So Why Yin Yoga?

Published at 12/7/2023, 11:11 AM

At VIBE WELL, we’re highly passionate about discussing our wellness experiences & journey as a team and figuring out ways to share our practices with those who could benefit (YOU) from the world-renowned practitioners, studios, and daily practices that we’ve collectively accumulated over the years.

Our CEO and founder, Ray Torres, speaks about Yin yoga often compared to other forms of yoga as being fantastic for stress reduction and a way to find your “center” in this chaotic and over-stimuli-oriented world that we’ve all become accustomed to.

In an effort to provide value and access to our daily practices and network, we’ve decided to partner with our favorite Yin Yoga instructor, Joanne Fanny Barry, down at Tribal Tulum (@tribaltulum on IG) in Tulum, Mexico, to write this article.

Yes, Joanne Fanny is a VIBE, and you should engage with her in an in-person retreat or and her incredible online library of yogic resources (Yin Yoga VIBEs included). She’s also started a once a month on-line live class that she shares with her community for free. Check her instagram for dates.

We’re biased, but our founder claims that “we wouldn’t even have a business or an article for you to read if it weren’t for Joanne Fanny!” One stop along Ray’s journey was a retreat with her and it allowed him to touch his inner spirit. #grateful

So Why Yin Yoga VIBEs?

If you watch a Yin yoga class, you might think it’s a lot of doing nothing. But you’d be so very wrong.

Yeah, in Yin we hold postures between one and sometimes seven to ten minutes, depending on our level of experience and the pose itself. It doesn’t look like you’re doing much. But in these relatively simple shapes that we hold at the edge of our flexibility, we receive excellent benefits.

For example, we’re opening fascial layers that surround our muscles and form ligaments, tendons, and even the connections between our joints. That lets us stay strong and mobile since fascia is our structural support. It’s what allows us to keep our shape over the years.

Also, we’re able to release blocks to the free flow of energy in our bodies. Who doesn’t want more energy? The long, compressive and expansive holds allow our vital energy, called Chi in Yin Yoga (Prana in a Yang practice), to move more freely in our bodies. That means more mobility, fewer aches and pains, and more awareness.

All that from sitting still?

Well, yes. But first we find the place that challenges us in that particular shape. Then we commit to stillness there and focus on our breath. That is the key: stillness at our edge and attention to relaxed, even breaths: no fidgeting, no scratching, no checking our pedicure or manicure, no judgment. We stay with ourselves in whatever experience we have in that moment. Unless, of course, it’s pain. Then, yes, we back off. But otherwise, we learn to be still.

As we maintain this commitment to stillness, magic happens. We slow things down and free stuck energy that reaffirms a connection to ourselves and helps develop acceptance of how we feel. Once we can acknowledge the feelings that arise, we’re better able to deal with them. Over time, when we’re ready, we can let them slip away. We are able to make room for new experiences and their emotions rather than carrying the heavy load of suppressed emotions that slip out in inconvenient moments. You know, like when you scream at the person who only bumped you in the grocery store, or you cry when they tell you they are all out of oat milk for your latte. We’ve all been there.

Letting go of those stored emotions in a safe place can also give us tremendous relief from being overwhelmed and actual physical tightness from trying to always hold on. The Yin yoga practice allows us to let go.

Yin is based on Traditional Chinese medicine and the understanding that energy channels run within and around our bodies. As we sit seemingly doing nothing, compressing and extending the channels that correspond to internal organs like kidneys and liver, we optimize their performance. We often take our internal organs for granted when they work well. But anyone who’s dealt with a urinary tract infection, lung congestion or digestive issue respects these vital organs’ daily contribution to our lives.

Let’s face it: their optimal performance enhances every single thing we do way more than a new facial or haircut. But we spend little time caring for them. Yin is an opportunity to develop a deep care for our internal systems.

And as we practice, it all comes together. We begin to understand at a deep level that we are not an isolated group of functions. Our bodies are a community. When we place emotions and physical misalignment within them, we limit their optimal function. Practicing Yin even ONCE a week helps us release this stored tension and trauma so that internal systems function more fully and support that community’s physical, energetic, and emotional goals.

In this way, Yin yoga allows us to gradually peel back layers of physical and mental tightness and fully inhabit the present moment. As we practice and commit to being present with whatever arises, we open ourselves to be in the right now, free of the past and future.

In doing so, we develop a stronger sense of who we are in the moment. This, my friend, cultivates happiness. So you can say we practice Yin yoga to get happier. Sit still with me for a while and you’ll see. #yinyogaVIBEs #tribaltulum

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Author (s): The VIBE Team x Joeanne Barry at Tribal Tulum