What to Do When You don’t feel a Yin Yoga pose

posted in: Yin Yoga Podcast 1

What To Do When You Don’t Feel A Yin Yoga Pose.

 

This week’s episode was sparked by a question from a listener:

“What about when you don’t feel it physically? I don’t feel it’s, it working. So that functional element, which Paul and you are teaching is not there. I’m able to hold these poses for five-plus minutes without fiddling, moving, or being impatient. I mean, it’s bliss.

Don’t get me wrong, but I’m tapping more into restorative Yoga and I want Yin.”

 

We always are. I think as Yoga people, we’re always chasing stretch or chasing sensation.

And that can be problematic if you’re always chasing stretch or you’re always chasing the sensation of stretch, that feeling. Which can be quite addictive. And I know of, I’ve heard many, teachers that have taught probably another 10 years, in addition to mine, they’ve been teaching for, you know, somewhere between 25 and 30 years, talk about an addiction to feeling the sensations in the body, right?

That too can become an addiction. And if we’re not skillful. Injuries to the body, right? There are all kinds of Yoga teachers out who are not Yin teachers, but teach more active styles of yoga, like Ashtanga, who back in the day that would just push through the pain and have ended up with hip replacements or knee surgeries.

So there needs to be some wisdom to temper our practice. And an understanding that the point of a yoga practice isn’t necessarily just the physical poses. So I want to start with, that the point of a yin practice may not always be the physical poses. And I’ll talk a little bit more in a moment here about, other things that the practice can be about for those when you’re in a pose and you’re not feeling any sensation.

So that’s the first thing I want to address is that the point of Yoga isn’t to be chasing sensation for the rest of our lives. If you were thinking about Hatha Yoga, the point would have been according to Patanjali to create a body that’s stable and healthy and can sit in meditation so that it can eventually merge with the divine.

Right. That was the whole point. Now, even if you’re not a Patanjali style of Yoga, if you tend to be a little bit more TCM or, other philosophies from India, That’s fine.

But just know that these physical shapes that we make with our body are the least important part.

So that’s one thing. Yes, they’re helpful. Yes, they can help us maintain the physical health of our body. But there’s so much more that goes into a Yoga practice. So for example, the nervous system, and if you don’t know, much about the nervous system, previous to this episode coming out, there will be a couple of episodes on, there’s one on the nervous system and Yin Yoga and trauma.

There are so many other aspects of a Yin Yoga Practice, other than physical sensation that are explored in this episode.

 

What To Do When You Don’t Feel A Yin Yoga Pose – Listen

What To Do When You Don’t Feel A Yin Yoga Pose – Watch

What To Do When You Don’t Feel A Yin Yoga Pose – Read

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yennies, welcome back to a yen. Yoga. Podcast

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Nyk Danu Yoga: if you are familiar, welcome, welcome back!

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Thank you for choosing to once again spend some time with me today.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and for those of you that are new to the podcast welcome.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If we have not met before, my name is Nick, I am a yen yoga teacher, trainer, a yoga therapist.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: a yoga business mentor, and of course I teach the general public as well.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So that’s me in a quick nutshell

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Nyk Danu Yoga: before we dive into today’s topic.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: which is going to be

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Nyk Danu Yoga: about, what do we do when we don’t feel a yoga a yen yoga pose?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: We’ll get to that in a moment. But before we do, I just wanted to mention for those of you that have been listening and have been benefiting from all of the

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Nyk Danu Yoga: info that you get in these podcasts.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I would be super grateful if you would pause this and just take a moment to offer a rating or a review.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So whether you’re in apple or spotify, you just actually click on the show itself.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And then, if you scroll down, it should give you an opportunity to give me 5 stars, which would be super appreciated.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And then, if you’re on apple, you can also offer a written review. That would be

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Nyk Danu Yoga: amazing.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And I would be super grateful for that for those of you that wouldn’t mind taking 2 min to do that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If you’re on Youtube watching this. And, dear listener, did you know you can watch the full, unedited

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Nyk Danu Yoga: versions on Youtube where I sit here and talk to you and drink my matcha, or you know my guest and I sit here and talk to you, so you can also watch those. So if you are more visual than audio. Those are available as well.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that’s about all I want to say about that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I’d be really grateful if you’d offer a review. If you’re on Youtube. You can’t really review. But I would be super grateful if you would subscribe to the Channel.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: give this video a like part way through, and then also at the end of the video, or even part way through, if you’ve got any. Haas, that come up as you’re watching, please just take a moment to let me know in the comments that would be awesome.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the other thing I want to mention very quickly is my yin Yoga teacher training. At the time of this recording it is still a 60 plus hour.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: but I have a feeling it’s going to go up shortly to a 75 h. Stay tuned on that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and if you are a teacher who’s got at least 200 h of training.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and you’re looking to take a yen training, or maybe you’re looking to take another yen training

