

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Nyk Danu Yoga: training with Nick. You will learn so much.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Thank you, Helena.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: All right, my friends, let’s get to the topic at hand.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay, so

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Nyk Danu Yoga: how do we teach a Yin Yang class?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: First, I want to point out that I did a whole episode in season, one about yin Yang theory. And so if you are

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Nyk Danu Yoga: not

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Nyk Danu Yoga: used to yin yang theory, if you don’t really understand yin and yong you may want to check that episode out. That will help to clear up some of the things that I say today. In brief, in a more detailed way.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So I wanted to mention that first.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You have that option as well to listen to that full episode.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So the next thing that I want to mention is that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: some of your teacher trainings may not have included Yin Yang theory.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And that’s why there’s all these weird things that I see

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in Facebook groups about Yin Yang classes.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: One of the strange things that I see often is people calling it

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Nyk Danu Yoga: yin to yong classes or yong to yin classes.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: which to me just shows that you really don’t have an in-depth understanding of what is Yan Yoga? And what is yon yoga?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Because, dear teacher, unless you are starting your students standing up.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If you don’t do any kind of a grounding or centering or breath, gentle breath work, or any kind of kind of hey? You’ve arrived to class. Let’s all connect with ourselves. Kind of a grounding and centering.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If you have that at the start of your class.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that is yin.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: if you. I know a lot of teachers, especially in Venice circles, start their students in child’s pose.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If you start your class in child’s pose.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And that’s Ian.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So this idea sometimes comes from the fact that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: teachers are teaching mostly the active practice first and then moving into yin.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But, dear teacher that is still a yin to yong practice, unless you are starting your students standing upright with no sort of grounding, centering, or floor-based postures at the beginning. Then you are still starting a yin to yong class.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So that’s one thing to mention in yong

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Nyk Danu Yoga: is the name of a symbol that is, of Taoist origin. We can’t just rearrange the words to suit our fancy and think that it’s going to make any sense. Nor is it very culturally respectful to the culture that the Yin Yang symbol and these concepts come from.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So please, dear teacher, stop saying that you teach Yang to Yin.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Now in your class description.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You could say that this class starts with a grounding and a centering. Then we do movement practice, and then we move into long-held yin poses right? So you can in your description explain

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the ratio of movement to stillness.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Or if, for example, you were teaching a class where you actually start in Yin and then move into standing and yong. Then you could still call that a Yin Yang practice. But then, in your description, you would say, we’re going to start with still floor based postures and then slowly move into

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Nyk Danu Yoga: movement. Right?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So it’s not the title that needs to be adjusted.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yin Yang is Yin Yang. It’s the name of a symbol. It’s a Taoist concept.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Don’t go rearrange in all the words

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Nyk Danu Yoga: instead, just in the description, be clear.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Is this start with mostly movement and then move into stillness. Are we starting with stillness and then moving into movement?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay, so just a little

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Nyk Danu Yoga: bug it that gets in my hat about that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I’ll talk a bit about the 3 styles of Yan young practices that I do, and that I teach in a moment.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But I wanted to mention that if you’re going to teach a practice that is a Yin Yang practice

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Nyk Danu Yoga: really take the time to study

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Nyk Danu Yoga: what in the world Yin and Yang actually are.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: because when you’re going to teach a Yin Yang class, you really have to have an understanding of what is yin? What is y’all?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And then, on top of that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: there’s a different way to teach the class than you would in a more sort of traditional, movement-based practice.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: What I have witnessed, and what I have attended many, many times

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Nyk Danu Yoga: when I attend other people’s yin-yong classes

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Nyk Danu Yoga: is that the class starts with some kind of grounding and centering. They immediately quick, quickly move into sun salutations. Then there’s a dead stop in the practice in child’s pose, which is their transition into yin, and then they throw in some yin poses.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that’s not very skillful. And here’s why

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Nyk Danu Yoga: our nervous system is going to have a lot of trouble adjusting to move, move, move. Move hot, sweaty, hot, sweaty, hot, sweaty peak pose, bam

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Nyk Danu Yoga: yin pose.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know. It’s like it’s too jarring

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to go right from one to the other.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and when we’re teaching a traditional class, many of us were taught. And it’s probably in your teacher Training Manual that we do our sort of warm up.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, and then we hit our peak pose, and then we do our cooldown.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so that’s the way people are approaching a Yin Yang class.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But I would argue that a Yin Yang class is more circular in nature.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: we’re not going up the mountain and then back down. It’s more of a circular circular experience, and that the transitions are slower

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and they have more ease in them.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: There’s a little bit more kind of moving from one to the other. Instead of this start, stop.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So that’s another thing I’m going to talk about in this episode.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And then just some kind of details of how how we might do this if we want to teach a Yin young practice skillfully.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I do have some notes. So if you are watching this on Youtube. You will see me kind of navigating around a little bit.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And if you didn’t know that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I have a Youtube channel where you can watch these dear Yoga teacher, I upload the completely unedited version

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to Youtube. So if you ever want to watch me talk about these things, or watch me and my guests rather than listen. If you’re more of a visual person than an audio person, please know that these are there. The difference between the audio version and the video version is the audio version. I edit it so to take out extra ums, or you know, if I’ve been rambling on a little bit, I’ll edit that out, whereas on Youtube, you’re getting the raw sort of unedited

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Nyk Danu Yoga: right off the floor version. So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: if you want to watch them on Youtube, you could do that as well.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so I’m not going to go over a whole bunch about yin yang theory, etc, and yin and the definitions of yin and Yang, as it relates to Yoga, because again, I’ve done that in other episodes, so you can check those out.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But what I do want to talk about is how yin and yong flow into each other.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So it’s a harmonious relationship, and they are always moving and transforming into each other that they’re mutually dependent on each other, and that they’re in a state of interbeing.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yin and Yang isn’t

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Nyk Danu Yoga: stop and start.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: It’s a flow from one to the other.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If you’re looking at, and I’m going to pull this up, I think for Youtube. And if you are

