What We’re Not Talking About in Yin Yoga (but should be)

What We Aren’t Talking About in Yin Yoga
===

[00:00:00] Welcome to a Yin Yoga Podcast. Today, we’re gonna talk about what we aren’t talking about in Yin Yoga. We’re gonna talk about the things we don’t normally talk about. There is a lot that we talk about in Yin Yoga, like fascia, long holds, flexibility, stillness, the nervous system, talk about meridians, mindfulness, learning to slow down.

And those conversations are all valuable, and we’ve had all of those, almost all of those on the pod. And while those conversations are super valuable, I sometimes wonder if they’ve also become the easier conversations to have. Because underneath all of that, there’s another layer of a Yin practice that often goes unspoken, the quieter parts, the subtler parts, the things [00:01:00] that are harder to measure and harder to explain and probably harder to teach.

Things like what happens in rebound time? What role does boredom actually play in Yin Yoga? How much does the teacher’s own nervous system shape the room? Are we teaching our students how to stay still or how to stay with themselves? These aren’t necessarily the conversations that get the most attention online, but they are some of the most important conversations we can have as teachers and dedicated practitioners of Yin Yoga.

So in this episode, I wanna explore the things that we aren’t talking about in Yin Yoga. Not because I have definitive answers, but because I think that these questions open the door to a deeper relationship with the practice, a quieter relationship, a more honest one, and maybe a [00:02:00] more Yin one. So, that’s what we’re gonna talk about today.

Stay tuned. Welcome or welcome back if you are familiar to a Yin Yoga podcast. I’m so glad that you’re back. Uh, before we jump into today’s episode, which is a juicy one, I just wanna mention that if you have been listening to this pod for a while, and you’ve been resonating with the episodes with myself and my guests and what we’ve been saying, and you’ve been thinking somewhere in the back of your head, “Oh, maybe I wanna take some more Yin training,” and you think maybe that I might be a good guide for that for you, then I would highly recommend you get on the wait list for my program.

Even if it’s not gonna be right away, that’s okay. The reason I’m saying that is ’cause you get goodies when you’re on the wait list. So rather than just listening to these episodes and thinking, “Yeah, someday I’ll train with Nic.” [00:03:00] Get on the wait list. It’s in the show notes every week. Click on that, look all the way up to the top where you see my picture and a button, or all the way down to the bottom of the page.

If you wait long enough, there’ll be a little polite pop-up from the side, and then get on the wait list. So even if you know it’s not gonna be right away, that’s okay, ’cause I can send you goodies, and I do send you goodies, especially when we’re on podcast breaks. I’ll send out other things than just the podcast.

You will get the podcast in your inbox, but you’ll also get other things like sneaky peeks behind the scenes of my training, practice videos, poetry I’ve used in classes, music I’ve discovered, et cetera, et cetera. Who knows? A multitude of things could be sent your way. And then when registration opens, those on the wait list get first notice and get access to a first five discount code that you can, [00:04:00] um, check out.

So please, if you have been hanging out on here going, “Wow, I’m learning a lot. I betcha I could learn more in Nic’s course,” then please just get on the wait list, even if it’s not gonna be right away. Okay. The only other thing I have to say is that I have the soul of a mermaid but the mouth of a sailor, so although I don’t know if there will be colorful language in this episode, I also can’t say there won’t be.

So please, if you have small people around, grab some headphones now. Okay. So I have a few things that I wanna touch on which fall under the category of what we aren’t talking about much in yin yoga, or what we aren’t talking about in yin yoga that we really should be. And I do have some notes, so those of you on audio probably won’t notice it so much, but if you are watching on YouTube, you will see me kind of looking at you and then looking down again.

And as I’ve mentioned countless times on [00:05:00] this podcast already, this is because I have ADHD, and I wanna make sure that I don’t miss any of the points that I wanted to talk about. So I keep myself a little list so that I don’t end up on side quests and never circling back to the topic at hand. All right.

The first thing I’d love to talk about is, that we don’t talk about enough, is what happens in the moments between yin poses. The forgotten practice of the rebound is what Paul calls it. I call it the resonance or the linger.

The rebound might be one of the least and… understood and most important parts in yin yoga. The rebound is often rushed or skipped entirely because either the teachers don’t see the value in it, or they don’t think that the students will. And again, there’s a way to guide pe- students so that they understand why this is an important part [00:06:00] of the practice.

I’ve done a whole episode on it, so I’ll link that in the show notes. So why the rebound is often rushed or skipped can be because the teacher is trying to cram too much in and doesn’t see the value of the rebound or the resonance. So I’ve even heard it called the echo, which is another nice way. I don’t really love the word rebound, but that’s the one most Yinies know, ’cause that’s what my teacher Paul and I believe Bernie used.

