A Yin for Action

There is a phrase I repeat to my Yin Yoga classes, almost a mantra, - "patient endurance."  It is to remind students that there is much to be learned from resting in discomfort.  As we spend three, then four minutes in the pose, I can often see them begin to relax and breathe easy.  Other times I see signs of strain - a tightness in the jaw, a constrained breath.  As we work through the tension, the lessons learned are as much mental as physical.  While the deep tissues stretch the mind is trained to rest and observe the discomfort, not to "fix" it. (Please note I'm not talking about serious pain here, just the stretch we may feel, or the uncomfortable breath - things we can play with. If something really hurts, stop!)

There are times, however, when the whole Yin-patience thing needs to be tossed in favor of working up the equivalent to a full-blown mental Yang sweat. In a flowing, active Yang class, we move with any discomfort. We focus in, locate the source, breathe and let go. We listen to our bodies, asking ourselves questions: "If I rotate my upper arm in, is that better?" "What happens if I widen my collar-bones in this pose?" But through it all, we move, breathing in, breathing out. To both practice safely and to experience the union that yoga's ultimately all about, we have to be constantly mindful of what's happening in the present moment.  We learn then to adjust as we go, knowing that if we are mindful and respectful of what's happening inside us we can make the best choices.  That's the coolest thing about a yoga practice - how the physical practice of the asanas and meditation enhances our lives off the mat.

 
Throughout life, we come up against discomforts over and over again.  If you have lived any time at all, you know you don't reach a point in life where everything is perfect.  If you are lucky, there are always new things to see and do that challenge your old way of thinking and being, and put you right back in the discomfort zone.  There are also things that could hardly be considered lucky in the worldly sense, things that shake us down deep in our soul.  Things happen where the cultivation of patient endurance pays off, while having a cardiac scan, or sitting by a hospital bed, for example.

We all experience times when a Yin response is the only option.  But just like our bodies sometimes tell us we really need the release of a few extra morning sun salutations or a good 90-minute flow class, we learn to recognize the times for action in our life.   Not of the heedless, "throw-the-baby-out-with-the-bathwater" kind, but of the Yogic kind.  If I alter this - change jobs, move, take this trip - how does that feel?  What does my heart tell me?  Can I breathe?   Is there something in my life that doesn't serve me anymore?  Just as there are times in our practice when we have to let go of a particular asana because of injury or age, we recognize situations calling for us to just let go and move on.

There is some thought in yoga that as a person grows older, more of the practice should be Yin styled.  Personally, I'm not sure about that.  Keeping a balance of the two, we are more intuitively aware of the need for movement, to take action, when age or circumstances make us fearful of change.  That is one of the greatest things about a yoga practice - we aren't really late bloomers.  We're perpetual bloomers.