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Nyk Danu Yoga: watching this

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you’ll be able to see it. But if you are listening, I’m going to do my best to

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Nyk Danu Yoga: put this image

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in the actual episode notes.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: or as the image for the episode, we will see how that goes

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Nyk Danu Yoga: for those that are

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Nyk Danu Yoga: watching.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m going to just pull up this image so that you get a chance to see it.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: okay, sorry for the pause.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So Yin and Yang flow into each other. So for those of you watching on Youtube, you’ll be able to see this image now of the Yin Yang symbol, and you’re gonna see little arrows

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Nyk Danu Yoga: pointing to the yong. So the white portion of the Yen Yang symbol is yong.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and the black portion of the Yin Yang symbol is yin.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then you’re going to see at the top and at the bottom of the yinyong symbol

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that I’ve written pivot from yong to yin.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then at the bottom pivot from yin to yong.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So this is the medic. The the terms they often use in Chinese medicine that one is pivoting to the other.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: or you could say, flowing into its opposite.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So if you’re looking at a Yin Yang symbol.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and you’re looking at the white portion.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the yong aspect.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If you look at the very top of that symbol, you’re going to notice that there’s a little spot where the yong or the white is starting to turn into a tiny bit of the black of yin.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so that would be a pivot from yong to yin.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then when you go all the way down to the bottom.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you’re gonna see that there’s a part where the the area that is yin is larger.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: but where it slowly starts to

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Nyk Danu Yoga: pivot into a little bit of the white of yong.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so the Yin Yang symbol

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Nyk Danu Yoga: round it’s circular in nature, and this denoting of this sort of eb and flow, and this circular nature, and how yin and yong are always interdependent on each other

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in a harmonious way.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: This is why I wanted to pull up this symbol

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so that you’ve got a chance to see that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And again, I’m going to try to use the symbol

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in the episode notes somewhere.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you may have to click to my website to see it. So that those of you that are not watching on Youtube can also see the symbol.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So I just wanted to point that out

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Nyk Danu Yoga: as a visual.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So when we’re thinking about doing a Yin Yang class. Then

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Nyk Danu Yoga: we also want to think about the Asanas that we’ve chosen, and our sequence being in a more circular nature instead of a straight line where it’s like this is the young portion.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Stop! This is the Yin portion.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Instead, we’re actually going to have one flow into the other

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in a more seamless way.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and I’ll talk about

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Nyk Danu Yoga: how we can do that in just a moment, so that it is more of a circular experience in the class than it is

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Nyk Danu Yoga: yong yong yong. Yong. Yong stops pose yin, because again, that’s super jarring to the nervous system.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And although that might be an okay yong to yin class. I know, dear Yoga teacher listening.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that you don’t just want to teach Ok. Classes.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I know that you want to teach exceptional classes

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and part of my mission with this podcast is to give you some tools and tips and techniques to help you

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to guide exceptional classes.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay. So we’ll talk about all of that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So some of you might be wondering, why would we even

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Nyk Danu Yoga: want to do a yong and yin a young yin practice or a yin Yang practice. Why would we want to even do that?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Well, sometimes I know in my body.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: when the question comes up.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: do I want to move, or do I need stillness. The answer is.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: yes, and or

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I need both.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: these, if they’re done well, if they’re done skillfully.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: can be such beautiful practices.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: such beautiful practices.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: but if they’re not done skillfully, they can feel kind of jerky and kind of stop, start a little confusing to the student, but also to their nervous system. And that’s what I’m hoping to avoid by doing this episode.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: one thing I’d also want to tease out here

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Nyk Danu Yoga: is that when I’m talking about yin yoga in this episode, and all episodes that I do.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m talking about the yin yoga as taught and codified by Paul Grilley, who’s my teacher.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I know that because Yoga is a bit of the Wild Wild West, and there are other teachers that teach in in a different way. I wouldn’t be really clear about when I’m what are

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Nyk Danu Yoga: sorry where I’m making these statements from.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So I am a poll.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I want to be really clear on where I’m making these statements from.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and I am a Paul Grilley, certified teacher.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Paul is my

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Nyk Danu Yoga: been my only teacher. I’ve done all my 500 h of yin training with Paul Gilly. And so that is the frame of reference that I’m using. And I realize that there are other teachers that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: use the word yin a little bit more loosely.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Which is valid because Yen is a spectrum, not a fixed destination.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But for this episode and almost all episodes. I’m going to be using the term yin in the way that Paul Grilley taught. So these we’re going to assume that these are floor based postures.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Still, with long holds. That’s how I’m going to define the Yin portion.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So what we don’t want to do is do movement, movement, movement, movement, movement.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: full. Stop harsh stop, throw in a child’s pose for a minute, and then move into yen again, jarring for the nervous system.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Nor would we want to do the reverse, where it’s like all still still, still, still floor based long holds, and then stand up. Sun salutes. You can see how that’s like super jurring energetically.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So what we want to do instead is we want to kind of I’m going to use this word, and then I’ll I’ll define it a little bit

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Nyk Danu Yoga: titrate

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Nyk Danu Yoga: between our yin and our yong when we’re at these transitions.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So when we’re moving from yong

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Nyk Danu Yoga: into yen in a class.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: we want to titrate a little bit.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: or if we were moving from yin

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Nyk Danu Yoga: into yong, we want to titrate a little bit.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: if you’re like what the heck is titrate. I know it’s not a word that is used often in Yoga, except in sort of therapeutic circles and trauma informed circles.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But basically, titration means you you’re coming in a little bit, and then coming out a little bit, coming in a little bit, coming out a little bit. I believe that the more common understanding of this term is in chemistry, where you may turn the heat up, for example.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then turn it down a little bit. So instead of going from

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, straight, cool, to like full hot. You would go up and down a little bit with the temperature. That would be titration. I believe that’s where it comes from.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and so in yoga we would do the same thing

