So today I wanted to talk a little bit more in-depth about an article that I wrote a while back for Elephant Journal. And I will link the article in the show notes.
The article is called Yin Yoga is Totally Hardcore.
And the inspiration for this was one night I was walking into a Yoga studio that I teach at, and there was, just a little interaction, you could say, with one of the students from the previous classes that inspired this article.
So as I was entering the studio to set up for my Yin class, the previous class was sort of one of those hot, kind of sweaty, you know, styles of class.
And there was a young, really strong kind of Ken doll-looking guy who was in the previous class and said to me, Oh, what class is up next?
And I could tell by the look on his face and the inquiry that he wanted to double up and attend two classes in a row. And when I answered him, yin yoga, he said, and I quote, fuck that.
That shit scares me. I’ll take a handstand workshop over a yin class any day. And that’s when I realized it.
Yin Yoga is Totally Hardcore.
So oftentimes yin yoga is mistaken both by kind of the general public and even by some studio owners as like a, and for those of you who can’t see me on the podcast, I’m doing air quotes, a gentle form of yoga or an easy form of yoga more air quotes.
And if you define gentle as, um, you’re not going to break a sweat. You’re not going to stand around on one foot. You’re not going to do inversions. Uh, you’re not going to strengthen your core or improve your balance, or at least not your physical balance. Then yes, that’s an accurate description, but I certainly would not say that yin yoga is easy.
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So today I wanted to talk a little bit more in-depth about an article that I wrote a while back for Elephant Journal. And I will link the article in the show notes. The article is called Yin Yoga is Totally Hardcore, by the way.
And the inspiration for this was one night I was walking into a yoga studio that I teach at, and there was, just a little interaction, you could say, with one of the students from the previous classes that inspired this article. So as I was entering the studio to set up for my Yin class, the previous class was sort of one of those hot, kind of sweaty, you know, styles of class.
And there was a young, really strong kind of Ken doll-looking guy who was in the previous class and said to me, Oh, what class is up next? And I could tell by the look on his face and the inquiry that he wanted to double up and attend two classes in a row. And when I answered him, yin yoga, he said, and I quote, fuck that.
That shit scares me. I’ll take a handstand workshop over a yin class any day. And that’s when I realized it. Yin yoga is Totally hardcore. So oftentimes yin yoga is mistaken both by kind of the general public and even by some studio owners as like a, and for those of you who can’t see me on the podcast, I’m doing air quotes, a gentle form of yoga or an easy form of yoga more air quotes.
And if you define gentle as, um, you’re not going to break a sweat. You’re not going to stand around on one foot. You’re not going to do inversions. Uh, you’re not going to strengthen your core or improve your balance, or at least not your physical balance. Then yes, that’s an accurate description, but I certainly would not say that yin yoga is easy.
I also think that sometimes people confuse yin yoga with restorative yoga. They see the teacher setting up some props and they assume, Oh, okay, we’re just going to like lay around and relax. But anyone who’s done a yin yoga class, especially in the beginning, knows that that feeling of relaxation in a yin class, that’s a bit of an acquired taste.
It does not happen right away. And then you also often hear people say, other teachers say that yin yoga is not good for beginners. And I disagree. You see, I think whether you’re an experienced student of yoga or a beginner does not define whether or not you’re ready for a yin yoga practice.
What I mean by that is. Some students come to yoga specifically for some of the meditative aspects, they want to relax, and they want time to themselves. And then some students come to yoga for it, and more air quotes here, a workout. And so those students could both be beginners. So when people say that yin yoga is not an appropriate practice for beginners, I have to disagree.
However, it is a challenging class. It’s a very challenging class. But the reason that a Yin class is challenging is quite different than how a more active or movement-based class would be challenged. The challenge is more internal. It comes from what’s happening on the inside of you. So if you think sitting still for minutes at a time and watching your mind is easy, then I guess you could say Yin is an easy practice.
