Don't yin yoga and drive...?

Blissfully experienced my first full yin yoga class tonight.


Yin yoga is a passive, gentle style, in which specific poses can be held upwards of five or more minutes. This is to deeply stretch and wake-up the connective tissue (the tissue that connects, supports, and separates other tissues or organs), which can become stiff or tight in the body, especially if there has been injury.

It's partner style, typically qualifying as most other classes, yang yoga, is more active, strengthening, and includes more poses in the sequence.
Though, as Chinese philosophy describes the yin-yang relationship: in yin there is always some yang and in yang there is always some yin.

The 20 minute sample of yin yoga we did during our teacher training was like a sample of fruit from a grocery store. Delicious, good for me, but lacking the full nourishment of eating the whole fruit.

Yin is so gentle. Though, it still includes the beneficial yoga challenges: intending to keep the mind clear and the breath steady while the body is waning between discomfort and pain in some postures, but that's how we know it's working! Haha!

With the combination of soothing music, warm dimly lit room full of beautiful souls, and calm tones of wisdom from the man who was leading us... I was so relaxed afterwards I thought I'd need to call a cab to get home. "Sorry, officer, I'm not drunk, I'm under the influence of yoga."
(But of course I am kidding. I wouldn't want any yoga skeptics thinking yogis are a driving hazard!)

It is so the complete opposite!

After delicious classes, I am relaxed, yes, and sleep comes easily when in bed, thankfully, but I become so very in tune and aware, of all that is inside of me and outside of -my car?

It leads me to be fully present in the Now- there's no way I could fall asleep while feeling so awake to the moment!

My heart, my hips, my mind became more opened than I could imagine from a class with so few postures.

Less movement, more deepening, longer breaths.

The gentile pace, relaxing into a posture for what feels like days, adds such a sweetness to the class, the body, the mind. A lightness to being. No pressure to preform. Just the simple, beneficial act of being present in a posture.

Mmmm I recommend yin yoga