Have you ever ever tried to study to meditate however the considered sitting nonetheless to meditate made you so squirmy you threw in your meditation cushion throughout the room? For a lot of, quieting the thoughts feels extra like a chore than a second of peace. And that may be a barrier to growing a daily meditation observe.
I’ve been a yoga trainer for greater than a decade. I might be flexible and twisty, feeling comfy in superior lessons. However the second meditation was launched, I began to squirm and my wandering thoughts simply bounced round like a pinball.
What if Conventional Meditation Methods Don’t Work For You?
In my trainer coaching, we meditated and realized methods to lead meditations – primary breath meditations, physique scan meditations, totally different point of interest meditations, and tons of different meditation methods. However, it was not clicking for me. I satisfied myself that I couldn’t sit nonetheless, and I definitely couldn’t get my thoughts to nonetheless.
Even when I can’t do a selected pose myself, it’s no drawback as a result of I nonetheless have the ability to information my college students into that pose. However for me, not having the ability to meditate felt totally different. So I didn’t introduce it into my lessons as a result of I didn’t really feel comfy speaking to my college students about stilling the physique and quieting the thoughts once I couldn’t.
As my yoga observe and instructing grew to become extra superior I’d all the time really feel that I used to be missing for not being “a meditator.” And no quantity of meditation suggestions or meditation methods had been serving to.
Finally, I found the bridge I wanted to lastly settle into a daily meditation observe. It was Yin yoga. Yin yoga is a type of yoga the place you maintain a posture for an prolonged time frame … like full minutes of time, not simply 5 – 10 breaths. Have you ever already tuned out pondering it isn’t for you? Hear me out.
Yin yoga can provide a gateway to mindfulness meditation for these of us who discover conventional approaches difficult. Let’s speak about how Yin yoga helped me begin meditating and may give you the chance that will help you unlock the meditative state you didn’t assume you could possibly attain.
Enter Yin Yoga
In increasing my information of yoga, I attempted totally different class types. Being a circulation yoga lover, a sluggish observe the place I’d solely do 6-8 poses seemed like my worst nightmare. But it surely turned out to be simply the other – Yin was precisely what I wanted to easily focus and really feel calmer.
Yin is a passive observe that as Bernie Clark writes within the Full Information to Yin Yoga, “physiologically … targets the deeper connective tissues.”
It’s a cool observe, which means that you shouldn’t go into it with a warmed up physique and it’ll not be a cardio observe that heats you up. The observe’s “intention is to soundly, reasonably stress our joints to advertise the well being of the tissues in and round our joints—to not overly lengthen these tissues” (Yoga Journal April 2023).
And sure, physiologically it did all that, however I additionally discovered a technique to enter a meditative state.
Training Yin has many similarities to meditation, beginning with sitting in “stillness.”
Consider Childs pose. Have you ever ever taken a category and also you begin in Childs pose? Particularly when it’s your first form on the yoga mat as you first widen your knees and ease your sit bones in the direction of your heels you might need to wiggle to handle the bodily sensations of the pose. It doesn’t begin out feeling restful however after a couple of deep breaths your physique begins to settle in and your rest response comes on-line.
Then, you may discover that you simply’re capable of now get your head right down to the ground. It’s possible you’ll discover your arms can inch ahead slightly extra. Your breath begins to even out. Your thoughts may even start to give attention to the sound of your breath versus some other ideas your personal thoughts introduced into the room.
Congratulations – you’ve got simply completed Yin yoga.
How Yin Yoga is Like a Meditation Session
Whereas I used to be specializing in my breath, entering into every Yin pose, and permitting my physique to proceed to regulate I used to be in “the second.” I wasn’t enthusiastic about an e-mail I had to reply to when class was completed. Or enthusiastic about what I ought to have stated within the assembly 5 days in the past.
I used to be linked to my physique and my breath and – little did I do know – I used to be partaking in a meditation observe – even when it wasn’t the way in which we historically consider sitting meditation.
I used to be having a continued dialog with myself seeing if the discomfort of relative stillness I felt was my autopilot mind simply wanting to maintain transferring on to one thing else, or my physique saying that it had to get out of the form. My thoughts was totally immersed with curiosity on the precise second I used to be in.
My “doing” mentality was glad as a result of I used to be “doing” yoga. The “being” mentality of meditation – of being within the current second – was additionally glad.
A New Perspective on Mindfulness Meditation
It took me awhile of constant observe with Yin to comprehend that what I used to be doing was meditation. I used to be mindfully within the current second. It enabled me to get out of my very own means and understand that there is no such thing as a proper or improper technique to meditate.
Finally, I used that very same set of abilities from my Yin observe to start to sit down in what you’ll usually consider as a meditation observe (sit loosely cross-legged, eyes closed). I’ve a cushion and I pop on an app’s guided meditation for five or 10 minutes.
Some days I’m in it, capable of keep centered with few distractions, and different days my thoughts wanders. However I can sit with the stillness and provide myself light reminders commonly to information my thoughts in the direction of that too, even when it’s a fleeting second.
So if meditation is in your 2025 record of intentions and also you bristle on the concept of having the ability to sit nonetheless for even a minute, strive Yin yoga.
Have you ever ever tried Yin earlier than? What was your expertise? Drop us a word beneath. –Tam
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Tam Turse, M.A., RYT-500 is the Editor at FBG. When she isn’t modifying, writing, or working a 9-5 advertising job, she might be instructing a yoga class or coaching for her subsequent marathon. You could find her on IG @tamturse .