So I’ll talk about it in that way, but I think there’s better words for it. So maybe it’s skipped because the teacher themselves doesn’t see the value of it, or the teacher thinks that people are getting fidgety and impatient, and so they just move everybody along to the next thing. But this is where we can really explore the contrast between sensation when we were in the shape, and then observation of how that sensation while we were in the shape has affected [00:07:00] our body.

So the rebound is a moment of integration, not just rest. What the students notice when they finally are still after the pose, and the nervous system settling after that shape or the amount of sensations. So it gives the nervous system an opportunity to process what we’ve done, and it also gives the student that opportunity to go inside and practice introception and a moment of integration.

When we go from, you know, experiencing sensation in the shape to, like, stopping and then just being still, and that even in that moment of still, which they’re not always still. Some people like to wiggle a little in their rebound. Totally allowed., I just let the students basically do whatever feels right for them within…

I always joke, as long as it’s within the [00:08:00] yin spectrum, so maybe no handstands. Some people are very still. Some people need to move a little. All are fine. And what do the students notice when they are finally still after the pose, that resonance time? And this is why it’s different than a counterpose. So sometimes, and I will do a whole episode on this at some point, the difference between a rebound and a counterpose, right?

So sometimes students will try to jump right into a counterpose. That’s not the same as a rebound. They have different intentions completely.

The nervous system settling after that feeling of sensation in the body, and how the rebound teaches us subtle awareness. And some students will be uncomfortable in the rebound time, which is why I think as a teacher it’s useful for you to have some skills and ways to explain what is this rebound and why is it important.

Like, [00:09:00] we’re not just laying here doing nothing, although we are just laying there. But nothing… It’s not that nothing’s happening. We may be doing nothing, but there’s a whole lot going on. And this cultural tendency of ours to move immediately from one thing to the next. By the time that this comes out, I will have already done an episode on learning to stay.

I will also link that one in the episode notes if you missed it. Why this cultural tendency we have to immediately move to the next thing. And then also what the rebound teaches us about receiving rather than doing.

What the rebound teaches us about receiving rather than doing, and also about observing rather than doing. An analogy that I will sometimes use in my classes to help my students with this because, you know, being still and quiet in the [00:10:00] pose is hard, and now you’re asking them to not do a pose but be still and quiet.

And to a student’s brain, they can kind of understand, like, why I might be still in this pose, but they feel like they’re still, air quotes, doing something. But when they’re in the rebound, they’re like, “Why am I just laying here? What the heck? What’s going on?” So – here’s an analogy that I like to use, and I think it would be good for you too.

I mean, feel free to use mine if it inspires you, but it would be good for you to come up with your own analogy so that while they’re in maybe their first rebound of the class, you can explain what is the value of this. Why are we just laying or sitting around here? One that I often will use is I’ll tell the students that, , even in this moment or this minute or so, maybe it’s a minute, maybe it’s a little longer, between shapes, there’s so much to notice, that at first glance we might think that we’re just laying here doing nothing, but actually there’s a whole bunch going on.

So for example, if you and I [00:11:00] were all in a room together and there was a gong, and I took a mallet and I hit that gong, I gave it a good wallop. Initially, that sound would be huge. It would fill the space. You would be able to feel the vibration of it on your skin, and even the resonance of it in your body.

And over time, that would fade and fade and fade and fade until the resonance was either very soft, like barely there, or,, gone, and you felt more like your familiar self again. So this is actually why I use the word resonance. We’re gonna come out of the pose and pause, and notice the resonance or the linger of the pose in the body.

So the very first breath when you moan and groan and, like, roll out of your shape does not feel the same as the breath halfway through the rest time or near the end. And you can guide your [00:12:00] students to observe how this feels even throughout that one minute. Now, I wouldn’t keep repeating that in every rebound or resonance.

Maybe the first couple, especially if you’ve got beginners. But you might say, like, “What do you notice now as you’re coming out of the pose?” You know, what do you… And then I often will say, “And what do you notice now?” And then, “Now? And how about now?” So you’re giving them these little now drops to notice that actually if they’re really observant, their body is feeling different from that first groan to come out than at the end.

So that’s one way that you can help students to understand the point of this practice. So we’re doing a few things in this rebound resonance, as I call it. We are allowing our body to famil- feel like its familiar self again before we ask it to make another funny shape. We’re allowing our nervous system to begin to [00:13:00] assimilate what we’ve done.

We’re learning to stay. We’re learning to be in the present moment.

And we’re learning to contrast that difference between when I was in the pose and now I’m out of the pose and observing. So I would highly recommend if you are a teacher and you realize as you’re listening to this that you haven’t been allowing for that intentional pause between shapes, that you start incorporating them.

