Yin and Yang Yoga Saltwater Yoga Newquay Cornwall

A Celebration of all things Yin

I love yin yoga. Now. But as someone who has always had a very dynamic yoga practice, yin yoga was initially a bit of a struggle for me.

In fact, I was bored out of my mind, fidgety and frustrated. Why was there not more movement?

Yin Yoga is a slow paced practice, holding shapes with your body from between 1-10 minutes (some crazy kids hold for up to 2o minutes!) Before you start to panic, the shapes we make in yin are not strength-based, but are made up of passive stretches, allowing the body to settle into its own maximum.

It aims for a much deeper level of flexibility in the body – connective tissues (ligaments, tendons, fascia – even eventually the skeletal system.) The practice often targets areas in and around joints – the pelvis and spine receive a lot of love.

Yin Yoga Restorative Relax Newquay Cornwall Saltwater Yoga Class

Hold this for a few minutes, you’ll soon start to feel some stuff

Yin and the Nervous System

Yin, and the mindfulness associated with it, also allows the body to activate the parasympathetic state of the nervous system, more commonly known as ‘rest and digest’ mode (or ‘feed and breed’, which is funnier.) It conserves energy as it slows the heart rate, increases intestinal and gland activity, aiding sleep and restoration.

The opposite (the sympathetic) governs our ‘fight or flight’ response. We need this when we need to react to a perceived threat, but too much time spent in this state causes stress and fatigue. And we find ourselves here way too much.

Yin Yoga Saltwater Yoga Cornwall Newquay

Peaceful, lovely Yin. Being next to a pool or two helps.

Luckily, I soon realised how much my body (and mind!) needed to balance out my active lifestyle. At certain times of the year, I surf coach twice a day, go for my own surf, teach yoga classes and try and fit in a run. This obviously can be pretty tiring, and at times my body has very close to fatigue and burnout. Not good.

So I do not always need to add a strong, dynamic yoga practice – I actually need to even out all this activity (yang) with some calm (yin.)

And it really works. Since practicing yin, I have noticed much more flexibility and ease in my body, especially noticeable around my hips and lower back. Which has moved across to my yang practice too.

It’s all about balance, folks.

I love yin so much that I have started teaching a class completely devoted to it. So for anyone who is curious, come along! (see here for more details)

The benefits of Yin Yoga

Increases mobility in the body, especially around joints
Brings down stress and anxiety levels
Better lubrication and protection of joints
Releases fascia
Relaxing and calming – helps me to sleep! (I do a lot of my yin practice in bed)
Improves dynamic yoga for a more rounded and complete practice
Better ability to sit for meditation

As someone who has been into yoga and meditation for a few years now, I should perhaps know more than most how important it is to approach both as you would any other practice – with discipline. So after a couple of months of letting them slide (especially the meditation part), I shouldn’t be surprised that I am a little bit uncomfortable in my body, and feeling slightly…tetchy.

Cornwall in the Summer

Is exhausting. August in Cornwall is an empathy drainer, capable of turning the most helpful and polite of us into short-tempered, people-hating automatons. Or maybe it’s just me.

Summer. Lovely

I always begin the summer season full of promises to myself that I will enjoy the energy that the tourists bring, greeting people with a smile, and answering their silly questions with grace and patience. This lasts approximately 4.5 seconds, before pre-yoga Rachel takes over and ruins everything.

Here is a secret I must share with you. Yoga teachers are not always calm, blissful angels who levitate through life with a knowing smile and permanently contracted glutes. They feel irritation and impatience like everyone else, pushing the rage down into that small corner that causes stomach ulcers. They may just be better at letting it go before if does any serious damage.

Augustitis

But I struggle to maintain a decent level of equanimity in August, perhaps because I am VERY BUSY and don’t make enough time to practice yoga, see my friends, run or surf as much as I would like. I am far too busy dealing out withering comments to tourists and booking in far too much work, blindly panicking that I will have to live off of August’s earnings until next year. Winter is coming! There is no work! Etcetc. This is a very pre-yoga Rachel attitude, and it makes me feel guilty, because usually, yoga helps me to not be such a twat.

What is also not ideal is my default to a passive aggressive, sarcastic answer when someone asks me why the car park is so expensive, why there is no cash machine at the beach, why the weather is bad, or why we don’t sell bread in the surf school. They are stupid questions, yes, but a big part of yoga is self-reflection, so I think it’s about time I try and work out how to temper that flare of August rage.

Meditation, not irritation!

To this end, I have set myself a GOAL. This goal is to meditate every morning, before I zombie-stagger out of bed to inhale coffee. Just for two minutes, to start off with, aiming to make it longer as I get into a routine. I find that when I mediate I am much calmer for the rest of the day, and the sarky, gobby Rachel stays in her box. Who knows, I might even be more pleasant to strangers! I recently attended a guided mediation, hosted by the AMAZING and gorgeous and generally very lovely Joey from Horizon Inspired (seriously, if you can, check her out – she’s brilliant), and I left feeling excellent.

© Licensed to Megan Hemsworth. 13/08/2017. BOARDMASTERS, NEWQUAY, CORNWALL UK. ROXY Meditation Saltwater Yoga

It is much easier to meditate when you can look at the sea, I’ll admit. Photo credit: MEGAN HEMSWORTH

Five Good things that meditation does

Meditation, when practised regularly, prompts the pituitary gland to secrete endorphins, giving you that same feeling of well-being that exercise does.
It reduces stress. Meditation nudges our nervous system into its parasympathetic state, or ‘rest and digest’. Our body starts to heal, and allows our mind to stop worrying about the small things.
Improves sleep, and makes falling asleep easier. Ever lay in bed for hours, getting more irritated because you JUST CAN’T FALL ASLEEP BUT YOU’RE REALLY TIRED SO IT SHOULD BE REALLY EASY? Yeah, me too. Instead of doing that thing, which is horrible, take some time to concentrate on your breathing, slow down that silly brain, and you might just find you fall asleep without realising.
Lowers blood pressure. Next time you feel a bit brain-fidgety, lie down on the floor, take some deep breaths, close your eyes, and focus only on your breath for a few minutes. Every time your mind starts to start a fight with you, just gently ignore it, and come back to the concentration on breathing. Feel that blood pressure slow right down.
Helps focus. As I mentioned before, mediation is a discipline, and setting aside some time every day to practice it sets you in good stead for other disciplines. Studies on meditation suggest that it can sharpen mental focus and improve cognitive performance. Monks have known this for ages, we are only just starting to catch up.

But I am rubbish at meditation! How do i possibly do it?

Watch this guy below, he explains it much better than I ever could.

Meditation really is something we can all do, if we just give ourselves those few minutes of space and quiet. We are already equipped with the tools to calm ourselves down, and sometimes we just need a little reminder of how to do it. I know this, but stuff just gets in the way sometimes, so I am going to try these apps, Headspace and Buddhify to see if they help me stick to a routine.

Do feel free to comment if you know of any other good ones you’ve tried, or if you’ve had any luck with meditation!

Why I Love Yin Yoga