Kassandra Reinhardt - Yin Yoga: Stretch the Mindful Way

Sarah Powers, a pioneer of yin yoga, defined three universally acknowledged principles for every practice that together form the basis for practicing yin yoga safely and effectively.

Find your edge Finding your edgeknowing when to stop during a posehelps create the essential balance between no sensation and too much sensation in the body. You can learn your edge by stopping at a point during a pose where you feel intense sensations. If you go beyond that point, you risk injury.

Be still Once you find your edge, you remain still. Paying attention to your tendency to fidget, move, or mentally distract yourself is the purpose of being still. By achieving a meditative state, youre better able to listen to your body and honor your limits. Being still is critical to your yin yoga practice.

Hold the pose Youll gain the most from your yin yoga practice by holding a pose. While beginning practitioners might start with a 1- to 3-minute hold time, more experienced students might hold asanas anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes.

Ancient originsmodern practice

Yin yoga blends teachings from two different lineages: traditional Indian hatha yoga and the Chinese Taoist yin yang philosophy. Each asanaSanskrit for manner of sittingis derived from hatha yoga, but the process of holding poses for an extended period of time is rooted in Chinese Taoist practices.

Today, yin yoga serves as an antidote to your often stress-filled and busy life, which is typically yang in nature. Too much yang activity can cause an imbalance on physical, emotional, and mental levels. While you never want to be completely yin, true health and well-being come from the practice of balancing the yin and the yang, the passive and the active, and the calming and the stimulating.

Yin yoga targets your physical, mental, and emotional concerns through deep stretching and breathing. However, unlike most yang styles of yogawhich typically focuses on stretching muscles and emphasize shorter hold timesyin yoga reaches deeper into your body and mind.

Your physical body will benefit most from practicing yin yoga because it touches every element of your musculoskeletal system. Yin yoga focuses on your fasciatissue around muscles and organsso you should feel improved health on the inside, which should improve how you feel on the outside.

Improved joint health The primary physical benefit of yin yoga is strengthening the connective tissues in your joints. Theyre strengthened through steady, sustained stretching. By applying stress to your joints through stretching, yin yoga helps open and lubricate tight joints.