A general guideline would be sort of 30 to 40 seconds between sides, depending how long you’ve held the pose. And then, um, if it’s a longer held pose, you know, a minute. You could even do more, of course. Paul generally did a minute, but there’s nothing wrong with going for two minutes, especially if you had a longer hold time or, um, if you had a f- couple poses that you did back to back.

So sometimes I’ll do things for the neck and shoulders sort of [00:14:00] back to back on one side, and then we’ll take a longer pause, and then we’ll move into the other side. So that might be something to consider.

Here’s another thing that you may not have ever considered. Does a yin yoga teacher’s nervous system affect the entire room? So the unspoken influence of your presence. And the answer to that question is, oh, yes, it does. Now, I did a whole episode on- How to Teach Exceptional Classes, I think it’s called.

Uh, again, they’ll put it in the episode notes. Um, but we are responsible as a teacher for the energy that we show up to teach with. And if we are calm and grounded and open, that will make it easier for the students to practice than if we come in and we’re all sort of in a flap and in a fluster and, you know, busy [00:15:00] and a little bit stressed out, right?

So students often respond less to our words actually, and more to the state that we’re teaching from, and this is be- gonna be unconscious. They, most of them wouldn’t be able to put their finger on it, but the vibe of the room and the energy that the teacher is projecting can have a big impact on the whole space.

So this becomes the difference between performing calm and embodying calm, and how the students unconsciously mirror our pace, our tone, our energy. If you have ever taught a class and done something like, , I’ve done this numerous times where I’ve been st- standing at the front of the room and, , I’ve, , pulled my shirt down or something.

And people will just pull their shirts down. Or, I might, kinda like rub my cheek or rub my [00:16:00] nose or, , do something like that, just some sort of little unconscious habit to get more comfortable, and I’ll notice that the room just did what I did, right? So this is the difference between performing and embodying calm.

So the students will unconsciously, without thinking of it, mirror your pace, your movements, your tone, and your energy. And so when the teacher’s feeling internally rushed or not grounded or not centered, then that affects the whole room.

And I would argue that presence actually matters more than perfect sequencing. I think it’s Maya Angelou, and I might butcher the quote, but she says, “People will forget what you said, and they will forget what you did, but they will remember how you made them feel.” I may have gotten that backwards. Right?

So this is why our presence might matter more than perfect sequencing.[00:17:00]

And us teaching from a regulated state versus a state of busy, overwhelmed, stressed, anxiety, rushed…

And that subtle pressure that, as teachers, we can unintentionally create in the room. So when we come in with that energy, we’re literally spreading that energy around the room.

And the role of silence and pacing and our nervous system can assist in co-regulation, right? So as animals, mammals maybe, I don’t know if all animals, but definitely mammals, we have an ability to co-regulate, meaning if you’re really, really upset but my nervous system is in a state of ground and calm, that you can actually pick up on some of my nervous system state, or vice versa if I don’t have good boundaries, [00:18:00] so that we can co-regulate our nervous system.

And this is one of the magic things about doing yoga in a group with a g- with a group experience, is that you’re creating that environment of co-regulation. And from this, the teacher’s personal practice is key. So if we are so busy, stressed f- overwhelmed teaching that we don’t take time to practice our own practice, our own meditation practice, our own y- yoga practice, then we can’t offer that sort of grounded state to our students.

So there’s a few episodes here that I think I could spotlight that, I will in the show notes, how to teach exceptional classes, but also, , how to hold brave space. Believe also maybe one on the nervous system, so I’ll put these in the show notes for you.

Are we teaching the students how to [00:19:00] stay with themselves or just stay still? Now you might be like, “Wait. What’s the difference?” Well, someone can be very still in their body, but not at all present with their mind. So someone can look like they’re doing yin well, air quotes, because their body is still, and they’re look restful to the outside eye, but on the inside there’s a whole circus going on in there.

So physical stillness does not automatically create awareness. We have to guide our students to this awareness. So there’s a difference between being still and disassociating, you know, maybe daydreaming or escaping the room, and being present. And some students can definitely be physically still while totally mentally escaping.

I’ve done it. And so this is the role of mindfulness and introception and what it means to [00:20:00] truly inhabit the sensation. And how, as teachers, can we encourage that curiosity instead of having the student think that it’s just about the endurance of staying still?

How can we gently encourage the students to stay with themselves even if it feels a little confronting or a little uncomfortable? And the distinction between awareness and passive tolerance. That Yin Yoga is more about having this internal relationship with yourself than it is about being performative.

And some ways that you could do this, if you’re like, “Oh, well that all sounds great, but how do I do that in class?” I’ll give you a few ideas. A couple of ways you could do that is by pointing them inward again and again. Where in your body do you feel this? One of the cues I love to use for this [00:21:00] for people who maybe I feel like are having trouble being in their body is to ask them, tell them, “I’m gonna give them a list of little questions that they can use while they’re in their shape.”

