Yin Yoga: A Quiet, Mindful Practice

In Yin Yoga, we stay in poses for quite significant periods of time, aiming for relative stillness in both a physical and mental sense. The practice is therefore a great opportunity to start being mindful; preparing our bodies for the sitting itself, but also in allowing the thoughts to become calm and the mind to settle. The poses are Sphinx/Seal, Eye of the Needle & Butterfly - find images on my website (see profile).

Victoria's Yin Yoga classes are designed to release tension and bring presence to body & mind. Bring a bolster (or pillow), some blocks (or books) and a blanket. Please make sure to listen to your body during the class and if anything doesn’t feel right, come out of the pose and rest. Your body is your responsibility.

Transcript

Hello and welcome.

Thanks for joining me again for this short audio yoga session.

Today we will be looking at Yin Yoga as a mindful practice.

So as we're in Yin Yoga poses for quite long significant periods of time and aiming for relative stillness both in body and mind,

It's a great opportunity to practice being mindful.

If any of you meditate,

It can therefore be really useful preparation for meditation.

It can help you prepare for sitting in a physical sense but it can also help you practice that calming of the thoughts.

Yin Yoga can also however be used as a mindful practice within itself.

I'd like to quote here from John Kabat-Zinn,

Considered to be one of the first Westerners to bring mindfulness to the West who says,

Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way on purpose in the present moment and non-judgmentally.

We can therefore use our yoga practice to really focus on what's happening by paying attention to our experience,

What's happening in the body,

In the mind and energetically and by doing that bring ourselves into the present moment.

Thoughts will inevitably come to mind,

Thoughts of the past,

Thoughts of the future but the idea of mindfulness is not to push them away.

If you push things away they tend to come back full force but actually allowing them to be there yet not focusing on them.

Instead we can bring our attention to something else,

What's happening in the body,

In the breath,

In the mind.

So hopefully you will have seen which poses we're going to do today either on my blog post or the image on YouTube.

I will as always be guiding you in and out of the poses,

Giving adjustments and variation to suit your bodies but I will be speaking less in general during this practice so that you can really get into your experience and see what that brings up for you.

If you haven't seen the poses yet however then please do check out the blog post entitled Yin Yoga,

The Quiet Mindful Practice on my website ucellayoga.

Com.

That's u-c-e-l-e-yoga.

Com.

In summary though,

The postures we will use today are Sphinx or Seal,

Eye of the Needle and Butterfly.

Props you might want to have around for adjustments are a blanket and some props such as blocks,

Books or cushions.

So to start with we're going to sit for a couple of minutes just to come away from our busy days and arrive into the room ready to practice.

So start by finding a comfortable seated position,

Whatever that is for you and you can even lie down if you like.

Now spend some time moving into a position that's comfortable and if you're sitting adjust your body so that your back is straight and your chest is open.

Then if you're okay with closing your eyes then close your eyes,

Otherwise simply soften your gaze,

Not looking at anything in particular.

Now breathe out completely and on the next in-breath bring the shoulders up and then as you breathe out drop them down.

Let's do that again.

Breathe in and drop the shoulders up then out and drop them down.

You can then roll the shoulders up and back if you're sitting softening them.

And then we're going to start by bringing our attention to the body.

So whether you're lying or sitting notice where the feet are,

Notice what's touching the ground,

Your heels,

The top of the foot,

Sensing which parts are against the floor or the mat.

And then do the same with the hands.

Notice what the hands are touching,

Perhaps noticing the feeling,

Perhaps it's a rough texture,

A soft texture,

Maybe the hands feel warm or cool,

Know anything that comes to mind.

And then bring your attention to the face.

See if you're holding any tension in the face around the eyes,

Maybe between the eyebrows,

The forehead,

The cheeks or the jaw,

Perhaps somewhere else.

And then see if on your outbreath you might be able to soften that area a little.

If any thoughts are coming in or any emotions coming up then just remember that's what happens and that's okay,

That's what minds do.

Just notice them,

Like you're watching the clouds in the sky,

Watching them float past,

Maybe some are white and fluffy,

Maybe some dark and imposing.

Yet either way just let them be and watch them move on by themselves.

And now aiming to keep this sense of calm and ease if we can we're going to move into the first pose,

So if you're lying down already then turn over onto your front and if you're sitting gently lie face down on your mat.

If you have a blanket then you might want to put this underneath the hip area so nothing is compressing with the floor.

Next move the elbows under the shoulders then push up onto the elbows.

So what we're looking for here is an opening in the chest area and some compression in the lower back.

If there's too much compression in the lower back here then you might want to try opening or closing the legs a bit more.

If you're not really feeling very much in the lower back bearing in mind that you want to be sensing a mild to moderate sensation that you can stay in for a few minutes with minimal muscular effort then you might want to go up higher.

In this case put blocks,

Books,

Cushions or anything in fact under the elbows to raise you up that bit higher giving you more of an arch in the spine.

If that's still not high enough then you can even go up on the hands with straight arms into seal pose.

In both poses you can bring the elbows in sphinx or hands in seal more towards you to get even more compression in the back or away from you to lessen it.

It doesn't matter in yin yoga if the shoulders are kind of slumped here.

We're not actively bringing the shoulder blades together as we often would in yang or more active forms of yoga but instead trying to keep that area relaxed so that the compression in the back will deepen but naturally and without muscular effort.

We're going to be in this pose for another two-ish minutes so listen to your body during that time and if you feel after a minute or so that it's telling you it wants to go to a lower or higher variation of the pose then gently adjust.

Check there's no pain just stimulation in the target areas and resolve to stay still until I guide you out.

I'm going to leave you now to have your own experience so close your eyes if you haven't already and see if you can pay attention to what's going on on purpose in the present moment and non-judgmentally.

