Part 1
Whether you’ve gone to your parents home, someone else’s home, are hosting, or have even fully escaped social activities over the holidays take 20 minutes to drop all thoughts of a to-do list, to-bake list, conversation topics to avoid list, haunting memories of holidays past list, naughty or nice list, and take a respite that’s just for you.
If all your holiday celebrations are over this could be a particularly nice time to rest, reflect, and let everything settle.
If you have a yoga bolster + blocks- awesome! If not- grab a few pillows and a blanket, find a cozy corner, light some candles, and let’s get to relaxing!
For a little info on yin yoga check out my last post.
—Hold each pose between 3-5 minutes. You can set a timer. I’d recommend the app Insight Timer for having pleasant sounding tibetan bells as your alarm.
—make sure you are comfortable enough to hold the pose for a few minutes, but that you still have just enough sensation to keep it interesting. Only move if there is pain or your body invites you to go deeper.
—As you hold the pose focus on breathing, softening the body, softening the mind, and surrendering the body to gravity as you allow yourself to rest on the earth and on the props.
—Scan the body for your habitual holding patterns (where you normally hold your tension)—the usual culprits are the jaw, the space between the brows, neck, shoulders, and hips. In yin yoga we don’t contract the muscles. See how much you can let go and just be supported by your bones.
YIN POSES
Pause in a seated kneeling position for about a minute between each pose to bring your spine back to neutral and feel the echo of the pose in your body.
Dragonfly
Saddle
Supported fish (knees bent and knocked together or legs straight. Bolster length wise under spine, or blocks, or pillows/folded blanket)
Twisted Roots (reclined twist).