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Nyk Danu Yoga: because your first training was either great, but had some missing pieces, or maybe wasn’t so great.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Then I would love to have you.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So. I get a good combination of people who have taken no yin training, and then also people who’ve taken a yin training. But really, wanna learn more about some of the things that I tend to focus on

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Nyk Danu Yoga: as a yoga therapist. We are. Gonna talk about trauma and how to make this practice therapeutic. And it’s also nervous system based and steeped in traditional Chinese medicine.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You can see a full write up of what’s in the program by clicking the link in the show notes that says, join the wait list that’ll take you to the page where it’s got everything listed out that we go over.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Some of the reasons you might want to go join the waitlist. Is that the first thing you’ll get when you join the waitlist is a little Pdf of a head to toe Yiddin sequence

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Nyk Danu Yoga: as my gift to you, something that you can play with in your own body. If you aren’t teaching in yet, or if you are teaching something you can share with your students.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Then a few days later, you’re going to get a video practice of that same sequence. So if you haven’t practice from the paper, you can practice from the video

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Nyk Danu Yoga: also along the way, you will get these podcast episodes emailed to you.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you’re going to get

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Nyk Danu Yoga: invitations to my quarterly free class. So I do a quarterly free class on zoom. Sometimes it’s a class. Sometimes it’s a Mini workshop.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and so you’ll get invitations to those.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You’ll also get invitations to join my public in classes on Zoom, if if you feel like you want somebody to hold space for you for a change.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And then along the way you’re also going to get little sneaky peaks.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: little video clips of former trainings, so that you can kind of get a little bit of a taste test as to what you might experience in the course.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You will also get first notice when registration opens, which is why most people join. All these other things are nice bells and whistles, but being able to know first, before I put it on social media, or share it anywhere, that registration is open and you’ll get a access to a discount code. So at the time of this recording.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the first 5 people that sign up can use a 25% off discount code. Now, that may change in the future. If you’re not listening to this currently.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: but the only people that get access to that coupon code are people that are on the waitlist.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So if you’ve been listening. And you’ve been thinking, Jeez.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I’ve learned a lot from this podcast.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Then imagine what you could learn in the training.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I would love to have you

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Nyk Danu Yoga: if it feels like a good fit.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So if it does, take a moment to just go down below wherever you’re listening to this click, the link that says, Join the waitlist.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then at the top of the page, right in my picture, you just click that button

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then enter your name and email. It’s also at the bottom of the page, and if you wait long enough there’s a little slide out to the side, a polite pop up that will also ask you if you want to join the waitlist.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So for those of you who would like to

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Nyk Danu Yoga: study with me at some point whether it’s for the next one or one in the future.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Get on the waitlist.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: one more reminder, my dear friends.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that although I have the soul of a mermaid. I also have the mouth of a sailor, and that these podcasts are dealing with adult subject matter and adult language. So if you have small people around grab headphones. Now.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: okay, today’s topic

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Nyk Danu Yoga: was actually a question that was messaged to me.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and the reason that I thought it would be smart to go over is because this isn’t an uncommon question. It happens

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Nyk Danu Yoga: it happened to me at a point. I’ll share my story as well.

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

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Nyk Danu Yoga: message me questions for possible topic ideas or possible topic ideas as long as they’re Yen related because this is a yen Yoga. Podcast after all. You can get at me on Instagram, either at Nick, Daniel Yoga or at Yen Yoga podcast and message me a question that you would like me to answer, or a topic that you’d like to see on the podcast and if I haven’t done it already.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and it’s yin appropriate.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: then I’ll add it to the list.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: as I’m always always wanting to have multiple ideas for y’all. So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: if you’ve got any burning questions, find me on Instagram. Let me know.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You can find me on Facebook, too. Just

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Nyk Danu Yoga: just Nick Danu. I don’t use my business page. So those of you that have followed it recently. Sorry you’re not going to see anything there.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But, to be honest, I don’t really spend a lot of time on Facebook other than the group. So that’s not the best way to get a hold of me.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But find me on Instagram. Send me a DM. Let me know if you have a question or a topic idea that you’d love to cover get covered on the podcast

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Nyk Danu Yoga: okay. So this was one of those. This was a question

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that I got.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and before we get into the actual question I want to share a story, and then I’ll read you the question.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So when I was in my very first 100, my very first time studying with Paul. I’ve studied with him many times since

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and now have a 500 h certificate with him, but this was the first one.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I had done a weekend workshop with Paul in 2,007, when he was still a traveling yogi, and he came to my city and did a workshop so weekend workshop. But this was my first official teacher, training module with Paul.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and we did our practice, and you know.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: at 1 point

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I had to ask him a question about my body.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So just to so

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Nyk Danu Yoga: preface

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Sleeping Swan, which in other styles of Yoga sometimes is called

