Yin Yoga Exploring Stillness

This video consists of a 35-minute yin yoga session. Yin yoga is a slow yoga practice designed to stimulate, hydrate, and release the fascia (connective tissue) by holding passive poses for 3–5 minutes. For this class, grab any props you might need (pillows, blankets, blocks) and let's meet on the mat! Please remember to listen to your body and avoid practicing if you are feeling unwell or injured.

Transcript

Welcome to this yoga class. Today we will dive in the principle of stillness. For this class you need a yoga block. If you have one, If you don't, A stack of books can work and you can also have a pillow to support your hips up. The block we will use during the class or the stack of books. Let's just start seated in a comfortable position. You can lift the hips, Close your eyes and let's just take a few moments to connect with our body in this moment. Allowing your attention to really drop to the felt sense of your breath coming in and out. There's no need to change anything. You just want to become aware, Conscious of the movement of the breath in your body, Of the sensations of your whole body. How does your body feel in this moment? Paying attention also to the skin, The skin touching the fabric. Attentive to the sounds around you, The space that surrounds you and paying attention to the space you occupy in the middle of the space that's around. You can maybe allow an intention to come up for your practice today. Taking two more deep breaths, Preparing to move, To open our eyes. One more deep inhale. Exhale, Sigh it out, Opening the eyes, Release the block or the pillow behind your hips and we're going to come to a tables position. From here take an inhale and we're going to bring the right leg all the way forward between the hands and then step it to the right. Both of the hands can stay inward. You can bring the block to the front of the mat. You might want to use it, You might not and this first minute you're gonna actually bring some movement either swinging from side to side or a little bit of circles on your hips. Let your body move naturally with the breath, Allowing the hips to soften gently in this posture. Stay observing the breath, Keep the neck long as long as the rest. Take one more deep inhale and as you exhale find stillness in this posture. Maybe you already feel an opening with the hands, The arms as they are. Maybe you want to walk them a little bit more forward or maybe you want to bring the elbows down to the ground. I want you to find that so that edge that will allow you to just breathe consciously, Allowing your hips to marinate in this posture. Bringing all the focus, The attention of our mind to this present moment, To the breath, To the sensations, Bringing presence to every single corner of your body, Every single cell. Take the last two deep breaths in this posture. One more deep inhale, Exhale, Sigh the breath out, Gently walk the hands back or lift the elbows if they were on the mat. Let's bring the right leg back, Coming to our tables position and finding again some gentle movements from side to side, Balancing the presence between movement and stillness. Coming back to center, Take one more deep inhale and as you exhale let's go to the other side. Left leg all the way to the left this time, Bringing the hips down and taking this first minute to gently soften the hips in the posture. If it feels like too much for the wrists you can come to the fists and still allow the body to swing forward or back or side to side or maybe little circles. Keeping the chest then open, The neck long, Allowing the body to gently get used to being in this posture so that we can really hold the stillness with our attention. Take one more breath, Exhale, Coming to the stillness, You can walk the hands a little bit forward if that feels good for you, Keeping the chest and open and the neck long or you can bring the elbows down, Finding your appropriate edge and staying still breathing in this posture. If you need to, You can cushion the right knee with a blanket, With a pillow, Anything that will allow you to stay present in this posture. Bringing your attention back to the breath, The movement of the breath in the body, Bringing your attention to all the corners of yourselves, Of your body, Being present with the sensations with the breath. Last two breaths before moving again, One more breath, You can sigh it out. If you have the elbows on the mat, Lift them, Walk the hands underneath your shoulders and let's bring the left foot back. Let's bring the knees underneath the hips, Swing a little bit from side to side, One more breath here, And exhale. We're going to again bring the right foot between the hands and let's walk the right foot towards the left, Bringing the right knee to the ground, Maybe grabbing the block and the pillow, You can bring it underneath your right cheekbone or hip if that feels best for you or if you don't need it, Just leave it to the side. I'm gonna take an inhale here, The back toes can be against the mat or pointed, Bring the elbows down, You can use the block as support as we find stillness in this posture. You want to feel that your hips are squared and you will feel a stretch on your hip or inner thigh or even on the left leg. Observe where is it that you feel the sensations. As you keep following your breath, Bringing presence and attention to this inhale, To this exhale. Allowing the body to open, To soften at its own accord. All you need to do is be present and breathe. Final two breaths in this posture. One more deep inhale, One more deep exhale. Lift the head, Press the forearms on the floor, If you have the block, Remove it, Bring the hands underneath your shoulders, Walk the toes of the left foot against the mat, Walking the knee to the inside and bringing the right leg back. Two options here, You can bring toes against the mat, Hip to heels and come into a downward facing dog or you can do child's pose with big toes touching, Knees open and forehead on the ground. Choose your posture and we're going to be here for four more breaths. If you're in downward facing dog, Just bring the knees to the ground. If you're in child's pose, Press the weight forward, Coming into a table's position. We're going to bring the left leg now to the center between the hands. Let's walk it behind the right wrist and bring the knee towards the ground. The more of a 90 degree angle you will have, The deeper the stretch. Walking the right foot back, Opening the hips. If this is too intense, You can always bring the heel closer to your right hip and make sure that your left knee, It's a little bit more opened than your left hip. So get into the posture, Take a deep inhale. If you were using the block, Bring it behind the butt cheek of the left hip or you can bring a pillow there. Take a deep inhale and as you exhale, You can stay here with the chest open. You can bend the elbows or you can use the block as support. Finding that sweet spot in the posture that can help you stay in stillness with an attentive connection to your breath and to all the corners of your body. We are coming into this space of allowing, Allowing the body to soften, To open on its own accord, With its own wisdom, And all you need to do is to be present with the sensations, With the breath, With the present moment. Coming back to the breath. We're going to be here for two more deep inhales and exhales. One more deep inhale, Exhale, Side out, Preparing to move, Lifting the head, Removing the block or the pillow if you were using one, Hands underneath your shoulders. Let's sit on the left hip and bring the right leg forward, Bringing the hands back, Taking a moment here, Feeling the sensations. One more deep exhale, Opening our eyes, Coming into our next pose. Again, You can use a pillow underneath the hips, I highly recommend it. You can also bring the block to help bring the hips up. Let's open the legs on a V posture, You want your hips to be kind of already tilting forward. Relax the legs, No need to activate them, Bring the hands forward. Take a deep exhale and go into your edge, That sweet spot where you feel sensations, And you can stay in stillness with your breath. It's okay if your back curves. You want to be in that space where you're feeling it. As one of my teachers always says, If you're feeling it, You're doing it. So let's focus more on sensation than on the way that posture looks. And let's focus more on attention, Being able to follow our breath, To be aware of the sensations on the body, On the mind, And just being present with what is. Remembering that you can break the stillness to go deeper into your edge if the body naturally opens more up or to go a little bit more back in the posture if the edge doesn't allow you to be present, To be breathing fully and attentive to the moment. We are here.