Tenets of Yin Yoga Agawam MA

By Lisa Maria

1. Find an Appropriate Edge

As you enter a pose, move slowly and gently into the suggested shape—without a picture of how far you should go. As Sarah Powers says, "There's no aesthetic ideal; there's no end result we're looking for." Pause and listen to the body. Wait for feedback before moving deeper into the posture. Many people, especially dancers and athletes, have lost much of their sensitivity to the signals of the body and are used to overriding those messages. Look for an appropriate amount of intensity, a balance between sensation and space. "It's a good opportunity to create a renewed kind of innocence, a listening to the intelligence of the body that gives you feedback about when it's been triggered to feel outside its comfort zone," Powers says. Relax into the body; discover and explore each subtle layer along the way to your deep resting place.

2. Be Still

Resolve not to fidget. Don't try to fix or change the pose, to intensify it, or to escape the sensations. Consciously try to release (or even just imagine releasing) into the shape. Doing that helps you relax the muscles around the connective tissues you are most attempting to influence. In addition, moving can cause unsafe stress on the connective tissue, causing injury: To be safe, hold statically at the edge of your range of motion and engage muscles around sensitive areas or use props when needed.

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