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Nyk Danu Yoga: rather than doing our yong yong yong yong portion, and then

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Nyk Danu Yoga: full stop. Do our

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Nyk Danu Yoga: yin yin yin portion

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Nyk Danu Yoga: we would titrate a little.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so we would choose a pose when we’re looking at our yin poses.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: That is also a pose in a young practice.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then we would move into that pose and out of that pose a little bit

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Nyk Danu Yoga: a few times, and then, if you were doing yong to yin you could settle into yin. So let me give you a very clear example.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Let’s say you’re doing a class that is predominantly young at the start, and then moves into Yip

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Nyk Danu Yoga: instead of just dropping everyone into child’s pose and then moving into a yin practice, you could come into something like

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Nyk Danu Yoga: a high lunch

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Nyk Danu Yoga: as your last yong pose, your last purely yong pose.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Then you could get people to bring their knee down

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to come into dragon, but instead of just dropping right into a yin-like dragon.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you could move into Dragon a little bit and then back out a little bit.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: move into it, lunge forward a little bit, lunge back a little bit.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: lunge forward a little bit, lunge back a little bit. You see where I’m going with this. Do that 3, maybe 4 times, and then settle into a yin like hold.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And because that is the first in this example, the first Yin po super going to do, I would wouldn’t do a long hold. I would do maybe a couple minutes.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so I’m going to go over that again.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So you’ve done your young portion of the class. And now you want to move into yin, and you’d like that to be seamless and kind of cohesive to the nervous system.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So what you could do is you could end in. This is just one example. I could have a million of them end in a high lunge

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Nyk Danu Yoga: as far as that’s where you’re you’re clean like these are definitely yong stops. Then get them to bring their knee down

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and come into dragon or low lunge.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then, before you settle into Dragon for a lengthy amount of time, you move into Dragon, so you get them to

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Nyk Danu Yoga: lean their hips forward a little bit, leaning into Dragon, and then back off.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then lean into Dragon a little bit for a little bit longer, and then back off.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then into dragon a little bit and then back off.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So there’s this titration, this movement in and out of dragon

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Nyk Danu Yoga: before you settle them in. So, for example.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: your first

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Nyk Danu Yoga: slide into dragon could be for one breath

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then make you back off, and then maybe the next time you move into Dragon you do 2 breaths.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then you back off, and then maybe the third time you move into Dragon it’s for 3 breaths, and then you back off, and then the fourth time you move into dragon.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you settle in for yin.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so you can see how that is. Kind of giving the body and the nervous system the signal. That’s like, Oh, here’s where we’re going, and here’s where we’ve been.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Here’s where we’re going, and here’s where we’ve been.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Here’s where we’re going, and here is where we’ve been.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And now here’s where we’re going.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then I would do a shorter yin hold for whatever pose you’re using as your pivot pose in this example. We’re talking dragon.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: a little shorter hold than what you might do in a straight up yin class. So maybe you’re gonna just do like 2 min. I don’t ever do long dragons, because I want my students to come back, but if you do party on with yourself, but maybe just a 2 min, dragon.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then you get them to switch sides, and you do the same thing on the other side. You move them

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Nyk Danu Yoga: into dragon, or sorry you get them to stand up again, so you get their other foot forward.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then, when it’s time to go to the other side, you can get them to step their opposite foot forward and lift their back, knee off the ground. So you’re starting again from that lunge, that high lunge.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Take a couple breaths there, get them to bring their knee down.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then transition

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Nyk Danu Yoga: into Dragon on the other side, and out for a breath

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Nyk Danu Yoga: into dragon on the other side, and then out for a breath

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Nyk Danu Yoga: into the dragon.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: out to the of the dragon, and then into the dragon to hold

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so same as you did on the other side. And now you’ve got dragon has become your pivot moment

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Nyk Danu Yoga: or your pivot pose.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You’ve used dragon as a way to titrate or transition from the yong part of the practice into the yin part of the practice.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then from there you can start to add more yin poses, and maybe even gradually increase the length of hold in the Yin poses.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So you can see how this is like a much more seamless and gentle transition from doing all this movement into yin. It’s not stop, start!

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Nyk Danu Yoga: It’s more circular in nature, and

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Nyk Danu Yoga: it’s moving in and backing off, moving in and backing off. This is more nourishing to the nervous system.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So that’s how you could use titration

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and a pivot point or a pivot pose if you were moving from a mostly movement-based practice, mostly young, into a yin practice.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Now, of course, we can also do the opposite.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So the 2 most common ways that most people think of a yin Yang practice are

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Nyk Danu Yoga: movement into stillness is the most common, and then some people like to do stillness into movement.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I love both. Paul’s done both in all of our trainings. He’s done these both ways.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So how that might work is you? Actually, you’re starting your students with a yin practice.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And then again, when you want to start to move into yong, you can titrate

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so we could use the same pose and the same example. But in the opposite way if we were moving from

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Nyk Danu Yoga: yin into yong in our class.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So let’s say you’ve been doing this yin into yong. So you’re starting with mostly stillness. And then you want to get people up and moving

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Nyk Danu Yoga: great practice for the morning. By the way.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so how you would do this in this case I’m going to use the same pose example.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Let’s say that you’re doing yin. You’ve been doing yin. You’ve been doing yin

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Nyk Danu Yoga: now you come into dragon.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: but you hold because you’ve been doing it. So you come into Dragon, and you’ve been hold. You hold it for 2 min.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then maybe you slide them back out of Dragon and back in, back, out, back, in.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: back, out, back in! Then you get them to lift their back, knee up off the floor for a couple of breaths

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then step forward and switch sides.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And now you do again. A Yin dragon

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Nyk Danu Yoga: on the other side

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Nyk Danu Yoga: hold for a couple minutes, and then, because you now want to transition into movement.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you get them to slide in and slide out for a few breaths, slide in. Slide out. This again is titration, and you could do that for a couple of breaths, and then you could get them at the end of that second dragon on the other side to lift their back knee. Now they’re in a high lunge. Now you can get them from high lunge to step forward, and you could do whatever the young portion of your class is.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and you’ve had this seamless transition