For example, where in my body am I feeling this? What does it feel like? If I were to describe this sensation to someone who’s not doing this pose right now, how would I do that? Would it be a word, a light, a shape, a color, a sound, a sound effect?

Does this sensation feel the same right now as it did the first breath coming into the pose?

And then how does it feel now? And now? And what about now?

Is my internal dialogue telling me stories about my experience in this pose, whether or not I [00:22:00] like it, whether or not I should feel this sensation, whether or not I should or shouldn’t be tight here, et cetera, et cetera.

So those are some cues that you can drop in. Please feel free to use your own. I’d just like to give you a map or a framework for those of you that are newer teachers and listen to these and go, “Well, this all sounds great, Nic, but I have no idea how to do that in my class.” So if you as a teacher can teach your students how to stay present, not just stay still, but stay present.

Because actually, if they’re staying totally present, they might not be completely still. If they’re really paying attention to what’s going on with them, they might have to move partway through their shape, either to deepen it or lessen it or to grab a prop or, you know. So being present, more important than stillness. And what if the most important part of a Yin class is the part where nothing does seem to be happening?

So we [00:23:00] wanna try to help our students rethink this idea of progress in their yoga practice. Because many of the deepest shifts in Yin Yoga are subtle, quiet, and way more difficult to measure. You can feel them, they are palpable, but it’s a little harder to put your finger on it or describe it. A little harder to pigeonhole.

So we have a cultural obsession with visible progress. So many people show up to yoga with a physical goal, like, “I wanna be able to do the splits,” or, “I wanna be able to do a handstand,” or whatever it is. And they may or may not ever be able to do that based on their own particular bone structure, physical limitations, injuries, et cetera.

We don’t know. So we have a cultural obsession with visi- visible progress. There’s this idea that, like, this is the more advanced version of the pose, for example. I had an episode too on keeping Yin Yoga accessible, [00:24:00] so I’ll link that. Man, this is gonna be one of those ones where there’s so many links in the show notes for you.

And sometimes we overlook this cultural experience

and the value of a non-event based experience where it seems like nothing’s happening. Stillness as the skill rather than an absence.

And how yin can change our relationship to productivity. That in our yin practice we can slowly start to practice what does it feel like to just be, and to observe, and to feel without any attachment to any progress in this practice.

And learning how to appreciate these quiet [00:25:00] internal shifts. And then the discomfort with the students when they think nothing’s happening, like they’re just laying around, nothing’s happening, or, “I don’t feel this pose.” Or, , they don’t feel like they’re doing anything. They need to be doing something.

So these are all things that you can tease out as a teacher, and you can talk about our society’s tendency to praise being, , productive over anything else, and that sometimes that is the hardest part of a yin practice, is giving ourselves permission to just be instead of to do, and to just experience rather than achieve.

And because of this, our yin practice can be a challenge to these achievement-based people, these sort of A-type people that like to check off their things off their to-do list. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good to-do list. I’m a recovering A-type personality myself. Which is probably why [00:26:00] I know I benefit from Yin so much.

So Yin Yoga can be a challenge for these sort of A-type people. You have to just find a way as a teacher just not to talk a lot, but just to let them know that, hey, , . i like to phrase it for those people, , ’cause they want something hard and they want something challenging, so I like to use those words when I re- reframe what we’re doing.

So I might say something like, you know, the hardest part often of a Yin practice, or the biggest challenge in a Yin practice, or when you know you’re making progress in a Yin practice is when you let go of da, da, da, da, da. Whatever it is, right? You let go of the need for the pose to look a certain way.

You let go of the need to, , get better in the pose. You learn to be okay with the fact that your mind is busy and that you’re being still. All of these things. So I like to claim them and use the words [00:27:00] challenge, difficulty, and that helps.

I often say to students that, you know, for some of you, the hardest part of this practice will be learning to back off and stay in that kind of 50 to 60% of sensation and not push, and that will be your practice today. And that will be the hardest part for you. And then this leads into the next one. How often as teachers do we unconsciously, without meaning to, but just because we got bad habits from our other styles of yoga, how often do we unconsciously reward intensity in our Yin Yoga?

And I did a whole episode on should we go deeper. It will be tagged in the show notes. But here’s the problem with deeper. Even in Yin Yoga, people can use their intensity, and that can quietly become a form of achievement. So here’s some things to [00:28:00] watch. Notice if you ever praise someone’s flexibility or depth, and this could be in Yin or other styles.

I know when I was reared in a generation where people would be like, “Nice,” or, “Beautiful pose,” or, “Great job.” Notice if you’re doing that. Notice the subtle hierarchy of air quotes, advanced poses. Most of us are trained to teach the most advanced version of a pose, air quotes, advanced, or the strongest version, or the most bendy, Bendy Wendy flexible person version.