Okay.

Okay,

So now just take a normal breath in and as you breathe out,

If you've got anything underneath the elbows then move them to the sides and if you're up with straight arms then bend them slowly and lie face down.

You can bend the elbows and rest the forehead on the arms if you want or leave the arms by your sides,

Your choice.

Now notice how the back feels.

It may feel tender,

It may not feel very comfortable actually,

But that's because we've been stimulating the connective tissue and aiming to release patterns of tension through our long slow poses and in comparison to muscle,

Which you can feel much later on,

You can notice the effects of stress on the connective tissue immediately,

But then it passes generally fairly quickly.

If your head is turned one way here then now turn it to the other side.

And then when you feel any sensations pass then gently make your way onto your back.

Next we move into Eye of the Needle.

First bring the knees in and hold onto them as a counter pose.

You can rock from side to side or perhaps circle the knees to massage the lower spine.

Make sure if you do this to circle the knees the opposite direction as well.

Now keep the knees bent but place the feet on the floor.

Then place the right ankle or shin above the left knee.

So our target area here is the side of the right leg going into the glutes.

So if you feel that mild to moderate stretch in this area then this is where you want to be for the next few minutes.

If you want more stress then lift the left foot and place the hands either in the knee pit or outside of the left knee.

Do this by threading the right arm under the right leg.

Now if you're feeling this isn't good in the knees,

The groin area or perhaps the lower back then what I suggest is playing with the legs,

Moving them a bit to the right or to the left or perhaps closer to you.

You can also try these adjustments if you want even more stretch in that right leg or if you want less.

Finally,

If you feel like your head is kind of flopping around here then you also might want to put something underneath it and allow the neck to relax.

We're going to stay here for another two and a half minutes or so and again I'm going to stop speaking for that time and I suggest as we were doing before,

See if you can notice what's happening in the body,

In the mind,

Perhaps your energy levels,

Anything at all.

Keep the body relaxed,

The shoulders,

The hips.

So again,

Take a breath in and as you breathe out let go of the leg,

Place both feet on the floor keeping the knees bent and letting them knock in towards each other.

Notice any difference between the left and the right in the legs,

Maybe the hips and even in the arms as some of you will have been stretching those two.

Then we're going to move to the other side.

So this time place the left ankle or shin on the right thigh and if you're feeling enough stretch on the side of the leg in the glute area,

The side bum,

Then stay here.

Otherwise,

Thread the left arm under the leg and then either place the hands behind the knee or in front of the knee in the same way as before but on the other side.

Now you can play with the angle of the legs again if you want to get more or less stretch or if you have some uncomfortable sensations in the knees,

Groin,

Lower back or perhaps another place.

As I mentioned before,

You should be feeling a mild to moderate stretch and if we had to give it a score out of 10 we're probably looking at a 3 to 5,

Depends on the person.

Now I'll leave you in silence for around 3 minutes.

So now we'll move out of the pose.

So on your next out breath,

Let go of the leg and let it drop down to the floor.

This time straighten out the leg so you're simply lying on your back and feel the rebound of the pose.

Notice what's going on in body and in mind.

This last pose is called Butterfly.

It's a hip opener and a great stretch for the adductus which are the muscles and surrounding connective tissue of the inner thighs.

So with this,

Simply sit up,

Bend the knees and bring the soles of the feet together then fold forward over the legs.

You can have them close to the torso or you can move them further away.

Play with that and see how it feels.

Generally,

The closer they are to you,

The more you might feel the stretch on the inside thighs and the further away they are,

The more you might feel them on the outside thighs.

This is of course different for different people however,

So just play with it.

You can also even separate the feet if you wanted to and if the knees aren't feeling good in any of these variations then do put something underneath them to support them.

Relax the shoulders if you can and maybe move the head from side to side to relax the neck.

Now just allow gravity to bring you down without pushing,

Never pushing in yin yoga.

And I'll remain quiet now for the next two and a half minutes or so.

And now we'll move out of the pose.

So on the next out breath,

Slowly bring the torso back to come up to the center.

Straighten the legs and lie down on your back.

Now we'll move into Shavasana,

Resting pose.

So spend as much time as you need to get comfortable adjusting the body,

Making sure to keep warm for the next few minutes or as long as you want to stay here.

And as you lie here,

Again notice how you feel compared to when you started,

Once more making no judgement but just simply noticing.

Keep the body relaxed and simply taking the effects of the practice.

So as always,

Please stay here for at least a few minutes making sure to be slow and gentle when you get up.

Enjoy your time here.

I hope you got something out of this short,

Mindful yin yoga practice today and I really hope I will see you next time.

Namaste.

Reviews

Excellent directions and lovely stretch before bed 🙏🏻

I could feel the benefit and will save to bookmark. Thank you

Calming voice with excellent pose description, relaxing. Thank you. 💕

I just love your instructions so so much ! Thank you

Amazing!

Wonderful prep for meditation. Many thanks!🙏🏻

As a future certified yoga practitioner, this is exactly howbibwouldnline to mesh meditation and asanas. Outstanding! Much gratitude 🙏🏾

Very nice thank you

Settling and quieting. Thank you 🙏

Amazing 🤩

Really great for reducing anxiety and tightness of chest. Thank you.

Thank you I loved this.

Wonderful, thank you.

Excellent understanding of what Yin yoga is all about.

Great instructions. Just what I needed. Thanks.

That was lovely...very clear directions and very easy to follow. Thank you SO much!!💙

Very relaxing and helpful to connect with my body :) thank u!

Great...thank you

Thank you 🌸🌸🌸for the wonderful yin yoga practice 🏝 I feel relaxed like lying in warm smooch sand and enjoying the sun on my body 🍀stay safe🙏Namaste