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you’ve titrated. You’ve had this pivot point

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Nyk Danu Yoga: right? You haven’t had to do stop and start. And I’m just using dragon as one example. Again, if I was teaching a workshop on this I could do a whole bunch of examples. We go over this in way. More depth in my teacher training.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But just as an example, dragon’s a really easy one.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to picture for most of us how we could do that moving. And then still. And even as the standing version with a high lunch, right? So it’s it’s bit of an easy one to visualize. That’s why I’m using it.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: just to summarize where we’ve been so far.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Sometimes students might want the best of both worlds, or you, as a teacher might want the best of both worlds. When the question comes up, Do I want to move my body, or do I want to be still the answer might be, yes to both.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And do we need to choose? No, we don’t need to choose.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: However, most Yin Yang classes.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And again, as a refresher. It’s still called a Yin Yang class, even if you do most of your movement near the start of class and then move into yin, because remember, Yin and Yang is a circle, not a line. It’s not start at a walk across a straight line. Go to B.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: It’s a to B to A to B, so if you are starting them

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in anything other than standing, you are teaching a Yin Yang class.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then you use the description to clarify

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Nyk Danu Yoga: if you’re going to start with, mostly movement or mostly stillness. Okay? So the name of the class doesn’t need to change. You just need to explain it beneath.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And can we please honor the Taoist tradition and the Yin Yang symbol by not bastardizing it and start calling it

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Nyk Danu Yoga: yin to yong yong to yin, let’s just not do that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: right. Let’s just keep it a Y and yong class. And then in your description

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Nyk Danu Yoga: explain.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: We’re going to do mostly movement, then into stillness. Or we’re going to start with stillness and move into movement.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay, so there you go. There’s my soapbox on that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to refresh what we’ve discussed so far before I dive into complicating this even a little more.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: A Yin Yang class.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: regardless of whether you’re starting with mostly movement

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Nyk Danu Yoga: or mostly stillness is still a Yin Yang class, because unless you are starting your student standing or in a headstand, you are starting with yin.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: even if it’s a small amount of yin

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Nyk Danu Yoga: like. Maybe you get them to close their eyes and do some gratitude for a couple of moments.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: That would be considered yin

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Nyk Danu Yoga: alright. So, even if it’s a small amount, you’re still starting in Yen, unless you’re doing some kind of interesting kind of class that I’ve never heard of where you start everybody standing without any grounding first. Okay? So it’s still Yin Yang.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And in your class description please explain

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Nyk Danu Yoga: what the students can expect.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So now that we’ve cleared that up a few times.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: sometimes in a Yin Yang class, the 2 most typical ways that they’re taught, and I’m going to introduce you to a third in just a moment

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Nyk Danu Yoga: are that we do most of our stronger, active, more heated dynamic practice, and then we settle into yin. That’s one way.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And then the other way is that we start in Yin, and then we finish in Yong.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And I do a class like that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I have a video. I believe where I I do it that way. And if if I if I do and I can find it, I will put it in the episode notes so that you can practice along with it to get an idea of what this is like.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: or you can start in Yin, so you can start with your still, quiet, floor-based postures, and then gradually do more movement. And when I teach that style of class

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I don’t end in Shavasan

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I end with the students, or in a final stillness practice. I end with the students standing.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So we start with yin. We do all the slow, floor-based postures

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Nyk Danu Yoga: right? We may even do a meditation at 1 point there.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so that you get some sort of a quiet reflective practice, and then, as I bring them up to standing. Their practice gets more and more

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Nyk Danu Yoga: energetic, dynamic.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And then I finish them standing.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And I know that this sounds like, what? How could we possibly finish a class standing. Well, I didn’t come up with this idea. This was all this was Paul. He he does this in our trainings.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But I love this style of class, especially in the morning.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So for those people like myself, they’re about as graceful as a baby giraffe in the morning for those of us that are not morning people that are slow moving, that the thought of moving right into a sun salutation as the very first movement you do makes you feel like you’re gonna be tripping all over your own feet.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Then this kind of a class where you start in yin and then slowly move to yong and then end up. Standing can be so cool, so

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Nyk Danu Yoga: maybe new. You may be like what I can’t even imagine how that would work. And again.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m pretty sure I have a video. If I do, it’ll be

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Nyk Danu Yoga: linked in the episode notes, so you’ll be able to

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Nyk Danu Yoga: watch it or practice it so that you get an idea of what it is that I’m talking about.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So those are kind of the classic ways that most teachers think of Yin Yang practice.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Now, you could also do that second example where you start in yin, and then you kind of do your moving and moving, and then you drop back down into Yin and finish with Shavasana. You can totally do that. So in that class the majority of that class would be yin with a little bit of movement kinda in the middle.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Totally. You can do that. Nothing wrong with that. That would be a lovely class. It’s just not how I do it

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Nyk Danu Yoga: when I start with yin, I end folks standing because I’m gonna take care of all the yin like aspects like the grounding, the centering all of the things you might do in Shavasan. I’m gonna do it the start of class. And then at the end of class, they end up standing energized, ready to rock on with their day. Okay, so that’s just how I do it. But you could very easily start in Yen, do some movement practice and slowly titrate your way back down into Yin again.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So again, remember, Titration is that moving in of a pose moving out of a pose, moving in, moving out. This is a gentle way

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to allow the nervous system to begin to realize that we’re about to switch gears here will be far more soothing on your students nervous system than just stopping your movement suddenly and then moving right into stillness. That can be very challenging.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay, so those are some kind of of the more traditional ways that we might think of these classes.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Recently, however.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I have been experimenting

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Nyk Danu Yoga: with a third way.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and how this came about is, I teach. I’m a yoga therapist. Some of you may know that. And I teach a class on Mondays at the time of this recording, and it’s a back pain class. Right? So part of this therapeutic class is that we do some deep core