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Nyk Danu Yoga: pigeon.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: where your knee is in that pose depends on your bone structure.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If this is news to you, if you’re still a teacher going around telling everybody that one day their knee will be at 90 degrees in sleeping swan or pigeon. Then please pause this right. Now

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Nyk Danu Yoga: check the show notes for a link to anatomy for Yoga, by Paul Grilley, and by that streaming from pranamaya, and start watching that as a P.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Because

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you could be injuring your students. So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: this idea and I see it all the time in Yoga circles, where, if you just keep practicing eventually, your front leg will be at 90 degrees in swan pose. This is

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Baloney, and actually, very few people will comfortably be able to do that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: without risking injury.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: That’s not the goal of the pose. The goal of the pose is to feel a stretch in your hip and your butt. So I just wanted to preface all of that before I tell my story.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So I do have a good amount of external rotation

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in my hips. I also have a really decent amount of internal rotation. It’s just one of my

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Nyk Danu Yoga: genetically open areas. As far as my bone structure. I just have a good amount of range in those areas as far as my bones go. That’s not the same everywhere on my body just happens to be in my hips. I do not have any good range of motion in my shoulders. I can tell you that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So I was doing practice with Paul, and I am comfortably able to bring my front leg in sleeping swan or pigeon into a 90 degree angle.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and, in fact.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: at that time, especially because I was doing a lot more of that pose.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: That was the only way that I would feel a stretch is if my leg was at 90 degrees. If I had my foot in closer to my groin. I just there was nothing there.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m practicing this pose in my practice time with Paul

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and my legs at 90 degrees.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and I’m laying flat on the floor over my leg. No bolster, no blocks, nothing. I’m just like laying flat, and I can feel a little bit of a stretch. But it wasn’t a lot. Now, I would say in

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Nyk Danu Yoga: my current body, I would probably feel a lot more because I don’t do that pose a lot anymore. I do other things for my hips.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But at that time I was feeling a very small amount of sensation, but not much.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so I, after practice? Asked Paul if I could ask him a question, and I said

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so when I do sleeping, Swan, and my front leg is at 90 degrees, and I’m as flat as I can go, like I’m laying down, and I can’t get any closer to my leg unless you hollowed out the floor.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I said. I’m feeling a little bit of sensation, but not a lot. So I imagine in like 6 months or so, it’s probably going to be gone.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: What do I do then?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And he looked at me

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Nyk Danu Yoga: like a like a deer cotton headlights, almost like

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Nyk Danu Yoga: he couldn’t believe I was asking the question now. Paul’s a very, a very

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Nyk Danu Yoga: sweet and warm man, so he certainly wasn’t being judgmental. I just he was like a little baffled, and he looked at me, and he said.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: then you’re done

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Nyk Danu Yoga: like

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Nyk Danu Yoga: there is no more

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Nyk Danu Yoga: like if your leg is at 90 degrees and you’re laying as flat as you can, and you’re not feeling it.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Then you’re in maintenance mode.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You’re not gonna keep feeling a stretch forever and ever and ever and ever and ever in a pose.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: That’s not how the body works.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And that really, really struck me. That story. I was like, Oh.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: right

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and maintenance mode. Okay, so then, I’m just maintaining the flexibility that I have rather than trying to get more flexibility.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So I was like, okay, problem solved.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And in fact, in times in my life, I have actually intentionally stopped doing any sort of yin hip openers for a few months just to kind of let things tighten up again so that I can. You know, experience that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: sweetness again.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Here’s the thing.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: My questioning came from a place of

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Nyk Danu Yoga: thinking that the point of a yin practice, or any yoga practice we could argue. But since we’re talking about yin here that the point of a yin practice

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Nyk Danu Yoga: was the physical poses.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and my question came to him from a place of

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Nyk Danu Yoga: trying to get better. Air, quotes deeper air, quotes stronger air, quotes or more advanced air, quotes in my Yoga poses.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So again, remember, I was a fairly, still, a fairly newish teacher, and definitely newer to Yen. I’d done a workshop, and I had his DVD. But I wasn’t immersed in it the way I am now. This was my first training with him.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and so I still did have a lot of that kind of baggage about.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You know the point of Yoga is the physical practice, and you know I still had

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Nyk Danu Yoga: goal poses on my vision board. And you know, was still kind of trying to do really strong, kind of flashy fun poses that was still at that time part of my identity as a Yoga person and a Yoga teacher. It is not now

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Nyk Danu Yoga: things change with age and experience and wisdom.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: but at that time that’s where I was at. And so he said, well, then, that’s it. You’re in maintenance mode. And I thought, okay.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so then I can just do that to maintain the mobility I have and

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Nyk Danu Yoga: focus on sensations in other poses.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So here’s why I wanted to talk about this today.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So that’s my story of how that came up once.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And if you look at Yoga circles outside of yin

