What is Yin Yoga

A common metaphor when commencing a journey into yoga is to climb a mountain. Quite often we start at the base, admiring and inspired by other who are climbing already or even reached the summit. Yet it can be difficult to see the peak of the mountain, it’s hidden by clouds obscuring our vision of where our path will lead to. Just as there are many way to ascend a mountain there are many forms of yoga to follow. Each path can be varied with different rates of progress. During our journey we can meet different guides who can help (or hinder) our climb, but we meet very few individuals who have already actually reached the summit called ‘Samadhi’ where everything will become clear to us (literally above the clouds). www.pwoc.co.uk The summit itself is nearly always a small place. Only a few people can fit on it at once, you can’t stay here for ever and have to come down from time to time. The effort used in climbing our metaphoric mountain is very ‘yang’ in nature. Yang involves muscular effort to do forceful and dynamic actions. To many yogi’s, yang is their favourite way to live, and the only way they know. But it is not the only way. There is a ‘yin’ path to compliment the ‘yang’ way. Yin is passive and yielding and metaphorically is more of a journey down a relaxing river – a Yin River So for every ‘Yang Mountain’ you climb I suggest you compliment it with a ‘Yin River’. A passage down the yin river guides you down to the universal ocean. Along the route you will again meet guides to help steer your course in the ever changing waters. You will need focus on the subtle changes in the ebbs and flow of the currents – sometimes meeting rapids and at other times complete stillness of water. It is during these times of stagnation we have time to investigate and reflect on many interesting sights; what Bernie Clark calls our ‘Yinsights’. Here our destination is plentiful, an endless universal ocean rather than a small crowded peak of a mountain. The universal ocean can accommodate everyone. To be a balanced yogi you need to learn both how to climb a mountain and to swim a river – and just like swimming and climbing have many techniques, skills and styles to accomplish so does yoga making it probably the best all round balanced way to exercise and live. What is Yin Yoga? Yin yoga is a style of yoga to both balance and compliment the more active styles of yoga (yang). Most forms of yoga today are dynamic, active classes designed to work only half the body’s tissues - the muscular half – the ‘yang’ tissues. The aim of Yin yoga is to open up the bodies joints and connecting tissues by decompressing the joints, stressing the ligaments and fascia tissues – the ‘yin’ tissues, stimulating the meridians and hence energy pathways through the body. It is a much more passive style of yoga requiring the student to hold poses from 1 to 5 or more minutes. However, yin practice can be quite challenging still due to the long duration of the poses.