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Nyk Danu Yoga: stabilizers.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So we do some things for the small little muscles in our core. I’m not going to talk too much about what core strength is and what what it actually is, as opposed to just like thinking about a 6 pack, because that’s an episode for a whole other podcast and a whole other time.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But, needless to say, part of this therapeutic class that I teach on Mondays needs to be strengthening.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: because the folks that are there have pretty sedentary jobs and a lot of their little tiny muscles that support the health of their spine don’t get used.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And then, even when they are out in the world and they’re being physical because the movements are quite large, they’re using their larger muscles to do those movements. So a lot of these little tiny core muscles

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Nyk Danu Yoga: get neglected. So a big part of this Monday back pain class is

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Nyk Danu Yoga: course strengthening.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and I don’t mean sit ups.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I mean these deeper little tiny muscles that support the spine. So through the spine, through the hips, all kinds of different things that I do.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and but what sometimes will happen, especially in the winter, when it’s been. You know I live in Canada. So when it’s been dark since, like 4 Pm.

399
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Nyk Danu Yoga: And people are tired.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: they’ll show up to the zoom class, and we’ll do our check in, and everyone’s exhausted.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so then, as a teacher, I’m torn because it’s like.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: normally in that class.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: we do a grounding and a centering

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so that would be starting in a yin way, and then we move, we do movement. It’s all very gentle movement, and then we move into a few core stabilizers, and then we do some more gentle movement. And then we move into a few yin poses to finish off class. And we also do some

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Nyk Danu Yoga: stuff with massage balls. Okay, so that class typically would work, we would start yin with grounding and centering. Then we would start with gentle movement. We’d move up to some of the stronger movements like the deep core stabilizers.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: which are still quite

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Nyk Danu Yoga: gentle in comparison to a Vinyasa class or something. This is a therapeutic class.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then we would move into some massage ball stuff to get their nervous system all groovy again, and then we would finish in a few posts. That’s typically how that class goes. But then, when people log on and they’re saying how exhausted they are, then I always feel as a teacher a bit torn, because it’s like

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I need to give them this core strengthening. They need this in their body. They’re here because they have back pain.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And I also want to honor

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Nyk Danu Yoga: their energy level. And so what is a girl to do?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so it just came up spontaneously one time

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that instead of doing my class

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Nyk Danu Yoga: starting in a yin with a grounding and centering gentle movement, a little bit of stronger movement slowly moving back into massage ball time. And then yin.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: which is how it normally runs. So that is technically a Y and yong class, because I’m doing both movement and stillness.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I decided, what if I did

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Nyk Danu Yoga: movement and stillness in each pose.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So instead of having the first half of the class be one way and then moving into the next, what if I made each pose, each individual pose

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Nyk Danu Yoga: a little yin Yang circle in itself with pivots.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and so I tried it.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and lo and behold.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: they Frickin loved it.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so now it’s one of my favorite ways to teach a Yin Yang class. Now, this is a little trickier and a little more subtle. I wouldn’t recommend starting with this way, because unless you really understand

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Nyk Danu Yoga: how to transition from yin to yong skillfully, in a way that the nervous system is going to appreciate it, then this might be kind of like next level like when you’re used to doing yin yong when you’ve got a really good understanding of yin yong theory, then maybe you do this. So let me explain what I mean by yin and yong all in one pose, and I’ll give a couple of examples.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So let’s just say I’ve done the grounding in the centering. And now the students are lying on their back.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and one of the poses that I want to do is bridge pose, because so good for strengthening the backline of the body.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So I want to do bridge pose. But everybody’s really tired. And so how am I going to do this.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So what I decided to do was, we do bridge pose in an active way

429
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Nyk Danu Yoga: 3 times right? So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: everybody lifts up.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: They hold, for I’m very open to hold, for however long, feels like effort, without exhaustion for you today. It’s not a I don’t tell people how long they have to stay in things right. I want them to challenge their muscles.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: but not be scrunching up their face or holding their breath or straining their body.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So they come up into bridge, they come down, pause for one breath, they come up into bridge, pause up there, come down for a breath.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then on the third one come up into bridge.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: hold for that place between effort and exhaustion for you, for that individual. And then, instead of coming down to the floor, now we sneak a block under the sacrum.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and we turn that into a yin version of bridge.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So within the

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the shape of bridge pose we have done yong and yin.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: We’ve started with movement, strengthening, strengthening, movement, strengthening, strengthening, and then rest in yin.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then I get them to come out

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and to pause for a few breaths for the rebound.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And if you’re like what the heck is the rebound, that’s what Paul calls it. I call it the resonance or the linger of the pose. It’s that little pause

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Nyk Danu Yoga: somewhere between 30 s to a minute. Typically in a class where students get an opportunity to notice, how does their body feel? And to begin to feel like they’re familiar self again before they take a new shape.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And then in the next shape. So let’s just use the example of let’s say I want to move into a line twist now. So I’m going to get them on their. They’re still on their back because they’ve just done their bridge pose in an active way a few times. Then they’ve done a yin way, and then I’m gonna let their hips. Come down. I’m gonna give them a pause

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to just rest and notice. Then I’m going to move into a twist. Let’s say so. I’m going to get them to in this example of the twist, bring their feet wide and their knees wide apart.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then drop both legs over to the right, bring them back up, drop them over to the left, bring them back up, drop them to the right, bring them back up, drop them to the left, bring them back up.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: drop them over to the right, and on the third time we’re going to land and stay here.