You see, while more dynamic or movement-based classes are. And outside to in practice, Yin yoga is an inside-to-out practice.
A couple of Yin’s nicknames are the quiet yoga and the meditative yoga. And I often will see, the shock and the horror in the eyes of a new yin yoga student when they hear, or they realize that they will be sitting still while feeling sensations in their body for minutes at a time. that they will be witnessing the list of things that will be going on in their mind while trying to do a yoga practice.
So when a student realizes that fairly quickly, at least if a yin class is taught well, the teacher is going to allow a lot of space between their words. There’s going to be time For the student to sort of drop inward to be still and to be quiet. And this can be hard, especially for those students who may consciously or unconsciously use the teacher’s.
Words as the anchor of their mind. So they take a mind that’s normally really busy and chaotic. And then when they come to yoga, they just focus on every word the teacher says, and they use that as their anchor. I’m certainly not knocking that is already helpful. That’s how I first took my first half a yoga practice and realized that I had an anxious mind.
Was because, for that 90 minutes, I only listened to what the teacher was saying and then tried to, you know, bring those directions into my body and do what it was she was saying. So it is a very useful tool for pulling your mind out of some of the minutiae. Not perfect, of course, nothing is, but it is a useful tool.
But. It is still a crutch because you are relying on something external from you to rest your mind on. Whereas Yin has a bit of a different approach. So because Yin’s nicknames are the quiet yoga, the meditative yoga, this can be a challenge because when you realize that you’re going to be sitting and feeling sensations for a minute, minutes at a time and witnessing that.
And that the teacher’s going to either talk less frequently or not at all in spaces, then what can come up if you are a real human being is the list writing, the planning, the thinking, the analyzing, the ruminating, the obsessing, the criticizing, the judging, the storytelling, the itching, the bitching, and the twitching, all the things in your mind.
And sometimes all of those in one class. The first thing I want to note about that is That’s normal. So when I first decided to start taking meditation classes, I was a newly budding teacher and I was feeling like a bit of a fraud because although I had an asana practice that I was doing regularly on my own, as well as attending classes, I wasn’t meditating and I had studied the eight limbs of Patanjali enough to notice that somewhere on there was like concentration and meditation techniques.
And I, like many, we’re not doing those. So I decided it was time to go to meditation classes. So I, you know, I went on to the internet and searched out, you know, meditation classes in my city and then just kind of started going through the list.
Most of them were done at Buddhist temples or through Buddhist groups, and probably still typically the way it is in most cities. And so I found one and I signed up for the class and I went and these were not just drop-ins, most of them were like a registered four-week, six-week, eight-week beginner meditation course.
So I would sign up and I would go and, you know, I would sit, close my eyes. I would bring my hands into some kind of mudra. I’d sit up nice and tall. And I would start to do my focus and then bammo, the mind was off thinking, planning list, writing, analyzing, obsessing, ruminating, judging my experience, freaking circus in my head.
And I would think, Oh, okay. I’m not doing this right. I’m not good at this. Now, some people would give up there, but I’m tenacious. And so what I did instead was. I was like, okay, well, this style of meditation isn’t air quotes working for me, so I’ll find a different one. And so I would go sign up for a different course in a different temple.
And to be honest, in some of these temples, the language barrier alone made it so hard because they weren’t even giving you instructions. Like I remember going to one, Chinese temple and they split the men and the women from each other and you had to sit with your backs facing each other and just stare at a wall.
Meanwhile, they had this incredible altar. You turned your turn sideways and just sat and they didn’t give you any instructions on what to do other than just sit here. So, you know, I went through several, probably, I don’t know, four or six different locations, different temples, trying to find a meditation class.
And then The last temple I went to, and it was the last one because this gentleman ended up being my teacher for many years afterwards. I’m sitting in the class and it’s the second class and I’ve committed, I’m going to be here for all eight weeks. I’m like, I got to figure out how to do this. Other people can do this.