And then we just back away from there by saying, “Oh, well, if you can’t do that, you could grab a bolster or you could da, da, da, da.” And in the episode that I’ll link in the show notes about teaching in an accessible way, we actually wanna reverse that. We’re gonna start with the most simplistic version, and only add on if the people in front of you actually need it.

If you can look at them and go, “Okay, that person needs something more.” But what we have all [00:29:00] been trained to do, most of us, is to start with the, the air quotes, full pose, and then just backtrack from there. What if we reversed that? Taking out that hierarchy of advanced poses, because what is advanced for me and what is advanced for you are very different things, my friend.

And here’s a subtle one. For people that are naturally quite flexible, as one of my students, Sue in the UK, hi, Sue, if you’re listening, , said in one of our trainings, she calls them the Bendy Wendys, which I quite like. I used to call them Bendy Barbies, but whichever name you wanna use. , So there are , those people that maybe they’re a former dancer or they’re a former gymnast, and they’re just really flexible, and they equate feeling sensation in their body, or stretch, it’s usually, in yoga with being successful.

And that’s a big challenge for them and for you as a teacher to back them out and say, “Okay, you’re in the fullest version of this pose that you can comfortably do for your body, and you’re telling me you’re not [00:30:00] feeling it. And you’re asking me, ‘What do I do now? I don’t feel it.'” I did a whole episode on that, too.

Again, it will be linked in the episode notes. , That’s when you guide them to the other aspects of Yin practice. Can they feel the weight of their body on the earth? And what does that feel like? Is it warm or cool? Can they feel the air on their skin? Can they feel subtle sensations in their body that maybe aren’t stretch?

Like, maybe they feel a little tingle or a little chi flow. Or maybe their practice is gonna be now working with their mind. Maybe it’s their mind that becomes the practice because they have this, , idea in their head that in order to be a success in yoga, you need to feel sensation. And so they’ve got a whole story and a whole dialogue about that they could pick apart, and they could watch where their head goes.

They could use this time on the mat as a tool for curiosity, inquiry, and insight into this story that they have, [00:31:00] this cultural conditioning that we should be pushing and striving, and we should feel sensation. This also helps anyone who’s a hypermobile student from overstretching. .

But you know those bendy folks that they’re in the full pose, and they’re looking around the room going, “I don’t get it. I’m not feeling anything.” Now, those are rare, from my experience, those people. But this is where you as a teacher can give them other things to focus on in the practice other than just feeling the sensation of stretch or compression in their body.

What else could they be aware of?

And we have to be mindful that our cueing can’t unintentionally encourage more force. So another one in the episode, , that I often hear is do we need to go deeper is I’ll often hear teachers, especially ones that were trained in a more sort of assertive style like Vinyasa or Ashtanga or something, when they start teaching Yin, they say things like halfway through, , “Can you go a little deeper?”[00:32:00]

Mm. Not so skillful. And can we just redefine what a meaningful practice looks like? Like, is the point of the pose for you to feel stretch in your body forever and ever and ever into oblivion? I don’t think so. And then how less intensity actually might create more awareness. And what less intensity will do for sure is create a much more parasympathetic nervous system response.

So when I’m in that 50 to 60% range, I’m able to observe my body and be curious. Whereas if I’ve pushed to the maximum that I can do, my body’s gonna start to move into fight, flight, or freeze, and my tissues are gonna contract because my body’s trying to protect myself. So again, less is actually more.

It’s not just a buzzword. Less is more.

What happens, and this happens all the time, when the teacher is actually more uncomfortable with the [00:33:00] silence or before the students are?

Okay. So many, many teachers struggle with this. I struggled this, with this at the beginning. I still have to be mindful that I don’t jibber jabber and use the time in the class as an opportunity to educate them on anatomy too much, ’cause that’s not what they’re freaking coming for. , They’re not coming there for , a lecture or a workshop, right?

If they… If it’s a workshop, then they’re coming for the workshop. If they’re dropping into your weekly class, they’re not coming there to learn everything that you possibly know about Yin Yoga and anatomy. That’s not why they’re there. So can we notice the silence, the space, and notice our urge to fill the space with chitter chatter?

So our discomfort as a teacher with silence can shape the entire class experience. Now, there is a degree of talking we need to do, s- and that that degree will depend on the g- the group and the class. [00:34:00] You know, for example, if I know I’ve got people that are brand new to Yin, I might talk a little bit more before I move into quiet practice.

If I, you know, if I have, Students that are all experienced, then I might just offer a couple reminders and a couple prompts for busy minds, and then I’m gonna shut the F up unless I’m guiding them in and out of their pose. So how much we talk really just depends on who you’re teaching, but I would say most teachers, myself included, tend to lean towards the talking too much rather than the talking too little. And why, I wonder, does this silence feel so vulnerable for many of us as teachers? Is it because we think we’re not doing our job? Especially if we were trained in a style of yoga where we had a lot of cues very quickly. So for example, if you’re a Vinyasa teacher, you’re used to saying a lot of words in a short period of time.

