Yin Flows You Can Practice Anytime
Winter Solstice Yin Flow
Yin is a wonderful way to connect with your own inner stillness, quietude., and soft light this solstice. Observe how the cosmic patterns of nature are also alive in you, as you. As you settle into your practice and breathe, notice the inherent brightening quality of the inhalation (like daytime). Notice the inherent softening and quieting of the exhalation (like nighttime). Let the exhalations pour out longer than the inhalations (like the long nights in winter). Embrace the natural pause at the bottom of each exhalation, so much like the pause on solstice, before the next brightening cycle begins.
Nourishing Hips
This practice is a deep exploration of the structures of the hips, especially targeting the layers the cross the outer and inner sides of the pelvis. Yang layers of the pelvis (muscles) help move us into each shape; once the body is set, yang tissues can soften against the support of the ground and props. Yin structures receive as yang structures let go.
Heart Opening Yin
A common thread pulled through thousands of years of yoga tradition is an invitation to return home to the spaciousness and radiance of the spiritual heart. In the Patanjali Yoga Sutras focusing one’s attention upon the light of the heart is offered as a tool that calms the waves of consciousness stirring within us. In this Heart Opening Yin sequence, put this tool to use as you explore through the tissues that support and encompass your physical heart.
Winter Yin
Nature reveals winter as a time to slow down, conserve energy, release excess, and direct attention down and in to that which sustains and carries us into the next growth cycle. In the days surrounding solstice and New Year’s, there is an invitation to pause and reflect in the space between where we’ve been (the last year, the last growth cycle) and where we’re going (onward, as always, right?!). In other words, this time we’re in is a time for us to simply be. This Winter Yin sequence is an invitation into the season of stillness, quietude, rest, and surrender.