guides to practicing
One of the joys of yin yoga is its simplicity: you do not need a mat and it is possible to practice relatively soon after eating a meal (though that will influence how you are practicing). There are different ways of practicing the same postures — for example, doing a wall yin practice or adjusting with bolsters.
There is neither a list of ever more complicated postures (there are about 30 poses) nor beginner/intermediate/advanced practices: you just get on and do it. Sarah Powers has a lovely description: “unhurried postures unstained by striving”. There is not a list of do’s and don’ts but there are some general guidelines to practicing yin that differentiate the practice from other forms.
A good start is to investigate the location of stretch and the sensation of stretch. The location (place, where) is crucial because what is perhaps acceptable in one part of the body — the hips, the thighs — is unacceptable in another part — the knees, the neck. And then there is the issue of tissue: the actual sensation of the stretch. If the sensation is burning or sharply stabbing or electrical or if it is particularly intense in a small area, then this can indicate over stretching and damaging of tissue. If the sensation is more dull or aching or throbbing, then this normally indicates tissue is being tugged in a healthy method. If a sensation that might be termed ‘tingling’ occurs, that could be a sign of damaging a nerve. Sensations being the voice of this guru within: an approach beautifully expressed by the novelist Tim Parks who discovered meditation could be an answer to his physical discomfort — “awareness has to plunge into the flesh”. There is this raw data of sensations...
In becoming aware of physical sensations, let go of labels such as ‘hurt’ or ‘pain’ — because these automatically increase the mental resistance — and use more neutral phrases such as ‘intensity’. This avoids adding mental resistance to the already existing physical resistance. There is intensity without too much tension: we avoid sensations going beyond the boundaries of being bearable. We are aware of the volume of these sensations: avoid that which is too loud and focus on subtle as well as strong. Can there be an experiencing of sensations just with their patterns of arising/existing/passing away? This situation of skilfully sailing the seas of sensations — so is there a quality of quietness and a sense of stillness in shapes? Is there an experience of sustainability so we can stay without undue straining?
“When you see and feel sensations you are experiencing as sensations, pure and simple, you may see that these thoughts about the sensations are useless to you at that moment and that they can actually make things worse than they need be... We are simply inviting ourselves to interface with this moment in full awareness, with the intention to embody as best we can an orientation of calmness, mindfulness, and equanimity right here and right now.” Jon Kabat-Zinn
The breath is a great guide — breathing as a beautiful barometer for possibilities within body. In yin (as nearly all forms of yoga), the emphasis is on deepening and lengthening the breath and there is also a direction of breathing into places of tightness. The length of breath is more important than the length of hamstrings, the slowness of breathing is more important than the strength of shoulders. This is not a strong ujjayi breath — there is subtlety to the style of breathing so that the only person who can hear the breath is the person practicing.
There is a conscious turning inward — a turning towards our current circumstances. This is an investigation of body as it actually is so we are becoming conscious of content rather than a fixation on form. A guide for the yin yoga experience is being slow and being steady — so there is softness and sustainability. We practice quietly and gently, so present are qualities like patience, kindness and dedicated effort. We stay reasonably still in the shapes without agitation or anxiety. So neither too hard nor too soft: the middle way where there is an ability to sustain that stillness. In this middle way, there are possibilities of becoming more pliable and this helps to develop our resilience.
To be successful — to experience the potential of softening and loosening — we have to take our place on the mat and get on with it: with practice, with patience, with presence.
yin principles
TIME-hold for 3-15 minutes unless there is sharp shooting pain, pain or electrical sensations
STILLNESS
Relaxing: unlike the yang practices, in yin yoga we consciously relax the muscular tissue of the body: disengaging the front thighs, relaxing the feet. This enables us to access the yin aspect of physicality: connective tissue. We access yin tissue through slowness and steadiness rather than rhythm and repetition. Yet in the relaxing of muscular tissue, it’s not that we just fall forwards — for example, in forward bends there is a gentle lift before lowering: neither lengthening nor collapsing, neither over-engaging nor flopping. At the start of a pose, we could focus on stretching the skin between navel and sternum. On occasion, we might need to consciously engage muscular tissue: such as to protect knees in dragonfly or to stabilise the back in sphinx. If we are very mobile in body (this is sometimes called ‘hyper-flexible’), there has to be much more emphasis on engaging muscularity. This is a good example of the requirement for individual instructing.