And so then when you come into a Yin space and you’re like, “Okay, I don’t need to talk that much,” you feel like, [00:35:00] then, , what, am I doing my job? So it can feel vulnerable because you’re not sure that you’re performing your duties. It can feel vulnerable just ’cause it’s new. It can feel vulnerable because you’re uncomfortable with silence.

And if that’s the case, my teacher friends, you need to practice being silent so that you become more and more comfortable with silence and quiet. Do we feel the urge to fill the space with information so that we look like a smarty pants teacher? I’m going to talk to you about all of the muscles in your shoulder joint today while you do your Yin practice.

Or do we feel the need or the pressure to be inspiring? And don’t get me wrong, some classes are inspiring. But that shouldn’t be the, the goal, the pressure you put on yourself is that, oh my God, everybody has to leave here with some sort of aha moment about their life and their spiritual journey. Please, dear teacher, take that pressure [00:36:00] off yourself.

Silence is an essential part of the Yin practice. And what do you think the students might discover when they’re uninterrupted? And there is a difference between supportive cuing and over-guiding. Here’s an example. If I notice that someone is feeling a bit fidgety, bit uncomfortable in class, they’re sort of physically representing on the outside their busy mind, and there could be all kinds of reason why that’s happening.

Who knows? I could just say very simply, and this is what I usually will do, ” sometimes people come to Yin Yoga because they think that Yin is an easy/gentle practice. And , if you mean that you’re not gonna do a whole bunch of Chaturangas and break a sweat, if that’s what you mean by easy, then yes, it is easy.

But actually, sometimes the hard part of Yin is much more subtle. It is the [00:37:00] still. It is the quiet.” It is what comes up in the still and the quiet, that feeling that we need to be doing something, the fidgeting, the mind racing. So just know that’s all part of the practice, and that’s all normal. And then I stop.

I don’t then go, “Oh, that person’s really fidgety still. I better, , just talk about stuff so that they have my voice to focus on instead of their fidgeting.” Nay, nay. There is no growth there for them. If you’re constantly interrupting their process, whether it be uncomfortable or not, that’s not gonna help them.

And trusting the container of the room enough to stop talking. So once you’ve prepared people enough for this practice, if you’ve got them in a shape, just shut up. And silence can change the pacing and our perception. So we [00:38:00] can use the silence then as a tool rather than an absence. So rather viewing the silence as an absence of things you should be doing, an absence of you teaching, what if you’re actually using the silence almost like you would a tool to get people actually to more advance in their practice, right?

So often what people think advanced yoga is, is not. And using the silence as a teaching tool can be really helpful for people.

And then what qualities are the students developing through long-held stillness beside flexibility? Because not everybody is gonna get more flexible from coming to Yin. Some people will. Some people won’t. It depends. But what if the most valuable outcomes of a Yin Yoga practice have very little to do with flexibility and [00:39:00] mobility, but instead the gifts are patience and intolerance for uncertainty, interoception and subtle body awareness, emotional steadiness, the ability to pause and notice before reacting, a longer attention span in an overstimulated culture, learning the art of resting without distraction, which most of us have lost, learning to step back and observe instead of trying to immediately fix something,

building a new relationship with discomfort, building a new relationship with being uncomfortable, learning resilience Instead of force.[00:40:00]

All right, let’s talk about boredom. Is boredom an essential and underrated part of yin yoga? I would say yes. What happens when the stimulation stops? So can we get a- also across to our students that boredom may not be a problem to eliminate, but actually an important threshold in the practice? Because of our modern culture and our conditions of constant stimulation, the discomfort people feel when nothing’s happening is because of how our culture is.

But boredom is the space and the spark before insight and creativity, and we talked more about this in the episode Learning to Stay. The impulse to check out, to fidget, or to escape, which many of us have as teachers as well, and so really, dear teacher, you need to look at that within yourself [00:41:00] first before you can guide your students.

You can even use yourself as an example. You can be like, “You know, sometimes when I’m doing my yin practice, I notice this really strong urge to reach for my iPhone,” or, “I notice that I really have trouble settling into stillness.” And then you can explain a bit more about why that might be.

Yin can reveal our habitual distraction patterns,

and we can start to learn the relationship between boredom and stillness, and that it is actually very possible to be still without being bored at all, and that boredom is sometimes a necessary threshold to step over to get to the other side of something. And why, as teachers, do we feel the need to rescue our students from boredom?

An episode that pops to mind right now is Yin Yoga is Not [00:42:00] Entertainment. Man, this is gonna be, like, the record-breaking episode for other episodes linked in the episode notes, I swear. So why are you trying to rescue your students from boredom? It’s not your job to entertain them. You are a yoga teacher, not a comedian, not a circus performer.

