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Yin Yoga ‘The Quiet Practice’

Movement for Modern Life invites you to take our brand new 15—day Yin Yoga Challenge.  All you need is 30 minutes, preferably in the afternoon or evening – this is a yoga challenge that you can do in your pyjamas. So, during the dark winter days, light a candle, grab a cuppa, roll out your mat and enjoy the true hygge of yoga.

Yin Yoga is the perfect way to start creating a more peaceful inner life. Known as the ‘quiet practice’, it is one of the most calming and nurturing things that we can do. So many of us are overwhelmed, depleted, stressed out – and for many of us, we believe the solution lies in sweating it out, pushing through it, blowing off steam. But all of this is adding yet more fuel to the stress-induced fire. Pounding the treadmill, dragging ourselves to bootcamp, or choosing a high intensity class further adrenalises us, when what so many of us need is the exact opposite.

 

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Yin Yoga ‘The Quiet Practice’

Movement for Modern Life invites you to take our brand new 15—day Yin Yoga Challenge.  All you need is 30 minutes, preferably in the afternoon or evening – this is a yoga challenge that you can do in your pyjamas. So, during the dark winter days, light a candle, grab a cuppa, roll out your mat and enjoy the true hygge of yoga.

Yin Yoga is the perfect way to start creating a more peaceful inner life. Known as the ‘quiet practice’, it is one of the most calming and nurturing things that we can do. So many of us are overwhelmed, depleted, stressed out – and for many of us, we believe the solution lies in sweating it out, pushing through it, blowing off steam. But all of this is adding yet more fuel to the stress-induced fire. Pounding the treadmill, dragging ourselves to bootcamp, or choosing a high intensity class further adrenalises us, when what so many of us need is the exact opposite.

We actually need to REST, release and breathe – deeply and purposefully.

“Instead of stressing our muscles we slowly work on our connective tissue; instead of taxing our bodies, we need to nourish them; instead of motivating our minds, we need to free them,” 

Kat Farrants, founder, Movement for Modern Life

It's time to Go to the Yin Side!

It’s time to turn inward, reflect and embrace your yin nature, there will be be no going back !  

Welcome to the world of Yin Yoga.

Yin is very different to what most people would recognise as ‘yoga’ and is a million miles away from yoga as fitness, which is, now you’re asking, mostly ‘yang’ yoga. With Yin yoga, you’ll never lose weight, you won’t get an instagramable handstand. You definitely won’t get a six-pack. 

So why Yin?

In this world, we're so often wound-up, over-whelmed, stressed out and plain busy. A really normal way of dealing with feelings like this is to deal in the way that many of us deal with everything in life – we sweat it out, we go to the gym, we just get on and do.

Especially those of us who are ‘type A’ personalities may find themselves drawn to go to spinning classes.

For yoga we may pick Ashtanga, or perhaps we check ourselves in at bootcamps. But as usual, there’s a difference between what we want to do, and what we really need. In fact, Yin yoga is the perfect antidote to modern, stressful living and workouts which stress rather than stretch muscles. 

Our modern, materialistic world rewards natural achievers and strivers for being busy and for chasing after success, but

"This chasing after success results in our interior lives being diminished, our inner experiences lost in this race to be someone."

Norman Blair

 

"Yin is a way inside ourselves, to immerse in our inner landscape so that we can recognise feelings, emotions, mind chatter. Personally it has helped deepen my meditation practice and connected me to stillness."

Andrea Kwiatkowski

Be Happier In Yourself

Yin yoga is very grounding. As we ground, as we breathe deeply, we start to release the stresses and anxieties and increase receptivity to the small things in life. Maybe after Yin our face starts to soften and relax. Maybe we start to breathe a little deeper. Maybe we start to notice the beauty of the natural world more and maybe we connect better with our friends and family.

Yin can even have deeply transformative effects on our personalities, making us more compassionate, grounded human beings. Less likely to strive and focus on material ‘successes’, but happier in ourselves, with less effort and more focus - bizarrely, more likely to achieve any of these successes. 

"Yin is in"

Our fabulous Yin teacher, Andrea Kwiatkowski reports a huge surge in popularity of yin yoga: 

"When I began teaching the style I literally had to drag people into my classes. Now I often have to turn them away ....."

Andrea Kwiatkowski

Let’s hope that those who get turned away from Yin classes get to find out about the wonders of Yin at home!

How to Yin?

Yin yoga is floor-based. So the floor takes the weight of your bones, of your worries and cares. You just take a shape, or the form of the shape that is most suitable for your own body, and you hold that shape. And you breathe. That’s really all there is to it. It’s so simple and the Yin yoga poses are named in English, not Sanskrit.  

The perfect accompaniment to Yin Yoga is meditation and pranayama (or breath-work), as these are wonderful ways of finding our inner calm. But also, don’t forget that even as you nestle into the ‘hygge’ feelings of coziness, calm and nurture provided by your afternoon Yin practice, you need to keep your ‘yang’ inner-fire burning brightly too. So don’t forget to continue your vinyasa classes, your morning runs and brisk walks. And then you can relax fully into Yin end to the day.

What to Expect on the Challenge

In Movement for Modern Life's 15-Day Yin Yoga Challenge, you will receive an email every day with a daily Yin yoga class of approximately 30 minutes. You will need to make sure that you have 30 minutes each day, towards the end of the day, to dedicate to yourself.

Every day you will also receive a suggested extra practice alongside your daily Yin practice. The class may be a short, beginners-level meditation or pranayama (breath-work practice), and some days you may receive a yang practice which you may want to practice in the morning. You might find that the Yin evening practices create a sense of space and calm in which you look to explore the other practices. Of course, these are entirely optional and you can pick any other class from our massive library of hundreds of videos to accompany your daily Yin class.

Every day we will include some thoughts, some ideas for ways to incorporate the philosophy of Yin yoga into your life, and we hope to provide you with the daily inspiration for you to continue your Yin transformation journey.

After practicing Yin yoga daily for 15 days you might expect your body to feel more ‘free’, and lighter even. You may find yourself a little more energised, whilst being more grounded and calmer.  You may find that you’re more able to sit still for meditation. You may even find that when challenges inevitably happen in life, you’re able to deal with these challenges with an inner smile and a spring in your step.

Yin yoga does often require some props. You will need a block, brick and a bolster for many of the classes. 

If you need to buy any extra gear, all our recommendations are in the Movement For Modern Life Store.

                                                 

Say Hello!

As you work through the challenge, we’d love to hear from you, what you think of the challenge and any suggestions to make it better. Reach out to us on our Facebook Mover’s Group, send us a picture, a question or an idea. There’s a whole community of yoga students and teachers on there, so be friendly, get involved, say hello!

Let us know how you get on during the challenge and share your journey with us on social media using #MovementForModernLife + #MoveMoreLiveMore.

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