Quiet Yin Yoga With Minimal Cues

In this quiet Yin Yoga session, after you are guided into each posture, you are given two to three minutes of silence to move deeply into your own experience. Because there is minimal talking/explanation, this class is best suited to those who are already familiar with Yin Yoga. We practice the child's pose - butterfly - dragonfly - sphinx - banana asana - reclining twist & savasana.

Intro Music by NaturesEye
Savasana Music by Alan Frijns
Photo by Miriam Alonso

Transcript

Welcome to your yin yoga practice.

Before we begin just take a moment to make sure that you have everything you need for your practice today.

You'll need a yoga mat and if you're in a cooler climate make sure you have a blanket to cover yourself with during the relaxation at the end.

You may also need to support your body with some props in some of the postures.

If you have yoga blocks those are great but you can also use cushions or pillows or a folded blanket to support yourself.

You may also need a strap,

Belt or tie and if you have a yoga bolster that might be useful too.

So make sure that you have some of those with you in case you need them.

Yin yoga is a passive practice where postures are held for several minutes to stretch into the connective tissues.

These tissues are delicate and can be injured if they're stretched too forcefully or intensely.

It's good to be able to feel that something is happening but you should never be forcing a stretch or pushing yourself into a position and you never want to be feeling any physical pain as you practice.

Pain is a signal from your body that the position that you're in is not safe or beneficial for you.

So if you do feel pain at any time come out of the pose.

You can come into a resting position until the next posture or you can move back into another posture from the class that you didn't experience any pain in.

If you have any injuries or health conditions make sure to consult with your doctor before starting a new practice.

Yin yoga can have many benefits for health and recovery but it is important that your body is suitably recovered,

That the stretches will benefit the tissues and won't potentially make the injury worse.

So do please check with your doctor first for your safety.

As this is an audio session I will talk you in and out of the postures verbally but if at any time you are unsure of a posture and you don't know if you're in the right position you can always pause the recording and do a quick internet search to bring up a picture.

I've included names for all of the postures so that you can easily do this if you need to.

We're going to start today's practice in a wide child's pose.

So bring yourself to kneeling on your mat and then bring your big toes together and open your knees out to the sides of the mat.

Sit back onto your heels and bring your arms forwards so that your hands reach out to the corners of the mat.

Bring your upper body down towards the mat resting your forehead onto the mat and if you can't rest down into this posture comfortably take some support for yourself.

You can take a block or a folded blanket onto the heels if it's challenging or intense to sit back onto the heels and if your forehead doesn't comfortably rest onto the mat take a block under the forehead or if you prefer stack your arms and rest your head onto your forearms.

Once you've found your comfortable child's pose that you can stay in for the next few minutes relax into the posture.

This is a minimal cues class so once I've taught you into each position I won't be saying any more until it's time to come back out again.

So you have the opportunity to be 100% with yourself and your body as you hold each of the postures and we'll be holding each posture for two and a half minutes today.

So for the next two and a half minutes relax the muscles as you surrender into your child's pose and observe the sensations that arise for you.

Slowly walk the hands in to bring yourself up and out of the pose and make your way to sitting on the mat for butterfly.

Bring the soles of the feet together so that the knees come out one to each side and if it feels good for you to support your legs here place blocks or cushions underneath each thigh so that your legs are completely supported and able to relax.

Take a breath in and as you exhale begin to fold forwards over the legs so that your head drops towards your feet coming to your edge that place where it suddenly starts to feel a lot more intense.

Once you reach that edge stop here and relax into the posture.

Scan over your body to see if there are any places where the muscles are clinging that you can relax and observe the sensations.

We've got two and a half minutes here.

Take the hands onto the feet and slowly walk the hands up the legs to curl the spine back up to straight.

Bring the knees up and take the feet to the mat at about hip distance apart and gently rock the knees from side to side feeling any sensations in the body any effects from the posture.

The next posture is dragonfly.

So now we will take the legs apart so straighten out the legs opening them to a comfortable distance that you'll be able to stay in for a few minutes without forcing.

Keep the feet relaxed and keep the thighs relaxed.

If you find it challenging to sit like this with your back straight you may find it helpful to sit onto a block or onto the edge of a folded blanket and if the backs of your legs are tight or if your knees are bent place some blocks or cushions under the knees so that the legs can relax into that support.

Keeping the legs relaxed take a breath in to lift the chest upwards and exhale to fold forwards.

Again coming to that edge that place where it suddenly starts to feel a lot more intense and relax into the posture.

Slowly make your way back up walk the hands in to curl the spine back up to straight and bend the knees and bring the feet back to the mat rocking the knees from side to side again to observe any sensations or any effects from that posture.

Next we're going to come into Sphinx pose.

So make your way down to lying on your belly and bring the elbows under the shoulders with the forearms parallel to the sides of the mat.