And then what becomes possible if we stop resisting the quiet moments??

The transitions. So we’ve talked about the rebound, but also the transitions. Because those can reveal as much about a practice as the shapes themselves. How quickly a student moves out of a challenge or sensation. The tendency to just rush to the next shape.

Transition as a continuation of an awareness practice. So one thing that I love to do with students is say, “In a moment, we’re gonna come out of this shape. I’ll let you know when. [00:43:00] When you do, see if you can move in slow motion, so slowly that it’s like you’re afraid to get caught moving.” And how does, when you do that, when you come in and out of your shapes, and then into your rebound, and then out of your rebound and into the next shape, with that kind of slowness, how does that feel?

So we can bring more mindfulness into any movements between classes and between rest shapes. And then notice that nervous system shift between effort to release.

And you might even point out that these transitions and slowing them down might feel difficult for you, and that that might mirror actually how we move through our lives. Are we always go, go, go, go, go, go, go to the next thing, and how hard that is to turn that off now in our yoga practice.

And maybe as teachers, we [00:44:00] can sequence with the transitions in mind instead of just focusing on the postures. That would be a creative experiment. One thing I did a while ago, which I really loved and I would like to do again as a way to slow down, because I am a, , I’m a quick walker, I’m a quick talker, I’m a person who, , doesn’t slow down easily.

I’m getting much better at it. All this yoga has really seeped into my bones, all this Yin Yoga and meditation, so I’m getting better at it. But one thing I did as an experiment was, and I think I read it from Thich Nhat Hanh, who was a Buddhist teacher and a monk, that I paused before any transition, and I took three breaths, and then identified what I was gonna do.

So for example, let’s just say I finish this podcast and I’ve stopped the recording. Instead of just leaping up, I would pause here for three breaths, and then I would say to myself, “Now I’m [00:45:00] going to get up.” Or if I’m approaching a door, I would pause, and then I would say, “Now I’m going to open the door.”

It’s amazing. I dare you to do this for a week, and then let me know how it goes. , It’s really quite amazing. You don’t realize how much you’re rushing until you do something like this. And then the other thing that practice taught me, ’cause part of me was resistant to it, ’cause I thought, “I don’t have time for this,” that actually it didn’t take any more time, really.

I wasn’t late for things. I wasn’t missing deadlines for things. I was just, , calmer. Okay, what changes in a Yin teacher when we stop trying to create an experience for the students? That we start teaching without performing, or we might say teaching without instructing. And I did a whole episode on that. The deepest teaching emerges when we as teachers stop trying so hard to produce outcomes, ’cause that’s not your job.

[00:46:00] The pressure to create a transformative class. A- are you responsible for other people’s transformations? I think not. Spiritual performance in a light of modern yoga culture. Can we let go of the need for our students to, air quotes, “feel something,” whatever that means. And can we trust simplicity and direct experience?

If we move from being an edutainer, or an entertainer, to a guide. And how over-curation can actually interfere with authenticity. So I’ve mentioned this before, but when I was a new teacher, and this wasn’t Yin, this was Hatha, but still same, same, same. I used to have a quote, and my sequence, and my theme, and my meditation all match up as one theme.[00:47:00]

That’s over-curation, and it can come across as not very authentic, right? Sometimes we think by being overly prepared that we’re being professional, but actually we might just be being a perfectionist, and we might be hiding behind that being overly prepared. We may have some sort of anxiety or insecurity or imposter syndrome, and we think we’re conquering that by over-preparing for the class.

Now, I’m not saying you shouldn’t be a professional, but we can overdo it, right? We can get so stuck with our theme and our sequence and our matching quote and our mudra and our, all the things that go together that we actually don’t take a moment to be present and see what’s in front of us in the room, and we’re not sitting authentically in our own seat as the teacher.

The difference between [00:48:00] offering and controlling. So even when students do something that is not what I have said, they’re just kind of doing their own thing in the room, I will often give them the reason why I’m doing what we’re doing. And sometimes it’s just… I notice this the most at the start of my classes.

So some of you have heard this episode before on constructive rest. Again, I’ll link it in the show notes. Um, and so sometimes when I start my students in constructive rest at class, they just automatically go to do what however they normally start their yoga practice that they’ve been taught before.

Like, they may, just lay on their back, stretch their legs out straight or put a bolster under the back of their knees, or they may go into a heart bed as their very first thing that they’re doing while we’re getting set up in class, while I’m doing the guided mindfulness and the centering.

And so that’s certainly not wrong, and I’m not gonna go around and tell people to get out of their fricking heart beds, but what I will do is say, “Here are the reasons I’ve chosen this shape.” [00:49:00] Anatomically, again, I’ll put the episode so you can hear it, here is what this shape does to the body and to the nervous system.