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Nyk Danu Yoga: especially with a lot of the really seasoned teachers, the teachers that have been teaching, maybe, you know.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: 5 to 10 to maybe even 15 years longer than me.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: There used to be a lot of this, and there still is, unfortunately in some styles of yoga.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: This this

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Nyk Danu Yoga: misconception, that if you just keep pushing your body, and you keep practicing that you, too, one day will do blank version of blank pose. And that’s just not true. And if you believe that that is true again.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in the show notes there’s a link to Paul’s anatomy presentation, please, for the love of your own body and the love of your students. Bodies. Watch that because your mind will be blown, and you will not risk injuring yourself or your students with this silly idea of practice. All is coming.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay. So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: practicing a pose over and over again.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: may or may not ever mean that you can do the full pose because some of that depends on your bones.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And again, if that’s news to you, please check that DVD presentation out. Oh, sorry. I always say, DVD, because that’s how I had it. It’s streaming now, it’s streaming, can watch it online.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: this idea that we have that the point first of all of Yoga is the physical poses

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that’s problematic to start.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: because whether you’re looking at Yin or whether you’re looking at a more kind of

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Nyk Danu Yoga: half a practice right?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Originally, these poses

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in a half a practice, whether that’s a Shanga Vinyasa, gentle Hatha blah blah! Whichever one it is.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the poet of the poses was to create a body that was stable

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and healthy.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so that you could sit in meditation.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So the point of the physical poses in the Hatha Yoga traditions, and of which there’s many lineages.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: was to create a body that was stable

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and strong enough and healthy enough to sit in meditation.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So let’s go back. I don’t love Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and I’m certainly not a scholar. But let’s just hop back to that book for a little bit.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so, as Yoga teachers and Yoga practitioners, we get all obsessive about the Asana.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So the first thing I would like to say

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in answer to the question, What do we do if we don’t feel it

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Nyk Danu Yoga: is to address that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So I’m going to read the actual question that I got. I’m not going to say the person’s name is, you know, privacy and all.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And then we’ll get into this a bit more.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: here was the question.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: what about when you don’t feel it physically, I don’t feel it’s and she has in quotations.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: it working.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So that functional element which Paul and you are teaching is not there.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m able to hold these poses for 5 plus minutes without fiddling, moving, or being impatient. I mean, it’s bliss. Don’t get me wrong.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: but I’m tapping more into a restorative Yoga. And I want yin.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that was the question that sparked today’s episode.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Let’s just first of all

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Nyk Danu Yoga: talk about whether or not the poses are actually the points.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I know it’s a discussion, right? Because for a large percentage of people, the poses are the point. It’s what they come to Yoga for. And it’s all they practice. They don’t practice meditation. They don’t practice. You know, Pranayama, they don’t do any of these other techniques in Yoga. All they do. They don’t read the philosophy. They don’t try to put the teachings of the philosophy into their life. They’re just doing physical Asana.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and that is not necessarily a bad thing

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Nyk Danu Yoga: if it’s done skillfully in a way that’s healthy for your body.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But we also have to eventually start to look at like what is the bigger picture of this practice, and the bigger picture of this practice

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Nyk Danu Yoga: are the more subtle aspects

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Nyk Danu Yoga: like meditation.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Right? So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: whether or not you’re feeling a pose. Once you’ve reached the limits of your bone structure, you’ve gone into it, and that’s that’s all, she wrote. That’s as deep as you can go, like I was with my sleeping swan pose.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Now you’re in maintenance mode

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Nyk Danu Yoga: physically, and I realize that maintenance mode is not as sexy and is not going to sell Yoga magazines

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Nyk Danu Yoga: maintaining the mobility of your joints is not something that is going to be a bestseller unless you’re probably in the age demographic, where it’s been very starting to become very clear that you don’t have the mobility mobility in your joints that you used to have.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So if you’re in, you know, if you’re approaching your senior years, and you’re like, why aren’t things moving the way they used to? Well, then, maybe you’d buy a book that said, maintaining the mobility of your joints. But for most people

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that’s not going to sell, not that title.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So it’s not flashy, and it’s not sexy

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Nyk Danu Yoga: we always are, I think, as Yoga people, we’re always chasing stretch. We’re chasing sensation.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and that can be problematic.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If you’re always chasing stretch, or you’re always chasing sensation of stretch that feeling which can be quite addictive. And I know of. I’ve heard many, you know, teachers that have taught probably another 10 years in addition to mine. They’ve been teaching, for you know, somewhere between 25 and 30 years. Talk about an addiction to feeling the sensations in the body right? That, too, can become an addiction. And if we’re not skillful

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Nyk Danu Yoga: injuries to the body, right? There’s all kinds of Yoga teachers out there from more, not from not yin teachers, but more active, especially styles of Yoga, like astonga back in the day that would just push through the pain and have ended up with hip replacements or knee surgeries.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: there it

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Nyk Danu Yoga: needs to be some wisdom to temper our practice.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and an understanding that the point of a Yoga practice isn’t necessarily just the physical poses.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so that I want to start with