I can do it too. And the teacher said if when you sit and you start your practice, you find that the mind is thinking and writing lists and restless, that’s normal. That’s human. That’s a normal human part of our experience. And I was like, what the fuck? How come nobody told me this? I thought that I was the only one with the circus going on in my head and that everybody else was sitting there cross-legged with their mudra and their beautiful posture.
And they were comfortable physically, and they just sat and focused on their breath. And then they got up and bam, they were done. I had no idea that we were all secretly, quietly suffering in the room. So the reason that I bring this up is because if you’re listening to this and you are a teacher, this is why I suggest that you address this in your class at the beginning, especially if there are new people.
So I remember teaching in a teacher training at a yoga therapy college that I used to teach at. One of the participants came up to me afterwards and said, Oh, thank you so much. I thought I hated yin yoga. And I said, what? And she said, I only went to one class and the teacher just got quiet and she didn’t tell us anything.
And I just, just in these poses for minutes at a time. And my mind wouldn’t stop. And I was like having emotional releases and I was crying and like all of this was happening and I didn’t know what to do. And I just thought, Oh, I hate Yin yoga. So if you’re a yoga student out there and that’s happened to you, I’m very sorry that nobody gave you any guidance on this.
And if you’re a yoga teacher listening, here’s a lesson. Mention the mind, the role of the mind and emotions at the beginning of class. It doesn’t need to be in a super heavy way or intellectual, just like, Hey, guess what? Our minds are busy. This is normal. It’s going to think this is what happens.
So because that teacher finally told me. Oh, this is what happens in meditation. Your mind is going to think and plan and blah, blah, blah. He even said we are not trying to stop thinking in this practice. We’re just putting brackets around our thoughts. Like imagine your thoughts in a sentence, but little brackets around them and kind of slide them over to the side and then redirect our awareness to whatever the anchor is.
So here’s the thing to sit still and observe your mind takes courage. This is not easy to do, and not everyone’s ready for the challenge. Again, this doesn’t have anything to do with whether or not you’re a beginner, some beginners are ready for this. Other people have been practicing for years and are not, Ultimately what it comes down to here is, are you ready to take your time on the mat?
And let it be about something other than just sweating chaturanga and your beach body. If you are, then a yin practice might suit you. So here are some questions to consider that you may never considered. And these are great questions for teachers so that you can address these in your classes.
Are you ready to look at your shit? Are you ready to learn to witness and observe your thought loops? Are you ready to improve your concentration and your mental resilience? Are you ready to have the time you spend on your yoga mat be an opportunity to learn how to respond in life instead of react in tough situations?
So people can answer yes. I’m ready for that, or I’m at least open to it, will find that they have a much more enjoyable time in a yin class. So how I address this as a teacher, when students come in, and I’ll just go over this because I know there’s going to be teachers listening, is that first of all, once we’re in our first position, if it’s a drop-in class, I just simply ask the group, if you are brand new to the practice of yin yoga. So if you have never, ever, ever done even one yin yoga class before, please put one hand on your belly.
And if you have done yin before, even if it’s just one class, let your hands rest at your sides.
And that gives me the ability to look around the room and to see who. has a hand on their belly. If there’s no one in the room with one hand on their belly, signifying that they’re new to yin, I’ll usually repeat it. And I’ll say, so just to make sure I have this clear, there’s nobody in the room that hasn’t done yin before.
If I got that wrong, just stick your hand up and twinkle your fingers. Now, why do I do it this way? , I do it this way because then no one can see anyone else’s answers. Because it’s really hard for someone new to yoga to get up the courage to go to a yoga studio and to be in that yoga studio.
And then to have to admit out loud that like, actually they’re new to this practice in a group of people can be a lot, especially for an introvert. So I like to do this check in a way that only I notice it. And then how much talking I’m going to do in the practice depends on what I see. So for example, if I see that several people are new to yin yoga, I’m going to give them the new to yin yoga speech at the beginning of class.
