Who needs Yin Yoga?
Guest blog By Jennifer Crescenzo
In my experience when people first try Yin Yoga, they are tired, stressed, and feeling some aches and pains or they are athletes recovering from high intensity or high volume workouts. So, basically, they are tired or wired or some combination of the two. When I guide them into a Yin pose I say: "Is there any place you can feel yourself gripping or tensing. Your jaw, maybe?" And then I ask them to un-grip. As they relax, they start to feel groggy or sleepy. Sometimes they take naps :) And then at the end of class they say, "Yin Yoga makes me so tired." And I say, "Nope. You were already tired. Yin Yoga just made you aware of it."
But why is it good to be aware of things? Isn't it nicer to just close your eyes and float away, ignoring all those funny, weird, sometimes-uncomfortable feelings you feel? In the moment it might feel better or easier to check out. But, in order to be more calm or grounded and generally pleasant to be around MORE OF THE TIME it helps to use Yin Yoga as a creative, fun "checking in" practice.
Here's how and why.
In a Yin class I describe a target area in your body like your shoulders. And then I try to describe what you're doing in the target area. Are you pressing down to feel your shoulders engage? Are you rolling around over your shoulder to press it into the ground? Are you rounding your back and crossing your arms to stretch across the back of your shoulder? And what does that generally feel like? Will you feel a little resistance? Pulling? Heaviness? Stickiness? Heat? Basically I give you something specific to pay attention to - the way you might use your breath or a candle flame or a mantra in meditation. And when you're paying attention to the details of a thing like your shoulder rolling or your fingers spreading, you realise that you are feeling lots of things all the time, all at once. But like a photographer you can also zoom in or zoom out on things. You can bring something sharply to the foreground or soften it into the background. You have some choices and some creative control.
And at first this whole "target area" idea is challenging for many of my students. But over time it helps them become curious about how they are moving and feeling. And they become curious about what changes if they roll their shoulders slower or faster, or cross their arms a little differently, or spread their fingers more. But why is any of this information helpful, you ask? Well, let's say you're having a conversation with someone and it turns out that you don't agree about an important decision. Maybe you think that you're expressing your point very calmly and reasonably. But then you notice that you have your hands on your hips and your legs are tensed. Your stomach feels a little tight and your heart is beating faster. Maybe you are raising your voice a little? When you notice these physical changes, you have an opportunity to acknowledge what's happening and make some choices. You can sit down, take a few breaths, or say to the other person, "Hey, this is a really important conversation but I can feel myself getting a bit wound up. Let me take a 5-minute break and then let's keep talking."
Being able to respond in a calm, clear-headed way to what is happening inside you AND around you is a super-power! And over time Yin Yoga helps you nurture that super power, giving you clearer insights about what makes you squirm, what pushes your buttons, what holds your attention, and what settles you down- all that "you" stuff.
But how does this help you feel more grounded? Well, learning to notice the natural ebb and flow of sensations in your body can help you worry less about every little thing. It's normal to feel things AND it's normal for them to sometimes feel big or heavy or hot or sharp. Like a photographer, you can examine the size, colour, texture, and tone of what you are feeling. And like a photographer you can change the frame. That might sound simple but we humans are vulnerable to exaggerating unimportant stuff and minimising important stuff. So learning to pay attention in a calm, curious way can help us be like a skilled photographer, finding the right perspective to see ourselves (and other people) more clearly and appreciate more of the nuance that makes us all so weird and wonderful and worth taking a good look at.
Jennifer Crescenzo is a Melbourne based Yoga Instructor & owner of Muse in Motion. She has been teaching yoga and leading yoga teacher training for over 15 years in Australia and internationally. In 2020, Jennifer pioneered the Yin in Motion method which combines her extensive study of movement science with her experience as a runner, yogi, lifter, climber, and martial artist. Whether in a class or 1:1 session, she uses her 10 years as a documentary filmmaker to tell a "movement story" that makes complex things simple and fun and helps you move and feel better every day.
Learn more about Jennifer here