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that the point of a yin practice may not always be

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the physical poses.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and I’ll talk a little bit more in a moment here about other things that the practice can be about for those when you’re in opposing, you’re not feeling any sensation.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So that’s the first thing I want to address is that the point of Yoga isn’t to be chasing sensation for the rest of our lives.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that if you were thinking about Hatha Yoga, the point would have been, according to Patanjali, to create a body that’s stable and healthy, and can sit in meditation

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so that it can ventrally merge with the divide. Right? That was the whole point.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Now, even if you’re not a Patanjali style of Yogi, if you tend to be a little bit more. Tcm or you know other philosophies, even from India. That’s fine.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But just know that, like these physical shapes with our that we make with our body are sort of the least important part.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So that’s one thing.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yes, they’re helpful. Yes, they can help us maintain the physical health of our body. But there’s so much more that goes into a Yoga practice.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So, for example, the nervous system.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And if you don’t know much about the nervous system. Previous to this one coming out, there will be a couple of episodes on. There’s one on the nervous system in Yen Yoga

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and trauma.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: where we talk a little bit more about the nervous system, nervous system 101. But basically to summarize very quickly.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Most of us are in a young dominant culture where we’re rushing and going, and we’re pressured, and we’re busy and we’re stressed right? This is the yong is good when it’s harmonized with yin. But when we’re in a yong, imbal imbalance, like most of us, are culturally.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: unless you are lucky enough to live on your own land somewhere really quiet and unplug from the world. Then you’re probably living in a young dominant culture.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: This can be really hard on our nervous systems.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so we end up in flight, fright, or freeze way more than we should be

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Nyk Danu Yoga: right. So fight, flight, or freeze is really helpful. If a bear is chasing you.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: That’s what’s going to help you run like health to get away from that bear.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But it’s not helpful when you’re thinking about your bills

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Nyk Danu Yoga: or your taxes, or

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Nyk Danu Yoga: your neighbors, or what’s happening politically, or

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the wars around the world. You get my point. So we are

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Nyk Danu Yoga: as a culture

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in a young dominant culture, and we are in a sympathetic, dominant, nervous state most of the time.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and this has all kinds of

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Nyk Danu Yoga: terrible things that can happen to our health.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Every single major disease can be linked to stress

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Nyk Danu Yoga: whether it’s heart disease.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: blood pressure, all of these things. If you don’t believe me, Google

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Nyk Danu Yoga: diseases linked to stress

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Nyk Danu Yoga: cancers. All of them.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Stress affects everything.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so when we live in a culture like we do, which is sort of overly young, like

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Nyk Danu Yoga: disharmonized yong. Not nearly enough yin.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and we aren’t resting enough. We aren’t spending equal amount of time, if not more, which is, I believe, how we were meant to live

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in our parasympathetic nervous system, the relaxation response.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: When that happens, then there is ill health or potentially disease that can happen in the body.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so

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Nyk Danu Yoga: one of the big benefits of a regular Yoga practice is actually the nervous system response.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: right? When we can consciously and deliberately set time aside regularly to dive into our parasympathetic nervous system, that relaxation response. Then we’re affecting the whole health of our body.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and you do not need to feel a stretch in your body

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in order to experience that switch from the sympathetic into the parasympathetic nervous system.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you don’t need to feel a stretch in your body to feel you switch gears into that more relaxed state.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so

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Nyk Danu Yoga: is it great and fun? And do we enjoy feeling a stretch in our poses, of course.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: but if it’s not there.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and you’re kind of come to the limit of what you can do.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And sometimes people will ask me, Well, how do I know if I’m at the limit of what I can do if you come into a pose, and you’re trying to go further or deeper, or whatever, and you just feel stuck.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You don’t feel any pain.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You don’t feel a stretch.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You don’t really feel anything. You’re just kind of stuck, and you can’t move, and you’re not sure why.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: That’s because you just hit your bones, my friend.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So that’s all, she wrote. Now you’re in maintenance mode as unsexy as that is, I realize.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You know, they don’t put maintenance stuff on the cover of a Yoga magazine. But it’s super important.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So at that point in your practice, you’re now maintaining the joint that you have, instead of trying to go further.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so the nervous system can be

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Nyk Danu Yoga: a huge

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Nyk Danu Yoga: a huge benefit of a Yoga practice.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So the nervous system is one of the big

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Nyk Danu Yoga: things that we can get from our Yoga practice.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: In fact, for me.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the the longer I teach

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and the longer I’ve been a yoga therapist.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and especially in, you know.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I don’t want to say post pandemic times, because I really don’t. There’s a lot of things that don’t feel like they’re over yet, but

