5 Amazing Health Benefits of Yin Yoga (And Why You Should Make Time For It Right Now)

Have you tried yin yoga? It's a style of yoga where you practice long-held floor poses. It's a passive style of practice rather than active, dynamic practice. In active yang yoga, we see lots of repetitive movements to create strength in our body. Yin yoga works with connective tissues in our body, helping us gain more flexibility. Here are 5 benefits of yin yoga and why incorporating yin yoga might be beneficial for you.  

1. Release tightness and tension in the body

For me, practising yin yoga feels a bit like bathing in the hot water. I can feel the muscular tensions melting away while softening into each pose. During the practice, you are encouraged to drop into stillness and surrender. There is no forcing, no striving. In fact we want the muscles to be switched off so we can work with deeper parts of the body – connective tissues, ligaments and joints.

2. Reduce stress and anxiety

Yin yoga is the time to slow everything down! There is no hurry while we practice. We take time to arrive in each pose, stay there for a while and take time to come out. We rest between poses without rushing from one pose to the next. We have no agenda in mind. Just taking time to sit quietly with ourselves and let things unfold. It is so healing!

3. Enhance healthy function of the organs by encouraging healthy flow of chi in the body 

Yin yoga is a little like a marriage between Traditional Chinese Medicine and Yoga. We work with acupressure points and can work with specific meridians (energy channels) in our body, which encourages healthy flow of chi or what yogis call prana. This nourishes our organs and helps our organs to function fully. It feels a bit like getting an acupuncture session, but without using the needles.

4. Allow us to cultivate acceptance

This non-striving practice helps us to cultivate more acceptance in our life. There is no need to neither push nor force our body into a posture. We allow our body to go as far as it can naturally go. We often notice one side feels tighter than the other and take it as an opportunity to get to know our body and practice more acceptance. There is no need to achieve anything in this practice. We drop DOING and enjoy BEING.

5. Make meditation a little easier

As we sit in each pose for 3 to 5 minutes, we stay present in each moment, noticing the sensation of our body changing. We watch our thoughts or feelings coming and going. We are meditating as we remain in each pose! Yin yoga can be seen as a mini meditation session and it might be an easier place to begin meditation practice for some people. Many people find it challenging to remain still in a seated posture even for a couple of minutes. (because of throbbing in the knee, tightness in the hip, achy back etc.) Yin yoga helps you to give more flexibility in your hips and so it often helps you to sit longer more comfortably.

Special GIFT for YOU💝

If you feel inspired to explore yin yoga with me, I invite you to check out this FREE CLASS, only available for a very limited time🧘‍♀️

Limited-time FREE Access
Yin Yoga with Chika
Class Duration: 30 minutes
👉 CLICK HERE👈 to Get Instant Access

About Chika
Chika is the founder of Wa Yoga (Wa is a Japanese word meaning harmony). She is a Yoga Australia registered teacher, student of yoga since 2008, teaching yoga & mindfulness since 2014. She's a mum of a school-aged daughter.

She got introduced to yin yoga by Sarah Owen, Australia’s first and only Insight Yoga endorsed teacher based in Sydney. Chika studied further with her teacher, Sarah Powers (the founder and the director of Insight Yoga Institute) on multiple occasions including level 1 & 2 trainings, workshops & silent retreats. Chika has over 150 hours of specific training in the field of yin yoga and total of over 500 hours in yoga studies.

She specialises in offering online courses and memberships for mothers of young children and young families. She has a gentle approach to teaching yoga and her classes are always infused with mindfulness, reminding people to slow down and come back to the present moment. Her mission is to inspire and motivate other mums to start incorporating yoga & mindfulness into their daily self-care ritual.

She is a creator of Calm & Relaxed Mama course. This is an online course where you can restore and balance your energy by learning the foundation of both yin yoga (passive, stillness-based practice) and yang yoga (active, movement-based practice). You can <<CLICK HERE>> to find out more.

She also runs Mindful Mama Membership to help mums achieve optimal health through the combination of yoga, mindfulness & Ayurveda. She offers weekly guidance through this platform and you'll have 3 touchpoint with her every single week. This is the only place where you can receive ongoing support from her. If you'd like to find out more about how to become a member, <<CLICK HERE>>