And if you’re like, what the heck is the new to yin yoga speech, I will share it with you in brief. So the first point is I just give them the practice guidelines. I just tell them, Hey, a yin practice is different than a more movement form of practice. And it can be easier to kind of wrap our heads around this practice and actually do it if we kind of know what to expect.
So here are some things that might be different for you. Number one, you’re going to take the shape. You’re going to find 50 to 60%. So in this practice, we’re not trying to push or strive or get on the cover of yoga journal. We’re intentionally backing away from that really strong sensation into just finding kind of that 50 to 60%.
And that 50 to 60 percent is aligned in the sand. It may move partway through practice as your body shifts and changes. So always feel free to adapt to pose as you need to. And then I say, okay, you’ve taken the shape. Well done. Now we’re going to become relatively still. And the stillness is relative because you might have to get more comfortable, grab a prop, adjust yourself, et cetera, et cetera.
But we note the difference between fidgeting and adjusting our body. Third thing, we’ll be holding our shapes and I generally, and this number can change depending on the group you’re working with or whether it’s your own practice, but I generally say I’m going to hold these poses anywhere from two and a half to five minutes at a time.
These long holds, the stillness and the moderation of this practice allow you to access different tissues of your body than you would in a more movement-based practice. And so if when you come out of this shape or the next one or the next one, you feel the urge to sort of moan and groan and move slowly and mindfully if you feel sort of temporarily vulnerable or fragile, that’s actually a sign of a job well done.
And so then I tell them we’re just going to do that we’re going to move slowly, mindfully with some awareness. We’re going to take our time and we’re going to take these little pauses. If it’s an asymmetrical pose, we’ll take a brief pause between one side and the next is an opportunity to adjust and also to observe how the body feels left versus right or right versus left.
If it’s a longer-held pose, we’ll take a longer rest.
And I just let them know that that is actually part of the practice, that these little opportunities to notice the resonance or the linger of the pose in your body. are part of the Yin practice. And I’ll often point out, that you might notice a difference from left to right, or you might just notice the urge to hurry up and do the other side, which usually gets a laugh and is pretty accurate.
And then we’ll rest for a moment or two, or maybe a minute, if it’s a longer held pose, and then we’ll go into our next shape. So I go over those steps in detail, and then I talk about the mind. One thing that you’ll notice, typically, if you’re a real human in this practice, is that when I stop talking so much, which I will do, Your mind is going to go into the thinking, planning, list writing, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
I tell them what can happen with their mind. I also tell them that’s normal. They’re not alone. Their brain isn’t especially squirrely. They’re not the only ones in the room who air quotes can’t meditate because they have a busy brain that like, this is a human condition that everybody has these tendencies.
Something I wish somebody would have told me maybe after the third registered meditation series that I took instead of the last one because I thought that everybody else got it already and that I was lagging behind and I didn’t understand how to like still my mind. Right. How much slack I might’ve cut myself.
Had I known, Oh, this is part of the process. This is normal. So I tell them that. And then I give them some suggestions on ways they can anchor their mind. And I’ll probably save that for a future episode on the mind in Yin and some possible ways that you could anchor the mind. And if you’re a teacher, I would highly suggest that you recommend a couple of ways they could anchor their mind.
I’ve been in a yoga practice many times and heard some bouncy bubbly yoga teacher say, that when your mind gets busy, just come back to being present and thinking, what the fuck? If I knew how to just be present, I wouldn’t be in this class. So please teachers give them some ideas.
And invitations, of course, to explore their own ideas, but give them something, some sort of a tool to anchor their mind, a gentle, consistent thing that they can go back to again and again.
And the other thing that I think is worth mentioning here is that For students, typically,
they’re going to be really hard on themselves. And so, yes, we want to focus the mind. We want to refocus the mind again and again when we find that it wanders away. But can we do so with sort of a soft touch? And I encourage my students to be gentle and compassionate with themselves and still dedicated enough to return.