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Nyk Danu Yoga: especially with the the last few years. And what we’ve all gone through collectively.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the trauma we’ve all gone through collectively with the pandemic.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And you know there’s many different ways that that trauma shows up for some people. It was losing their jobs or their businesses. For some people it was losing friends or family member for others it was mental health stuff, because they couldn’t get to their therapists or their na meetings or their Aa meetings.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So anyways, I won’t get into the whole pandemic thing. But

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Nyk Danu Yoga: all of us now have been sort of dysregulated, so our society was already kind of encouraging us to be in our sympathetic. That fight flight or freeze response

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Nyk Danu Yoga: beforehand. And then you throw something’s that stressful in. And let me tell you the amount of people that have anxiety and stress that didn’t really before

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Nyk Danu Yoga: just added, you know.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: fuel to the fire, so to speak.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So the longer I teach and the more experience I have, and the longer I’ve been a yoga therapist, the more I realize that actually, for me

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in my practice.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and more even so when I teach, is

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the nervous system

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that if my students get nothing else

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Nyk Danu Yoga: but an opportunity to switch off their parasympathetic nervous system, and to rest deeply in their sympathetic nervous system.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: then I am successful.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So now this begs the question of well, if you’re not feeling a stretch at all.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Are you doing a restorative pose? No.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: because the intention is still different.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and so it might feel more gentle.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But remember, a restorative practice is a whole practice on its own.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and it has a whole bunch of guidelines and intentions. And I did do an episode on that. So you can listen to that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: yen versus restorative.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If you want to learn more about that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so it’s not a restorative practice. If you’re doing your practice, and in one or 2 shapes you don’t feel them anymore, because you’ve been doing this a long time, and you’ve reached kind of the limit of your bone structure. Or maybe you just don’t have a large range of motion in your bone structure.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so you reach it quite quickly. It’s also possible.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Doesn’t mean you’re doing a restorative practice. It’s still a in practice.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: because there’s other aspects of restorative yoga other than whether or not you’re feeling a stretch that is there? That is a marker. But there’s there’s others again, whole episode on that. If you want to dive into that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I wanted mention. I wanted to mention that first of all, we have to kind of re, maybe. Consider.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, are we doing our yin yoga with our young attitude? Which was another episode

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that you can listen to. You’re not familiar.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know this, this

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Nyk Danu Yoga: efforting, striving I have somewhere to be like. There’s no goal

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in the pose other than

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Nyk Danu Yoga: can you feel sensation in that area? And if that at the answer to that is no?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Well, then, there’s a whole other layers of practice that you can pay attention to.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: They’re more subtle.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But I’ll mention a few.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so they’re more subtle. But they are

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Nyk Danu Yoga: key elements, in my opinion, to this practice.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So first of all, you are taking time out for self care.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: regardless of whether or not you’re feeling that particular pose.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Secondly, you’re taking an opportunity to dive into your parasympathetic nervous system, which is what I just mentioned.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that relaxation response.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You are literally taking time on the ground

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to ground

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so nervous system.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Effects of the yin practice are huge, and when we come into our lives more and more often from a place of being in our parasympathetic nervous system, our relaxation response. Then we are healthier

328
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Nyk Danu Yoga: because stress affects every single disease

329
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Nyk Danu Yoga: or health issue in our body.

330
00:31:10.070 –> 00:31:11.880
Nyk Danu Yoga: So stress levels affect

331
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Nyk Danu Yoga: everything.

332
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So we’re taking an opportunity

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to switch into our parasympathetic nervous system.

334
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Nyk Danu Yoga: to practice some self care.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to rest instead of do, to be on the ground

336
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Nyk Danu Yoga: which is crucial

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Nyk Danu Yoga: for grounding.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So those are some of the other benefits of a yin practice

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that have nothing to do with physical sensation.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Here’s some more

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Nyk Danu Yoga: your mind.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: sometimes Yen’s nicknames are the quiet Yoga, or the meditative Yoga.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so you have an opportunity in each pose

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to observe what is happening in your mind.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And again, just like with most of these, there’s a whole episode on the mind, so I won’t go into that a lot.

347
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Nyk Danu Yoga: But noticing that that the mind

348
00:32:07.827 –> 00:32:13.570
Nyk Danu Yoga: kicks up a storm right? And how can we learn to be more skillful with our mind?

349
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Can we practice mindfulness when we’re in that shape? So we’re in this pose. And okay, well, we’re not feeling sensation in our body.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Well, can we perhaps use that as an opportunity to practice and explore mindfulness.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Can you notice the air on your skin, the weight of your body on the earth? Can you notice any sensations in the places that your body touches the ground.

352
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Nyk Danu Yoga: or where your body touches itself.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Can you notice the air on your skin

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and the fabric on you?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You notice the sounds that are present in that moment, without getting caught up into that

356
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Nyk Danu Yoga: mind that likes to analyze, judge, or critique the sounds, or decide whether or not they should be there. But could you just be present to that moment noticing the sounds?