448
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Now we’re going to do this particular twist in a yin way.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so grab your bolsters or blocks, or whatever support you need. And now we hold

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in a yin way, and then they come out.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and they could do a little movement in between if they’d like. I always leave it up to them. Do they just want to go right over to the left and do their yin? Or do they want to go left and right, left and right, and then go over to the left in the twist and settle into yin.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then, when they’ve done the yin portion of that twist.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: they bring their legs back up and we pause. We take a little moment or 2 for the rebound again, somewhere between 30 s to a minute, depending on the pose.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and how long they were in it.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So in this way of practicing.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m actually taking each shape

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Nyk Danu Yoga: through the circle of yin and yang, and these pivot points.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Each pose is becoming

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Nyk Danu Yoga: yin and yang.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then I continue that way through the majority of the practice

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Nyk Danu Yoga: until we did the massage balls, and then yin.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So in that class. And this was pure experiment on my part. This was purely me going.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay. My students need the strengthening and they’re exhausted. How do I make both of these things happen?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And this is what I came up with.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Now, I’ve played this way with my own body and my own practice multiple times. So it wasn’t like

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Nyk Danu Yoga: a brand new concept to me. I just hadn’t taught it to others. I had practiced this way a lot. In fact, I love this way of practicing. You move a little bit, move a little bit, settle into the yin, pause for the resonance

467
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Nyk Danu Yoga: in the next shape. Do the movement version movement versions settle into yen, and you could reverse this as well

468
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Nyk Danu Yoga: in each pose. You could start with the yin, and then do a little wiggling, and then do the next pose

469
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Nyk Danu Yoga: right, so you could reverse this. You could have started with bridge on a block

470
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Nyk Danu Yoga: as the start.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then come down and then got them to do the active version, lifting up, coming down, lifting up, coming down, and then the pause for the resonance, or the rebound or the linger, whatever word you want to use.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So you could do either one.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But notice that in this example I’m actually doing the yin Yang spectrum or the Yin Yang symbol and its pivot points

474
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Nyk Danu Yoga: in each shape. So each pose in this class, for the most part, until we get near the end, becomes a little yin yong and a little Yan Yong symbol, and a little Yan yong symbol, all threaded together with these little pauses and these little rebounds in between.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So that’s the third way that I currently the time of this recording

476
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Nyk Danu Yoga: teach a Yin Yang class.

477
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So I’m going to go over these again just in brief.

478
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and

479
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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know your your yin training may not have had a lot of information about how to teach a yin yong class in a really skillful way.

480
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Nyk Danu Yoga: so that it’s not jarring, and it’s not stop and start. And your yin, your first yin training may not have dove into what actually is yin

481
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Nyk Danu Yoga: not just as a style of Yoga, but like the concept of yin, what is that? And what is the concept of yong? What is this philosophy of Yin and Yang?

482
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So if you haven’t had a lot of those studies in your training.

483
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Then a lot of this might seem a bit heady to you.

484
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Nyk Danu Yoga: so yeah, this is why we keep studying and why we keep training, and we take more trainings. So in my training, we go into Yan Yong theory fairly in depth, and then we also spend a section of time

485
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Nyk Danu Yoga: on these yin, this yin yong how to do yin yong, and I give them. We do 2 practices. We do one where we start with stillness, and then end up at movement, and vice versa, and then one where we do both right. So they get a sampling of all 3, I think 2 with me. And then the third one’s video, right? So they get a sampling of these ways of doing yin yong. And we discuss it. And I also, when we go through our poses.

486
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Nyk Danu Yoga: highlight star underline poses that make really good transition poses really good pivot poses.

487
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So in this class or in this class. In this episode. We’ve talked about you know, using dragon as a pivot. We use that example

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Nyk Danu Yoga: using dragon as a pivot. And then, just now I was talking about using bridge or twist as a pivot, you know, as a point that you could pivot right? So there’s a whole bunch of poses that we could use to pivot from one to the other, and going over all of that would be way beyond the scope of this episode. But

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Nyk Danu Yoga: just know that, you know that is part of my training. So if that’s something you’re really interested in, if you really want a bit more of the yin yong philosophy, and kind of how to seamlessly do a yin yong practice in a way that’s nourishing for the nervous system. That is just one tiny part but important part of my training.

490
00:48:21.420 –> 00:48:22.250
Nyk Danu Yoga: So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: let’s summarize, shall we? So first point that I wanted to make is.

492
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Nyk Danu Yoga: please stop calling it

493
00:48:31.020 –> 00:48:33.350
Nyk Danu Yoga: a Yang Yin practice

494
00:48:33.410 –> 00:48:36.650
Nyk Danu Yoga: that is not philosophically accurate

495
00:48:36.930 –> 00:49:01.949
Nyk Danu Yoga: unless you’re starting your students standing with no grounding, no centering beforehand. Then it is not a Yang yin practice. It is still a yin yong practice. And then in your description you just explain that you’re going to do the movement part of the practice at the beginning, and then slowly settle into the stillness of Yin. This is why we use our words in the class description. The class title

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00:49:02.300 –> 00:49:13.809
Nyk Danu Yoga: is still, if you’re going to be accurate and respectful of this tradition and this symbol and this philosophy, it is still a Yin Yang practice. It is not a yong

497
00:49:14.940 –> 00:49:16.050
Nyk Danu Yoga: into.

498
00:49:16.200 –> 00:49:19.299
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yeah. Okay, there’s my soapbox on that.

499
00:49:20.140 –> 00:49:28.940
Nyk Danu Yoga: Use the same title. You just explain in the description whether you’re starting in mostly stillness and then going into movement, or whether you’re starting in movement and then moving into stillness. Okay?

500
00:49:29.440 –> 00:49:37.149
Nyk Danu Yoga: And then I mentioned that the way to do this seamlessly is to embrace a concept called titration.

501
00:49:37.520 –> 00:49:40.110
Nyk Danu Yoga: which is coming in and out of something.

502
00:49:40.390 –> 00:49:44.299
Nyk Danu Yoga: so that we are honoring the circular nature

503
00:49:44.430 –> 00:49:46.920
Nyk Danu Yoga: of the Yen Yong symbol.

504
00:49:47.040 –> 00:49:58.440
Nyk Danu Yoga: Right. We don’t want to think of our class as a so a Yin Yang class as a straight line. If you were drawing a line on a piece of paper, and here’s where we do our yin, and here’s where we do our yong, and no, it’s a circle.

