Yin Yoga is a simple, quiet practice, but make no mistake, it is not always an easy or comfortable one!

Yin Yoga has the power to take you beyond your regular comfort zone, however, this is where much of the benefit and magic lies.
It is suitable for everyone, with important benefits ranging from rejuvenating the body from inside, increasing the mobility, it naturally detoxes your body, strengthen your joints, lowering stress levels, balancing hormones, promoting self care, self love and a deeper connection and appreciation for oneself.

You may know the terms yin and yang are borrowed from Taoism and Tradition Chinese Medicine. The word yang refers to relative masculine qualities in comparison to something that would be more yin and feminine.
Yang is faster, stronger, more external and dynamic. Yang relates to movement and creating heat in the body.
Yin is softer, more passive, internal and gentle. Yin is about finding stillness and cooling the body.
We need both the yin and the yang to find balance and stay in optimal health throughout every stage of our lifespan.

While “yang” (dynamic) yoga focuses on your muscles, yin yoga targets and stimulate connective tissues, fascia, and ligament, as well as affect bone density, joint mobility and the overall health of the internal organs. It’s slower and more meditative, giving you space to turn inward and tune into both your mind and the physical sensations of your body. You’re holding poses for a longer period of time than you would in other traditional types of yoga, and this stillness allows the body to soften. The postures in Yin yoga helps you stretch and lengthen those rarely-used tissues while also teaching you how to breathe through discomfort and sit with your thoughts. Yin exercise releases stagnant energy, stimulates and soothes the organs, allows the vital energy to travel to more deeper Yin area of the body, improves flexibility, lubricates joints, calms the nervous system, encourages the healthy flow of the lymphatic system.

Most yin yoga postures are mainly done on the floor either seated or lying down. There are no sun salutations, no planks, no warriors, no jump throughs.
Here, the goal isn’t to move through postures freely – postures could be held for three to five minutes, or even longer.
The key to practicing Yin Yoga is finding stillness in each position.
Most Yin Yoga postures are done by entering into a pose and coming to a place that is sometimes called the «edge», or “The Goldilocks position”. In this context, “the edge” is a place where there is a manageable amount of sensation, not too hard, not too soft. This edge is not a place of pain or a place that feels too intense. Instead, it’s a place where you feel some pressure. This sensation indicates there is adequate or appropriate stress on the tissues. This can lead to greater circulation in the tissues and joint sites.

Feeling (sometimes strong) sensation in the pose is one of the ways yin yoga is different than restorative yoga.

The goal is to access the deeper tissues of the body, such as connective tissue and fascia, and many of the postures focus on areas that encompass a joint such as the hips, sacrum, spine.

There are plenty of physical health benefits to practicing yin yoga:

1. Increases Flexibility and Range of Motion
2. Improved Sleep
3. Boosts your circulation
4. Reduces stress and anxiety
5. Promotes Self-Love
6. Builds Strength and Perseverance
7. Releasing Stored Emotions
8. Encourages Slowing Down
9. Shifting into the Parasympathetic Nervous System
10. A Meditative Mind
11. Cultivates Gratitude and Joy
12. Detoxes the body