CONFESSIONS OF A YOGA TEACHER…

I have always struggled in yin!

In fact it has taken me AGES to get on my mat for a yin class.

Yin- particularly hip opening yin poses- used to make me rage. Really really!

Most yin poses are passive stretch poses help for up to four minutes. In some poses, that 4 minutes feels like 10 hundred years, and when your teacher softly announces we are ONLY HALF WAY, I am convinced I am going to die.

Hi, have you met me? My name is Emily and I am dramatic!

Seriously though- yin can bring up ALL the feels.

So I have avoided it. Actively avoided it. But then I opened my studio, and students loved it and so I started teaching more of it, and then doing more of it, and now my relationship has changed to it. Can’t say I love it… but I get it now!

Yin teaches us how to be uncomfortable. How to hold ourselves steady in that discomfort. It reminds us that we may be challenged, but we can still breathe through it. That we may not have control over the pose, but we have control over how we RESPOND to the pose (as in not punching said teacher in the face!)

It also teaches us, that nothing is permanent. Our brain tricks us into thinking it will never end. Then it does and we feel great and want to do it again!

You see, these are all life skills for when life throws shit at us. We can’t control what shows up on our doorstep, but we can control how we respond to it. That yin class taught you that! That you may be really stressed, or really hurt, or really lost, but you can still hold yourself steady and breathe through it. That yin class taught you that too! That the struggle might feel permenant, but suddenly it is over and has become a story you share with others about how you got through it. That yin class taught you that too!

What we learn ON the mat, we can take OFF the mat, and that is what makes yoga such a deep practise.

So, if you are challenged by yin, I so see you. But roll out your mat and keep trying it, because on the other side of the ego-scream is a deep stretch practise that will also fine tune your ability to cope- and that is why I rather like it now!