YOGA


the fascia that runs all throughout your body, helping to cleanse, detoxify, and improve circulation. By slowing down their parasympathetic nervous system, most people also experience a reduction in stress and anxiety.


5Balance Chi, prana, ki, or qi – whatever you


want to call your vital life force – this is the flow throughout the body and the one thing you can’t live without. Encouraging the body to work back toward its natural equilibrium, yin helps to recalibrate and restore this harmony within the body. Positively impacting overall health and well-being by balancing the internal organs and stimulating meridians, yin incorporates a lot of the Traditional Chinese Medicine principles. It not only restores balance into the body, but to the mind and spirit as well. What I especially love about this, is that over time you can begin to control your own chi through breathwork and full body awareness, in order to give yourself a rebalance anywhere and anytime you need.


6Flexibility By holding stretches for long


periods, you are guaranteed to improve your flexibility over time. Joint


76 MARCH | APRIL 2018


mobility will also improve, and the fact that we are able to tailor each pose to our individual body means that anyone is a great yin candidate. Young, old, male, female, inflexible, flexible, beginner, or advanced yogi, yin does not discriminate. Not only will your body’s flexibility improve, but you are supporting flexibility of your mind as well.


7Mindfulness With so much time in each pose,


you have the ability to do a lot of thinking. By encouraging us all to quieten the general, often irrelevant, chatter in our minds – like thinking about where we have to go after class, what to cook for dinner, and whether or not it is bin night – enables us to open up and allow more clarity and wisdom to come in. By being still, quiet, introspective, and observant of what’s going on in the mind and body, we allow a deeper sense of understanding and knowing what makes us unique. We can begin to become more acquainted with our authentic self and less caught up in mediocrity and our need for immediacy. Basically, yin is less about doing and more about being.


8Patience


Whilst practising yin, you have to


learn patience. There is no rush and students are encouraged to take their time. The mind is prone to boredom and distraction when the pose is held for such an extended period. Learning to ignore some of the body’s and mind’s distraction and diversion tactics is a skill developed over time. But accepting your situation, knowing that you are exactly where you are supposed to be, no matter how things may seem to appear, and finding peace with that, can be one of the most rewarding aspects of this amazing practice. Don’t be fooled into thinking yin


yoga is easy. Like any yoga practice, you can always take it further, challenge yourself, and begin to explore uncharted territory. Yin yoga has the potential to open you up to more possibilities in life as you begin to expand your mind and body! l


Connect with other readers & comment on this article at www.livingnow.com.au


As a wellness coach, Nicole is committed to helping students on their path to wellness.


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