Dealing with everyday stress is not a piece of cake. In today’s times, people constantly look for ways to release the pressure and anxiety—some through destructive vices while others, especially fitness buffs, choose to sweat the stress out. For the latter, the mania of this type of exercise has gained more appreciation—and as it continues to be endeared by society, more twists and turns are added to the regiment’s concept; one of that being the Yin and Yang yoga exercise.
Yin and Yang roots
When three notable teachers, Paul Grilley, Paulie Zink, and Sarah Powers found difficulty meditating in the early 1970s, they combined the Indian Hatha yoga and Chinese traditions to form what is now called as Yang yoga. Known for its dynamic practices, the regimen focuses on strength, fitness, and flow specifically in the heart and large intestine meridians that run along the chest cavity and the inner and outer arms. Yin Yoga, the counterbalance of Yang, focuses on flexibility, mindfulness, and softness through postures that stress the tendons, fascia, and ligaments of one’s body. When you combine the two, you get a balance between both styles—Yin and Yang, depicting the balance between day and night.
According to Ivy Hapitan, Yoga instructor at the Yoga+Express Philippines, “Yin and yang is basically how we live our lives, [especially with] what’s happening now, we live in a very dynamic manner, [where] we’re very busy and everything is moving [briskly], everything is changing so fast and we get hook to the speed of life, or the business or just the demands of life in general and the fast paced society that it’s very challenging to take a step back and to pause and really rest. The reason why we want to introduce this practice is so we can train the body again how it can come to its relaxed state. It’s not about emptying the mind, it’s the capacity to detach to the pleasant or unpleasant thoughts of the mind, and to neither repress and ignore them especially [the] negative ones that come in our daily [lives] when we doubt ourselves or sense some insecurity.”
Applying the Yin Yang concept
The workout starts simple enough with sequences of stretches, reclined twists, positions, and corpse poses done for about a minute or so each. With rounds of vital breaths in between, one escalates slowly and mindfully to the complex poses done in every round of the practice. In each round, the poses get more complicated; as the body adapts and finds its balance before it advances to the yang poses like the square, the sphinx, the caterpillar, and the child’s pose. The process repeats for three to four rounds, and with every round, the potency of each pose increases.
Hapitan mentioned that “The exercise starts off by resting the tired pair of eyes closed, feeling the sensation and the notion come through. Then letting the Yin in, [by] involving postures that are held for longer periods of time flat on the mat providing deep relaxation and preparation for the yang part of the exercise. Yin focuses on the connections within the lower back to the hips. Its postures solely involve sitting or lying down.There will come a time [when you] have to hold postures standing up, [that is] the yang part. Yang is active and warm. It is considered more dynamic, because it stretches and strengthens muscular tissues to emphasize on heating internal organs.”
Cultivating wholeness
Akin to mixing two opposite ingredients to produce a great recipe, Yin and Yang creates balance between the meditative and dynamic properties—giving the body the full exercise it truly needs. Holding poses for longer periods, releasing into them with mindful awareness of the sensations and reflections that ascend.The regiment’s concept invites one to take a step back and surrender to the joy of the present moment by understanding the physical, energetic, emotional and mental qualities of the poses as to where the body organs are involved. Embracing the Yin and the Yang is obtaining a moment of escape, to explore ways to achieve greater harmony for the body.
As Hapitan says, “You learn about the patterns of the body and your habits. We call this Yin and Yang because we want to integrate this in our lives. When we learn to relax, we learn to live our lives.”