505
00:49:58.940 –> 00:50:02.110
Nyk Danu Yoga: And so when we can use something like titration

506
00:50:02.380 –> 00:50:08.590
Nyk Danu Yoga: at these pivot points, where we are now pivoting from mostly movement into stillness

507
00:50:09.040 –> 00:50:13.469
Nyk Danu Yoga: or the opposite, where we are pivoting from stillness into movement.

508
00:50:13.620 –> 00:50:18.140
Nyk Danu Yoga: At these pivot points we can use a technique called titration.

509
00:50:18.630 –> 00:50:23.689
Nyk Danu Yoga: Titration is again moving into something and then moving out.

510
00:50:23.710 –> 00:50:26.730
Nyk Danu Yoga: moving into something and then moving out.

511
00:50:26.740 –> 00:50:30.940
Nyk Danu Yoga: moving in, moving out and then settling in for hold.

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00:50:31.340 –> 00:50:52.159
Nyk Danu Yoga: So that would be how you could titrate if you were doing a class where you were doing movement, movement, movement, and then settling into stillness. And the example I used was you could get them from a high lunge to dropping their knee down, coming into Dragon, and before they settle into Dragon in a yin way, they get to move in and out for a few breaths.

513
00:50:52.300 –> 00:51:08.019
Nyk Danu Yoga: in for a breath, out for a breath in for 2 breaths out for a breath, in for 3 breaths out for a breath, and then the next time they come in they hold. So that is an example of if you’re starting with a movement based practice and wanting to finish in a still practice.

514
00:51:08.380 –> 00:51:13.989
Nyk Danu Yoga: you could also reverse that if you were doing the type of practice where you’re starting in stillness.

515
00:51:14.600 –> 00:51:20.409
Nyk Danu Yoga: you’re doing mostly yin. And then at the beginning, and then you want to slowly transition into

516
00:51:20.480 –> 00:51:26.250
Nyk Danu Yoga: yong or more movement based practice. Then you could reverse engineer that titration

517
00:51:26.290 –> 00:51:29.570
Nyk Danu Yoga: right? You can have them in dragon in a yin way.

518
00:51:29.720 –> 00:51:33.819
Nyk Danu Yoga: and then, as a way to transition, you could have them slide out and slide in.

519
00:51:33.970 –> 00:51:42.929
Nyk Danu Yoga: slide out, slide in. So they’re going from still to a gentle movement, still to a gentle movement, still to a gentle movement, and then you could

520
00:51:43.220 –> 00:51:45.320
Nyk Danu Yoga: get them to lift their back knee

521
00:51:45.430 –> 00:51:47.529
Nyk Danu Yoga: and come into a high lunge

522
00:51:47.880 –> 00:51:50.169
Nyk Danu Yoga: and then switch sides and do the same thing

523
00:51:50.310 –> 00:51:51.789
Nyk Danu Yoga: right? You could come from

524
00:51:51.960 –> 00:51:57.239
Nyk Danu Yoga: still to movement, still to movement. So those are examples of how you can pivot

525
00:51:57.420 –> 00:52:02.869
Nyk Danu Yoga: from movement into stillness or stillness into movement, using a technique called titration

526
00:52:03.060 –> 00:52:03.870
Nyk Danu Yoga: right.

527
00:52:04.210 –> 00:52:06.760
Nyk Danu Yoga: coming back and forth before you

528
00:52:07.070 –> 00:52:09.060
Nyk Danu Yoga: switch into the opposite.

529
00:52:09.870 –> 00:52:33.820
Nyk Danu Yoga: So those are the 2 most common ways that yin yong classes are taught. So that’s what we talked about first, and then to summarize. The third way that I just recently shared with you is that I have been now practicing with doing the whole Yin Yang circle and the titration in each pose, so you could imagine that being like a bunch of little yin yong symbols sort of threaded together.

530
00:52:34.520 –> 00:52:40.139
Nyk Danu Yoga: and how that would work in the example I gave you was, let’s just say we do bridge pose

531
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Nyk Danu Yoga: in an active way 3 times, and then, before we settle down to the ground in the last time we rest on a block, and we take that in a yin way.

532
00:52:48.880 –> 00:52:50.249
Nyk Danu Yoga: and then we pause

533
00:52:50.260 –> 00:52:53.849
Nyk Danu Yoga: for the rebound or the linger, and then we take a next shape

534
00:52:54.020 –> 00:52:58.909
Nyk Danu Yoga: where we do the movement version, and then we settle into the stillness within that one pose.

535
00:52:58.980 –> 00:53:03.440
Nyk Danu Yoga: Then we pause in the rebound to notice, and then we continue.

536
00:53:03.620 –> 00:53:06.859
Nyk Danu Yoga: So. That is a way that I have been recently playing with.

537
00:53:07.070 –> 00:53:09.400
Nyk Danu Yoga: and I taught that

538
00:53:09.540 –> 00:53:13.460
Nyk Danu Yoga: way in my the teacher training I’m going through right now.

539
00:53:14.290 –> 00:53:18.800
Nyk Danu Yoga: And unanimously. The student said that that was the best

540
00:53:19.040 –> 00:53:21.390
Nyk Danu Yoga: 1 one of my students, bless you!

541
00:53:21.410 –> 00:53:26.150
Nyk Danu Yoga: Said that that was the best Yoga class he had ever attended, which that I mean that is high praise

542
00:53:26.410 –> 00:53:28.860
Nyk Danu Yoga: that’s a lot to live up to. But

543
00:53:29.010 –> 00:53:42.959
Nyk Danu Yoga: all of them said that they loved the way that we were doing this movement into stillness in each shape, movement into stillness, movement into stillness. This titration was sprinkled throughout the whole practice.