357
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: all of that is still present while you’re in this yin shape that you’re not feeling.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Can you bring your awareness

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to those things?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So there’s so many aspects of being in a yin pose

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and feeling. The sensation in your body is only one tiny part.

363
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Nyk Danu Yoga: it’s just one part.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so eventually, when we practice long enough.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: we will come to this

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Nyk Danu Yoga: maturity because we will have shapes where we don’t feel it anymore. And then we have to go. Oh, okay. So if my practice is no longer about getting deeper or stronger into blank pose.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: then what is this practice about for me now.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: at least in that pose? Now this could. It could very well be that in and this is the case for most people that maybe there’s a pose or 2 you don’t feel but you feel the rest right. Might not be that you don’t feel any of the shapes anymore.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So that’s what I would look at is, what are the other aspects of a yin practice that you can explore while you are there.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Can you do some mindfulness? Maybe even mantra. If that’s part of your practice. If you have trained with a teacher, you have, you have a mantra.

371
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Nyk Danu Yoga: You have a bunch of practice. You could do that while you’re in that practice.

372
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Nyk Danu Yoga: or you could just let your mind be present and aware

373
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Nyk Danu Yoga: to the moment by moment changing landscape

374
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Nyk Danu Yoga: while you’re there.

375
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Nyk Danu Yoga: How does my breath feel? Where is my breath?

376
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Nyk Danu Yoga: What are the sounds around me? Can I feel my body touching the earth? Can I feel my clothing on my body? What does that feel like?

377
00:34:49.520 –> 00:34:56.130
Nyk Danu Yoga: Is my mind stuck in this sort of soap, opera, or circus. Is there some drama going on in my mind? And if so.

378
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Nyk Danu Yoga: what is the subject matter? And is it the same subject matter? Am I in the future, or am I in the past?

379
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Am I daydreaming

380
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Nyk Danu Yoga: like there’s so much to notice

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in a yen practice

382
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Nyk Danu Yoga: other than sensation

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Nyk Danu Yoga: noticing sensation’s great, especially if you do have some, and if you are working at becoming more embodied and befriending your body more, then yeah, it’s a crucial key part of the practice to notice that sensation, and maybe watch how it shifts and changes over time that you’re in the shape.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But it’s not the only thing to notice.

385
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Nyk Danu Yoga: There’s so many other things you could notice.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: if you’re doing a yin shape, and you’re not feeling it anymore because you’ve reached the limits of your bones. That doesn’t mean you’re now doing a restorative practice, because in a restorative practice we’re not working actively with our mind

388
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Nyk Danu Yoga: in restorative practice. That is all about like a yogic nap, almost.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: whereas in a yin practice we are dealing with our minds with the present moment

390
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Nyk Danu Yoga: with discomfort, and I don’t necessarily mean, like physical discomfort.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: because I don’t even like using the word

392
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Nyk Danu Yoga: discomfort, because I think

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Nyk Danu Yoga: for a lot of people the line between discomfort and pain is is blurry. And so somebody could think they’re doing something in a way that’s discomfort, but it’s actually painful.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So maybe the word uncomfortable might be a better word right.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: being present

396
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Nyk Danu Yoga: for minutes at a time, is uncomfortable.

397
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Nyk Danu Yoga: mentally, emotionally, sometimes

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Nyk Danu Yoga: because

399
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Nyk Danu Yoga: we don’t do it very often in our culture, whereas go, go, go, rush, rush, rush, and so then, when we stop and try to do it, it’s unfamiliar. It’s uncomfortable, and that is something to observe and to work with in your in practice.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: my friends.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to summarize.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If you reach a point in your bone structure where you no longer fill a in shape

404
00:37:01.710 –> 00:37:11.279
Nyk Danu Yoga: that’s fine, you can still do that yin shape. Now you could switch it up and do other shapes for that same area and see if one of the other ones kind of gives you a little bit more.

405
00:37:11.400 –> 00:37:15.669
Nyk Danu Yoga: It’s possible it’s possible it won’t cause you’ve just reached what you’re gonna do

406
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Nyk Danu Yoga: right? And instead of going well, Jeez, I mean now, what am I practicing for now? Is this restorative? No, no, it’s not because restorative has many other aspects to it other than just whether or not you feel a stretch. And so again.

407
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Nyk Danu Yoga: I did a whole episode on that.

408
00:37:32.490 –> 00:37:34.800
Nyk Danu Yoga: So can listen to that one.

409
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Nyk Danu Yoga: What it means is that your practice, at least in that pose for that class for that day, because it could change.

410
00:37:43.340 –> 00:37:47.310
Nyk Danu Yoga: has now become more of the mental, emotional realm

411
00:37:47.360 –> 00:37:50.749
Nyk Danu Yoga: and less of the purely, purely physical sensation.

412
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So now, when you’d no longer feel that pose

413
00:37:56.230 –> 00:38:01.020
Nyk Danu Yoga: now, we actually get to practice the big picture, Yoga Yoga with a capital y.