Spread the fingers and relax the hands.

Relax the shoulders and the shoulder blades.

If this feels very intense for you and you don't feel like you'll be able to stay comfortably here for the next few minutes you can move the arms forwards to reduce the intensity in the back or you can stack the forearms and rest the forehead onto the arms.

If your chest is lifted you can either keep the head looking straight forwards or release the chin towards the chest.

Scan over your body to see if there is anywhere that you can still relax.

The hips,

The buttocks,

The shoulder blades and observe what you feel.

Slowly coming out of the pose release the arms and gently bring yourself all the way down onto your front.

You can bring your arms to your sides and turn the head to one side or you can stack the arms and rest your forehead onto your forearms and take some breaths here to observe any feelings,

Any sensations,

Any effects from the posture.

The next posture is banana pose.

So turn yourself over onto your back and first come into Shavasana.

Bringing the legs apart so that the feet fall outwards towards the corners of the mat.

Bring your arms to your sides and we'll move the right leg first.

So now take the right foot over to meet the left foot.

Either bringing the ankles together or crossing the right ankle over the left ankle.

Now bring the upper body towards the left so that the body comes into a curved banana shape.

Take the arms up over the head and either take hold of opposite elbows or take the right wrist into the left hand and relax the arms above the head.

Scan over your body to see if there is anywhere that you can relax a little more and observe and slowly make your way back out.

Bring the right foot back to the right side of the mat.

Release the arms and bring the upper body back to straight.

Pause here to observe any effects from the posture and moving to the other side.

Bring the left foot to meet the right ankle or cross the left foot over the right ankle.

Bring the upper body to the right and either take the left wrist into the right hand or take hold of the elbows bringing the opposite arm on top to last time and relax.

Slowly coming back out.

Bring the left foot back to the left side of the mat.

Release the arms and bring the upper body back to straight with the arms at the sides.

Pause here to observe.

Our final posture will be a twist.

So now bend the knees and bring the knees into the chest with the knees and the ankles together and just shift your hips slightly over towards the right to make some more space for the twist.

Take the left hand to the outside of the right thigh and bring the knees all the way down to the mat on the left keeping the left hand on the right thigh to help anchor it down.

Once you get here relax the lower legs and the feet.

Bring the right arm up and out to a diagonal angle perhaps placing a block or a cushion under the right shoulder if that feels best for you and relax into the twist.

Observe the new sensations that arise for you in this new position slowly unwinding and coming back out.

Release the right arm back to the right side.

Take the left hand to the outside of the left leg and push the knees back up to the centre and re-straighten your hips and spine.

Take the feet to the mat at hip distance apart and let the knees drop in together and take some breaths here to observe any sensations any feelings and we'll go to the other side.

So bring the knees back in towards the chest with the knees and the ankles touching.

Shift yourself slightly over to the left and take the right hand to the left thigh to bring the knees all the way down to the mat on the right side.

Relax the lower legs and the feet.

Bring the left arm up and out to a diagonal angle and relax into your twist.

Slowly make your way back up.

Bring the left arm back to the left side.

Take the right hand to the outside of the right leg and push the legs back to the centre.

Re-straighten the body and take the feet to the mat at hip distance apart letting the knees drop together.

Take some breaths here to observe any effects from that posture and we'll finish with our relaxation.

If you like you can stay here with the feet apart and the knees together or if you prefer come into Shavasana bringing the feet out towards the corners of the mat.

Take the arms to the sides of the body with the palms of the hands facing upwards and you might like to support yourself with a block or a cushion under the head or a rolled up blanket under the knees.

If it's cool where you are make sure that you have enough layers on perhaps covering yourself with a blanket as your body temperature will drop as you rest here and for these next few minutes allow your body to completely surrender into relaxation.

Slowly begin to reawaken your body.

Start to make some small movements with the fingers and the toes.

Begin to circle the wrists and the ankles and when you feel ready take the arms up over the head and give yourself a long stretch down the sides.

Bend the knees and bring the knees in towards the chest and just rock gently from side to side here massaging out any tension that remains in the lower back and when you feel ready roll over to the side and bring yourself up to sitting.

Come to sitting comfortably with the back straight and the eyes closed and take a moment to feel into your body and observe how your body is feeling right now.

Observe how you are feeling right now.

Observe any effects from your practice today and when you are ready slowly open your eyes.

This brings us to the end of the practice.

Thank you for joining me.

Reviews

Hello beautiful 🌸💐🌸💐🌸Thank You so much for the wonderful Yin Yoga Session 🎀🎀🎀it unwrapped pleasure and smiles 🗺️have a blessed day 🕉️Namaste

This practice is perfect! It is relativily short, so easy to fit in to my day. It has all of my favourite postures and no dragon poses. And I love the low cues part. Thank you so much. I will do this one often.