So. You can expect the mind to wander. This is normal. This is human. Everybody has this experience. We all have slightly different subject matter, but we’re all busy brains. When you notice it, don’t be critical of yourself. Don’t beat yourself up. I know from experience, I’ve tried that. It doesn’t work.
Instead, just gently. When you notice you’re thinking, release the thoughts and come back to your anchor. So especially for those like myself who have studied Buddhism and even more so for those of you who’ve studied it abroad. There can be a rigidness or a, almost harshness to how we deal with the mind that I just don’t think is helpful, especially for new students.
And by now, I don’t mean new in general, but just if they’re new to Yin, they’re already so hard on themselves. So I like to go for the middle way, right? We’re not just going to lay here on our mat and daydream and think and plan and make lists and just let our mind run amok with us because let’s face it, we’re all really good at that already.
We’re all really good at that. We’ve mastered it. Nor am I going to be so harsh and critical with myself that when the mind wanders away, I’m going to beat myself up and lecture myself and be harsh or critical. I want to find what the Buddha would have called the middle way there.
So yes. Oh, there goes the mind. It’s on my grocery list or it’s going into anxiety or it’s wherever it’s going. Pause, and return to your anchor gently. And of course, an anchor is just one way to practice. There are states of mind or meditation states where we let go of the anchor, but that’s future talk.
Most people that are coming to your average drop-in yoga class are not there. So having something consistent and gentle to anchor their mind on. And again, I’ll probably visit those in a different episode, but you know, there are so many simple meditation techniques that you can give them just very simple things.
And if you’re a teacher and you don’t know some of those. That is an opportunity for some study, some more training. So this is why yin yoga is totally hardcore. It takes a lot of courage in our busy, rushed, overly yang, fast-paced, keeping up with the Joneses, compete, strive more and more and more society to just sit and be still and look at your shit and notice all of the thought loops that keep coming up repeatedly.
And for many of us, it’s the first time that we’re aware, Oh my God, my mind thinks all the time. This is madness in here. So that takes courage and it’s worth it because you will improve your concentration and your mental resilience.
And I know from myself, both my meditation practice, but more so I would say my yin yoga practice. Has taught me to learn how to respond in tough situations rather than react. What I mean by that is when I can sit on my cushion or in my yoga poses and I can observe, so the bigger I or the witness or whoever you want to call that, I can observe myself thinking.
Then I started to learn that I am not those thoughts. I have those thoughts, when I realize this on the cushion or the yoga mat, then slowly that starts to have a trickle effect outside of your yoga practice So that when you are affronted with somebody who’s rude in the grocery lineup or traffic or whatever it is, like these small daily annoyances, we’re more able now to notice the thinking and the storytelling of our mind.
Our mind’s probably telling us all kinds of stories about that person and how inconsiderate they are and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Because we get used to witnessing our mind, we can pull back in real-life situations and go, ah, there it is again, there it is again. And then we’re able to respond instead of react.
So You’re much less likely to be snappish and rude and impatient and irritated and frustrated with the world around you. When you can witness your thoughts and then this leads us to be more patient and loving and kind to those we love, to our community to the world around us. So this has probably been the biggest benefit of my Yin yoga practice sure, my hamstrings have gotten more open and it’s given me a wonderful, release for my body, especially from somebody who’s been chronically tight. Most of her life. Yes. That’s there.
Yes. I’m able to drop into my parasympathetic nervous system and take some rest. Yes. That is there. But most importantly, my question to you is. Are you ready to have your time on your yoga mat, be an opportunity to learn how to respond in tough situations instead of reacting?
And if you just answered, yes, I’m open to that. I’m curious about that. Then you, my friend are hardcore.
Okay. So that’s all I want to say about that for now. I would love to hear back from you. You can leave me some comments below wherever you’re watching or listening to this to let me know if you have experienced this drama with the mind in yin yoga and how that went for you and what you have found helpful.
I’d love to hear from both students and teachers on this
And until next time, bye for now.