414
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Observing your mind

415
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Nyk Danu Yoga: being mindful, being present.

416
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Nyk Danu Yoga: being curious, being open, noticing your mental and emotional states.

417
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Nyk Danu Yoga: becoming the little scientist of your own direct experience in that moment.

418
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and watching how that even changes from time to time

419
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Nyk Danu Yoga: from moment to moment.

420
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So if you can be really present in the moment you will notice that the moment is very alive.

421
00:38:29.840 –> 00:38:34.140
Nyk Danu Yoga: that each moment is so alive

422
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and it doesn’t.

423
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Our practice doesn’t need to just be about physical sensation.

424
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So if I were to sit here right now in a pose that I’m quite comfortable in, and I don’t really feel much.

425
00:38:50.300 –> 00:38:54.750
Nyk Danu Yoga: I would start to investigate the more subtle aspects of the practice. Like

426
00:38:55.620 –> 00:38:57.500
Nyk Danu Yoga: I would notice the air on my skin.

427
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Nyk Danu Yoga: For example, right now

428
00:38:59.430 –> 00:39:01.009
Nyk Danu Yoga: my feet feel cool.

429
00:39:03.160 –> 00:39:05.699
Nyk Danu Yoga: my arms do not because I have a sweater on.

430
00:39:08.440 –> 00:39:09.969
Nyk Danu Yoga: I would notice the

431
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Nyk Danu Yoga: sounds around me.

432
00:39:12.520 –> 00:39:15.729
Nyk Danu Yoga: I live in an urban location, so I can always hear

433
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Nyk Danu Yoga: traffic.

434
00:39:18.950 –> 00:39:25.060
Nyk Danu Yoga: which is why, for those of you in Youtube, you always see the big headphones, because these are a little noise canceling. They help you focus.

435
00:39:28.230 –> 00:39:31.780
Nyk Danu Yoga: I can notice the weight of my body sitting on the cushion.

436
00:39:33.600 –> 00:39:36.390
Nyk Danu Yoga: And I can really tune into those areas

437
00:39:36.770 –> 00:39:42.510
Nyk Danu Yoga: where I’m making contact. And just notice, is there any sensation there? A feeling of pressure, or warmth, or coolness, or

438
00:39:43.110 –> 00:39:45.489
Nyk Danu Yoga: hardness, or tingling, or something else.

439
00:39:48.850 –> 00:39:52.940
Nyk Danu Yoga: I can notice my mind’s tendency to want to get on with things.

440
00:39:54.770 –> 00:39:59.550
Nyk Danu Yoga: to get on with my day, to plan to future trip, or to hang out in the past or to daydream.

441
00:40:01.610 –> 00:40:07.780
Nyk Danu Yoga: I can get curious even about that subject matter and see? Is it the same thing that keeps coming up for me? And what? And if so, why is that

442
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Nyk Danu Yoga: so

443
00:40:11.340 –> 00:40:14.669
Nyk Danu Yoga: when we no longer feel oppose

444
00:40:14.950 –> 00:40:16.529
Nyk Danu Yoga: in a yin practice.

445
00:40:17.230 –> 00:40:18.670
Nyk Danu Yoga: We could say.

446
00:40:18.960 –> 00:40:21.059
Nyk Danu Yoga: that is actually

447
00:40:21.110 –> 00:40:22.729
Nyk Danu Yoga: where the yin begins.

448
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay, my friends, I think that’s a good place to leave it.

449
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Nyk Danu Yoga: If you enjoy this episode, please take a moment to rate it.

450
00:40:34.240 –> 00:40:35.780
Nyk Danu Yoga: Give me 5 stars.

451
00:40:36.324 –> 00:40:45.540
Nyk Danu Yoga: On your apps. Or if you’re on Youtube, give it a like and subscribe. And again, if you have ideas for future episodes, please

452
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Nyk Danu Yoga: get at me and Instagram

453
00:40:48.150 –> 00:40:52.880
Nyk Danu Yoga: at Nick Danu Yoga. My name is spelt NYKD, a, NU. Yoga.

454
00:40:53.220 –> 00:40:58.290
Nyk Danu Yoga: or at your Yoga podcast get in the Dms and let me know if you have a question.

455
00:40:58.330 –> 00:41:00.239
Nyk Danu Yoga: this is how this episode happened.

456
00:41:00.330 –> 00:41:02.840
Nyk Danu Yoga: A question from one of you

457
00:41:03.070 –> 00:41:07.660
Nyk Danu Yoga: sparked a little thought in my mind and reminded me of my story.

458
00:41:07.790 –> 00:41:19.530
Nyk Danu Yoga: my hips and pigeon. And now we have an episode. So if there’s some burning topic related to Yen that you really want to know about, please feel free to drop me a line and let me know, and I will add it to my list.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: All right, my friends, until we meet again.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Bye, for now.

 

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