And Then I Discovered Yin Yoga

I could just sit and watch them grow.

I was reading a book not so long ago, called Don't Let Anything Dull Your Sparkle by Doreen Virtue, and she talks a bit about yin yoga in the book. A yoga practice that is slower, softer, feminine and gentle. Holding poses (I suppose I should start to use yoga speak, asana's) for quite a long time, just sinking into the body, abiding in the stillness of the pose and finding the quiet within. It all sounds blissful and in my experience, it is.

Anyway, before reading her words, I had not heard of yin yoga and I'm new at the yoga path in general, having taken it up only 6 months ago. But, I knew very early on that yoga was going to be part of my everyday life as I was instantly taken with how these simple body poses are so calming, so cleansing, so life altering and yet so simple. So yes, yoga is here to stay for me. But this yin yoga thing was all new again.

As soon as I read her words about it, I knew exactly what pose I needed to be in. The one that my book even says to hold for 3 minutes and I hold for, ooh maybe 30 seconds. Pigeon pose. That one. Hmmm. So that evening, after reading this book, I got out my mat, warmed up a little, spent some time in child pose and then went into deep long holds each side for pigeon pose. I stayed there through the resistance, my body wanting to move, demanding to move, screaming to move and then sighing and giving in to the pose. And I stayed a little longer again. Beautiful. I already knew I loved yin yoga.

Anyway, about 3 hours later, I woke up in bed with a powerful energy shift. It was like something from my abdomen was literally torn apart with two flashes of light, one heading to my feet and the other to my head. I knew instantly it was because of that yin yoga, the pigeon pose. The one I had been avoiding. The word that popped into my head was purging. And then the nausea struck. And shortly after that, the purging began.

I spent the next 10-odd hours being incredibly ill, completely incapable of parenting so nana was called in (thankfully) and wondering when it was all going to end. But at the same time, I knew that this was a huge, massive energy shift for me, an extremely powerful and physical release, and I was immensely grateful at the same time. That nausea, I had carried it around with me for over a decade. Probably two. And it was finally shifting.

It's funny the way we store 'stuff' in our bodies. The things we haven't dealt with, don't want to deal with; the feelings that are too hard to feel so we stuff them down and pretend they aren't there. I don't even know what was held in that nausea, but I knew it was there. Many years ago, more than 10 and well before I was ever on any truly spiritual path, I did some Chi Gong classes, and that's where I first confronted my nausea. Crazy, that these strange poses could leave me knocked out on the floor feeling sick as a dog. And the nausea was still there years later when I did my first Reiki attunement, back when I was pregnant with my boy. Excruciating, and in all honesty I'm glad it didn't shift too much under those circumstances, seated in a group circle and all (I had a spirit guide standing behind my chair throughout that one, holding me up, bless her). And in more recent times, the constant nagging nausea, the lump in my throat, the number of times I tried to make myself sick just to shift it, I could feel it so strongly (from all the energy cleaning work I've done, I suppose, stripping away layer after layer, getting to the heart of the matter). Course it didn't budge. Not until pigeon pose.

I hope I'm not turning you off yin yoga here, but I do love this story. I love that after so many years, after so much healing, clearing, shifting energy, I finally got to experience this seismic shift. We are all so different in how we process and deal with stuff, and my story might be on the extreme end of things (I do get great big explosive shifts, and to be honest, it suits me just fine) but I cannot emphasise the beauty of yin yoga enough. Also called restorative yoga, it is truly such a gentle yet deep and profound practice, and so very simple to do. No crazy difficult poses, no working up a sweat, not at all. Just deep, gentle and healing. This is where I'll be dedicating my yoga practice in the most part this year, slowly, gently and powerfully restorative.

Do you do yoga? I was very late to get on the yoga train but I absolutely love it now. It is a life changer for me.