Time: it is suggested that the postures are held for longer than one minute and less than twenty minutes. Research indicates that there are no further physical benefits to be gained from holding a posture longer than twenty minutes. An average length of time is five minutes — beginners might hold for shorter periods and more experienced students for a longer time. And remember that the ultimate authority is the practitioner — so if you want to change posture before the time is up, then listen to your own experience. Yet be mindful in that listening and avoid rushing out just because you perceive sensations as “too strong”: investigate that perception before acting.
Mindful edge: each person has their own edge and this edge will be different in different postures and on different days. The edge should be approached slowly and with awareness and then held without fidgeting (so there is a reasonable level of stillness in the shape) or trying to fix (an attitude of acceptance). After some time at this place, perhaps there is a realisation that the edge may have shifted, allowing the posture to become deeper — or a calm recognising that you have to actually ease away from this edge.
Balance: it is important to balance the forward bends with back bending (and acknowledge there are at least 20 yin poses that are forward flexion in their quality and
much fewer that are of back extending).
informing guidelines
Letting go: letting go of wanting to be better, letting go of wanting to be somewhere else, letting go of planning tomorrow, letting go of that inner dialogue, letting of tension around the area of sensation, letting go of the shoulders, letting go of what we think we are supposed to do, letting go of impressing and improving, letting go of frowns and forcing, letting go of ambition and aggression, letting go of contrasting and comparing, letting go of holding and trying to control. In this letting go, there can be a loosening of rigid views that are the enemy of intimacy. Much letting go to enable us to be here: as we actually are, in an experience of authenticity — where there is nothing to do, nowhere to go, nothing to get.
Gentleness or Metta: this is ‘loving-kindness’ — a great challenge for so many of us! To practice with kindness, to be gentle in how we practice, to ensure that we are not forcing beyond our natural limits nor competitively striving.
Patience: to take our time in this practice, to be liberated from hurrying here and there. Yin is a great practice for emphasising patience simply because we spend so much time in each posture. Becoming patient in an impatient world is a very useful skill. And the practice of patience can arise from our ability to be kind. In the Buddha’s teachings, patience is one of the practices frequently taught.
individuality of anatomy
A popular perception amongst yoga practitioners is that if only we practice enough, then this or that posture will become available to us. However, as Paul Grilley and other anatomists have demonstrated, the skeletal structure limits stretching. We cannot fundamentally vary the structure of our bones and the shape of our skeleton — though it has to be noted that after six months in space, some astronauts had lost up to 20% of their bone density.
When the restriction on movement is arising from tight muscular tissue, Paul calls this ‘tension’ and when the restriction arises from the skeletal structure, ‘compression’. An example of compression is when we fully straighten the elbow and essentially it is bone impacting on bone. It could be called ‘tensile restriction’ in muscles and ‘compressive restriction’ in bones. Each person experiences tension and compression in different places, as there is significant individuality within our physical structures. This is not just a matter of height and weight, it is also a matter of angles and lengths, degrees and depths. Within the practice and teaching of yoga, it is essential that there is a conscious realisation of individuality in terms of human anatomy.
“Everyone’s bones are shaped differently — individual bones of the body conflict with the universal laws of alignment... we have to bring to yoga practice open mindedness”. Paul Grilley
An example of skeletal limitations is the angle of the femur into the pelvis and the depth of the hip socket. Paul refers to his experience in a natural history store in Berkeley when he compared that angle and the depth: there were substantial differences. A few people can sit comfortably in postures such as padmasana straightaway (because of the significant external rotation in hips) and some people will never be able to sit in such a posture (because of their skeletal structure). But as Sarah Powers says, “in the end, floating on the lotus is more a state of mind than the accomplishment of any pose”. What is important is when attempting the achievement of a pose, we do not punish the extremities (for example, the knees) for what the axis (in this case, the hips) cannot give. This is another reason to focus more on the state of mind than the physical appearance of a posture. The internal processing is of essence, the external appearance is — broadly speaking — irrelevant and unimportant.
Another example of skeletal limitation is the lower spine (lumbar). This is the area from where most of the back bending movement comes. Nearly all of us have five discs here
but a few people have either six or seven and for these people, it is likely that bending backwards would be more accessible than for someone with five. For deeper back bending, the spinal discs need to be thicker. If they are not, then the spinous
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