544
00:53:43.070 –> 00:53:48.959
Nyk Danu Yoga: and just how nourishing that felt for their nervous systems for their mind, for their body. So

545
00:53:49.940 –> 00:53:55.520
Nyk Danu Yoga: those are kind of the 3 ways that at this point, and least in this recording that I have taught

546
00:53:55.570 –> 00:53:59.019
Nyk Danu Yoga: or am teaching Yin Yang classes.

547
00:53:59.660 –> 00:54:07.949
Nyk Danu Yoga: When you’re combining movement and stillness, we need to first of all understand what the heck is, yen and yong. And again, there’s a whole episode on that

548
00:54:08.080 –> 00:54:09.510
Nyk Danu Yoga: that you could check out.

549
00:54:10.596 –> 00:54:16.949
Nyk Danu Yoga: Another episode you might want to check out is the one that says, Are you doing your yin Yoga with your young attitude.

550
00:54:17.080 –> 00:54:21.700
Nyk Danu Yoga: that one also might be helpful in addition to this, if this has got you intrigued

551
00:54:23.450 –> 00:54:28.919
Nyk Danu Yoga: But we really have to understand yin yang theory in order to teach a Yin Yang class

552
00:54:28.960 –> 00:54:33.680
Nyk Danu Yoga: skillfully. Otherwise, what happens is these classes are.

553
00:54:33.920 –> 00:54:40.310
Nyk Danu Yoga: move, move, move, move, move, stop, child’s pose yin, which is again really disconcerting to the nervous system.

554
00:54:40.400 –> 00:54:48.860
Nyk Danu Yoga: The body and the nervous system’s like. Wait what? What we were moving, sweating groove. And no, now we’re just like, still, like just like that. It’s not. It’s not a great transition.

555
00:54:49.210 –> 00:54:51.860
Nyk Danu Yoga: So when we can add in some titration

556
00:54:52.120 –> 00:54:53.550
Nyk Danu Yoga: where we can move

557
00:54:53.770 –> 00:54:54.990
Nyk Danu Yoga: Moore

558
00:54:55.020 –> 00:54:57.810
Nyk Danu Yoga: fluidly from yin to yong.

559
00:54:57.820 –> 00:55:08.990
Nyk Danu Yoga: but there can be a little movement and a little movement, and then stillness, or vice versa, if you’re teaching yen to start. Maybe there’s some stillness, and then there’s you encourage a little bit of movement in your titration.

560
00:55:09.660 –> 00:55:19.189
Nyk Danu Yoga: This makes it so much easier on the body and on the nervous system of the students, and it’s such a more soothing and grounding class.

561
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Nyk Danu Yoga: And at the beginning of this episode I said that I know you, dear Yoga, teacher.

562
00:55:24.400 –> 00:55:29.660
Nyk Danu Yoga: you don’t want to teach mediocre classes that you want to teach exceptional classes.

563
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and so if teaching a yin-yang in a Yin Yang way is something you do. Regularly, hopefully, you’ve got some good tips from this episode, or

564
00:55:39.030 –> 00:55:41.210
Nyk Danu Yoga: like things you hadn’t thought of before.

565
00:55:42.830 –> 00:55:50.929
Nyk Danu Yoga: and if you haven’t been teaching yen and yong classes, but you’ve been wanting to. But the reason you haven’t is because you’ve been completely lost and intimidated.

566
00:55:51.020 –> 00:55:53.470
Nyk Danu Yoga: Hopefully, this helped a little bit.

567
00:55:53.730 –> 00:55:54.810
Nyk Danu Yoga: and

568
00:55:54.980 –> 00:55:59.419
Nyk Danu Yoga: maybe listening to those other episodes might also help a little bit.

569
00:55:59.900 –> 00:56:03.230
Nyk Danu Yoga: But just remember that when we’re transitioning from

570
00:56:04.070 –> 00:56:07.380
Nyk Danu Yoga: yin to yong or yong to Yin in our classes

571
00:56:07.540 –> 00:56:09.409
Nyk Danu Yoga: that these pivot points.

572
00:56:09.560 –> 00:56:12.030
Nyk Danu Yoga: If you can introduce titration

573
00:56:12.260 –> 00:56:17.950
Nyk Danu Yoga: moving in and moving out and moving in and moving out before settling into the opposite.

574
00:56:17.980 –> 00:56:21.920
Nyk Danu Yoga: This will be super helpful to your students. Nervous system.

575
00:56:22.660 –> 00:56:23.540
Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay.

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00:56:23.770 –> 00:56:51.409
Nyk Danu Yoga: I think that’s enough. Talking about how to teach Ian and Young just as much as I can get across in an audio video format without this being a full workshop or full training. So I hope that you found some useful tips from that if you are watching this on Youtube, and you had a couple of like, oh, that’s a cool idea. Let me know in the comments. Just drop me some comments below, and also just take a moment to like this video and subscribe so that you get the future episodes when they come out.

577
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Nyk Danu Yoga: And if you have been listening to this on a podcast app.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and you have found this helpful, I would be so grateful if you take a moment

579
00:56:59.640 –> 00:57:01.150
Nyk Danu Yoga: to rate

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00:57:01.300 –> 00:57:18.089
Nyk Danu Yoga: the show or review the show. Give it 5 stars. If you’re on apple, you can even leave a written review, and then you can also come onto Instagram, whether you want to pop into Yen Yoga podcast or at Nick Daniel Yoga and send me a DM. And let me know what you thought of this episode.

581
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Was this helpful? Did it get you scratching your head?

582
00:57:22.110 –> 00:57:47.420
Nyk Danu Yoga: Are you thinking of teaching your yin yong in a different way now, or were you too intimidated to teach it. Now you’re thinking. I want to study this further because this sounds delicious. Let me know. So get at me. On Instagram. It’s the best way to find me. I’m on Facebook very sporadically. So dms there, get lost. So find me on Instagram. Send me a DM. Let me know. How do you think that you’ll use this information?

583
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Nyk Danu Yoga: And until we meet again, my friends?

584
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Bye, for now.