In the Taoist philosophy of maintaining a balance between the opposing forces of yin and yang, Yang is the more active, faster, warmer energy, and Yin is the slower, cooler, more meditative energy. As such Yin yoga can be beneficial in many ways for the physical body, the mind, the emotions, and the energetic body, bringing balance and moving your yoga practice deeper.

In Yin we hold poses passively for longer - 3 to 5 minutes, working into the joints and connective tissue. Yin places a healthy stress on the joints that we may otherwise not be able to facilitate and helps to stretch out the fascia which covers the whole of the musculature structure. If your primary yoga practice is a Yang style of yoga, the long holds in a Yin practice can support and balance your practice by providing the time to stretch out your fascia.

Yin is rooted in traditional Chinese medicine and chi energy. Yin can help to remove blockages and bring balance to the chi energy travelling through the meridian lines, the energy channels, which run throughout the body. When we hold a Yin pose, we can activate a form of acupressure on these lines of energy, as in acupuncture therapy. This helps to stimulate the flow of chi, release blocks and allow the energy to flow without hindrance, benefiting physical, emotional and mental wellbeing.

You may have heard the phrase, “We store our ‘issues in our tissues’. In Yin we lean into and spend time at our edges and with the sensations, emotions and thoughts that we find there. The more we can meet these emotional blockages the more we can help to dissolve them.