This body is the vase of my emotions, this body is not here to house them forever.
INTENTION:
In this blog I want to give some ideas about the Yin Yoga Practice as a valuable tool to engage with our emotions and process them starting with body presence. When we provide our body with a sense of safety while opening and expanding the connective tissue, we allow ourselves to disclosure old pains and traumas, and we can start to acknowledge them on the mat. From my own experience, I know that Ying Yoga has potent benefits beyond the physical.
In this blog, I will focus on the connective tissue and the fascia, to allow simplicity and for practical reasons. In the next Blog I will focus on meridians, since these are the energy rivers, important aspect in Yin Yoga Practice.
WHAT IS YIN YOGA?
Yin Yoga is a modality emphasizing on the connective tissue: joints, cartilages, ligaments, tendons, nerves, and fascia. This emphasis is done through holding each posture/asana for at least three minutes, and making slow transitions between asanas. As we transition slowly, we give the body time to re establish into neutrality while undoing the poses y receiving the the benefits of the stretching. Although slow, the practice can build up rhythm and flow, becoming sometimes a beautiful body dance.
A very important concept in Yin Practice is finding the resistance or edge in the pose: That place where we can hold but where we can’t move forward (stretch more). It is in that place of resistance where we can lead the body towards emotional awareness. The resistance is that physical sensation that can lead us into uncovering what the body stores (may be stories ?).
The name of Yin was adopted by Sarah Powers as a way to differentiate this practice from more active and dynamic yoga modalities such as Hatha, kundalini, vinyasa and others, move faster between asanas, emphasizing the work on the muscles, transitioning between asanas quicker, supporting the movement with active breathing.
Yin Yoga is practiced through these steps:
1. You communicate to your body to find the right pose, this time is for your body to find a position that is comfortable to hold. It is important to take the time to find it, since you will be there for a while.
2. Your body settle in the posture.
3. You hold the posture for at least three minutes. You hold according to your body capabilities, however three minutes is a minimum advisable.
4. Undoing the asana, Allowing the body into neutrality. This part of the process deserves full attention, giving the body time to unfold after the holding, to avoid injuries and body stress.
Breathing: As in any yoga modality, the breathing process is paramount. It is through conscious breathing that we bridge body with intention. In Yin Yoga the inhalations and exhalations are deep and slow, allowing the deepening into the asanas.
Gravity: Yin Yoga works in partnership with gravity, since most poses are held in sitting or lying down position. The poses do not challenge balance.
SOME BENEFITS OF A CONSISTENT YIN YOGA PRACTICE:
Improves flexibility and body agility
Improves proprioception: spatial awareness.
Improves body Hydration
Slow down ageing
Avoid contractures,
Improve balance and stability
Body alignment, strength, resilience and awareness.
Avoid inflammation, improving joint health
Helps to hold meditation postures longer.
Shorter recovery time after exercising and healing time after an injury
Increase Energy Release
Emotional Awareness and Healing: This is the is the main focus of this Blog.
WHAT IS FASCIA AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
Fascia is part of the body’s connective system. It is the web that connects the different organs and tissues. The fascia envelopes brain, nerves, vessels, glands, visceral system. Without the fascia tissue our internal organs would not have any sense of stability, tension and shape. Our bodies would be a bag of bones and muscles. What a powerful Tissue it is, a net that through tensegrity keeps us together in one piece, aligning cosmic and earth forces, keeping our body shape and alignment.
Modern research shows fascia as a covering, continuous structure gliding and cushioning organs and joints and regulating fluids and energy flow. The fascia is also a highly innervated organ, which makes it very important in the signal or stimulation towards the brain. Some studies describe the fascia as the most important sensorial organ, this is one of the reasons why exercising connective tissue and fascia can stimulate and trigger old sensations and neglected emotions that we are often not fully aware of.
HOW YIN YOGA HELPS EMOTIONAL EXPLORATION AND HEALING?
It has been proved that our bodies are the containers and keepers of our pains, injuries and traumas, which not only leave physical scars but also emotional and energetic prints. Some times these emotional prints become blocks for our joy, happiness and our connection to life purpose.
Big traumas and emotional shocks very often happen when we were babies or children and/or we did not have the emotional tools to face and deal with them. What the body cleverly does is store them, acting as our psychic ally to keep us safe in avoiding more psychological confusion and damage. Emotional injuries are stores specially in the fascia and deeper tissues, as a defensive and preservation mechanism.
It is important to acknowledge the role the body plays in keeping us safe. Physiologically what the body does is to close the pathways of pain as if switching the lights off and disconnecting these body parts from the main electric system. In other words, to numb these areas and allow the different areas to continue growing around these numbed parts. Through our our upbringing, we also learn behavioral patterns to suppress and neglect emotions, in that way we avoid pains that we are not able to deal with.
But there is a moment in our life when we are ready and I need to face, feel, process and let go of these emotions. It is in this moment when Yin Yoga can become a very useful tool to embody, bring into presence and surrender to these emotions.
Any physical practice done with awareness and intention creates the openness into our energetic and emotional body. Yin Yoga however, is in my own experience, the most powerful and empowering physical practice to bring emotional awareness.
How Yin Yoga supports emotional awareness?
When we set an intention and follow the principles of this particular practice, we allow relaxation in the postures, openness and full body presence in each asana: This state of meditation provides a sense of safety and relaxation (the parasympathetic nervous system is activated). As we feel safe, we allow ourselves to feel emotions hidden and buried in our physical system, emotions that before we were not equipped to face and engage with. These sensations are often not very pleasant, and many of us have spent good part of our lives avoiding them. If in the posture, we are body present, we can give ourselves the chance feel, accept and surrender to these unwanted feelings. Embracing and accepting these feelings is a very important step to the possibility for emotional healing.
One way to explain the effect of this modality is that the body opens up into relaxation, expansion and mental space. The tension is released from muscles, bones, fascia, the nerves light up and they are reconnected to the whole electric system of the body. The hydration provided by the practice, flushes the region at work, cleansing it and making the stored feelings more approachable and then the mental relaxation open the option to open up to these feelings and may be start processing them and/or let them go.
In summary: Yin Yoga:
Physically provide more body opening through stretching sand holding the postures
Physiologically: The electric system is switched back on in these areas where it was off while we neglected those emotional pains.
Mentally: The practice creates space to curiosity and inquisitiveness and makes us more available to let go.
Energetically: There is more fluidity in the area that is at work, Hydration provide by the practice facilitates this energetic opening. LAST REFLECTION
Physical work done consciously is always -in my opinion- a foundational opportunity to work on the energetic, emotional and spiritual bodies. Yin Yoga, practiced with curiosity and sense of enquiry is conducive to become better friends with our bodies, deepening this relationship, we open up to the body's feedback beyond the physical.
I don’t think of Yin Yoga as a psychotherapeutic process by any way. However, from my personal experience and working with clients, I can say that this yoga modality sets very valuable physical and mental grounds for us to be curious, aware and welcoming with our emotions and traumas, and this Per Se is an opportunity to heal, if we are ready and willing.
Yin Yoga can initiate and support the process of letting go. Some emotions can be let go of directly on the mat. Sometimes, during the practice, deep traumas start coming into light and may be extra help is needed to understand and heal. The process can start in the mat, and may be on the path we realized that we need extra input through other therapies such as talking therapies, trauma informed, and others. Fortunately at the present we can access an immense range of healing possibilities to support a holistic healing journey
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