So you can choose to set up your practice in whatever shape feels right for you, but just know that the reason I’m being so specific is because of the anatomical function of this shape and its relationship to our nervous system and helping us shift from our sympathetic into our parasympathetic.

And nine times out of 10 people will then go, “Oh,” and they’ll readjust and they’ll try constructive rest. Sometimes people are just creatures of habit and they just jump into the same thing that they always start their class in. So there’s a difference though there between offering, right? I’m offering the information of here’s why we’re doing this, here’s the benefits of this pose, but I’m not controlling them.

Marker
—

I’m just… They can still do whatever the heck they want as long as it’s not disruptive to the rest of the group. But I’m giving them the reasoning, the offering as to why I’m doing this, and then letting them have their own experience.[00:50:00]

Can we start to value presence within ourselves and our students over performance?

And then as we deepen as a teacher, what does that actually look like? And again, I did a whole episode on that one, , on are you a instructor, teacher or guide, and also I’ll spotlight again the episode on teaching exceptional classes. Those will be linked. Okay, my friends. I hope that some of this gave you some food for thought.

, This probably will go down as the episode with the most links to other episodes . And so these will all be linked to the show notes. And it’s come to my attention that some of you don’t know how to find the show notes. Now, it depends what app you’re listening to it on, but if you’re on most of them you’re gonna see the, the podcast in the feed, then click on it to actually get to the show page.[00:51:00]

And then just below, the picture and the description, there should be a little, like, three dots or a see more or something, and then there’s a detailed description. So this has come up with a couple of Spotify comments where people are like… I put the PDF, for example, for the saddle pose, , episode, and people are like, “Where do I find the PDF?”

I’m like, “It’s linked in your episode notes.” So in order to get to the episode notes, you have to click on , the podcast itself, and then it should show up bigger on your device. And then from there, you can scroll down or hit see more or dot, dot, dot. I don’t know which it is on which player you’re wa- you’re listening or watching on.

, And then you’ll see it there. If you’re on YouTube, you just click the down drop in the description and, everything will be there for you. Now, on YouTube, I don’t always link all of these other episodes. , I will always link another video at the end that is relatable. , But sometimes I don’t link them all because there’s so many, but I will put a little link to the blog post that accompanies the [00:52:00] episode so that you can go there and then find all the show notes.

But if you’re doing this on Apple or Spotify, yeah, you just have to get to the show notes in order to find them. So if you’re like, “I don’t know how to get to show notes,” I’m gonna try it right now and see if I can walk you through it. Turn the volume down so nothing plays automatically. Okay. So if you’re playing the episode on Apple, it’s gonna show up as a little tiny bar across the top with a little play.

You wanna click on that,

and then it’s gonna pull up bigger, right? So you’re gonna see the picture, the description, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. There’s gonna be the play, resume, pause button. And then if you scroll down, you’re gonna see the links. Okay? So that’s how you do it on Apple. Click on the actual episode as you’re listening to it, it’s gonna pull up bigger, and then scroll down and everything’s there.

If you are on Spotify, which by the way you could Google this, I’m helping you out here, but,, no more comments [00:53:00] on Spotify about how you find the show notes, ’cause I’m telling you right now so let’s just say I’m gonna pick an episode here, and I’m listening to it, and again, same thing. It’s showing up small on the bottom..

Yes. Once again, you have to click the actual episode. So they do make it a little harder on Spotify. But you click on the name of the episode, and it’ll pull open the page. And then you’ll see a brief description, and then there’ll be a thing that says see more. And you scroll down, and that’s where all the stuff is.

So Spotify, you have to click on it twice. So if you’re listening to the episode, you click on it, then click on the actual episode link, and then you scroll down and click See More. All right, I hope that’s helpful. Public service announcement for those of you having trouble finding stuff in the show notes.

I hope that this was helpful for y’all. And, , as always, I’m always open to questions. So if you have questions that you want me to cover on the pod, please let me know either in the comments [00:54:00] on, YouTube or on Spotify, or if you are listening on Apple, you can find me on Instagram @nikidanuyoga or @inyogapodcast, and you can let me know there your topic ideas.

Now, if I’ve already covered it, or I think I’ve already covered it, I’m gonna hook you up with some links to episodes to check out first, and then you can let me know if that covered it or not., So for example, I had someone reach out recently about, , talking about grief and yin yoga, and I was like, “Well, I did a whole episode on emotions, and a lot of that was grief.”

So I said, “Listen to this and let me know if I didn’t cover it.” I haven’t heard back, so, , I’m hoping, , if you’re listening, that you feel satiated with that. If not, let me know. , So yeah, if you have episode ideas, please let me know. And until we meet again, bye for now.