Yin Yoga for Patience
Looking for a Yin Yoga practice to help generate more Patience?
Many of us understand an initial, surface-level connotation of patience as related to waiting…Waiting on something…For something to happen. But the dictionary definition is exactly the same as the teachings of Buddha. Patience is sitting in the present moment with struggle…with hardship…without resisting, fighting or ignoring whatever the cause. Patience is moving in harmony by giving up attachments to timelines or deadlines. Life doesn’t happen on a schedule. Patience is freeing yourself of disappointment because you stop writing unnecessary mental stories of expectation. Yin is a patient, passive practice. Work through these postures and cultivate your peace through the subtle art of slowing down…
Opening Breathwork - Kumbhaka Pranayama variation
Come to an easy seat and begin to consciously breathe yourself into yin mode. This practice includes yin postures held for progressively long intervals leading up to a short meditation and savasana. Same with this opening breathwork - working with a little breath retention, you will hold your full breath for progressively longer and longer intervals, allowing for a quicker shift into rest and digest. Follow this pattern of breath before you begin the sequence of yin asanas. Breathe in deeply through the nose and smoothly through slightly pursed lips.
Breathe in — hold for 4 — exhale
Breathe in — hold for 5 — exhale
Breathe in — hold for 6 — exhale
Breathe in — hold for 7 — exhale
Breathe in — hold for 8 — exhale
Breathe in — hold for 9 — exhale
Breathe in — hold for 10 — exhale
Surrender into the shapes below.
1 min | Child’s Pose
1 min | Stretching Child’s Pose - Right
1 min | Stretching Child’s Pose - Left
~ Rebound: shape or movement of choice then rise to seat over toes
2 min | Toe Squat
~ Rebound: come to table top and tap out toes
3 min | Dragon Pose - Left
~ Rebound: gentle flow between Hanging Baby Cobra + Child’s Pose
3 min | Dragon Pose - Right
~ Rebound: lower to Crocodile
4 min | Sphinx
~ Rebound: Crocodile + windshield wiper legs, roll to back
5 min | Supported Bridge
Rebound: Mini-Savasana then roll into ball and roll to seat
6 min | Straddle (Dragonfly)
~ Rebound: close legs and hug knees to chest, come to wall
7 min | Legs up the Wall
~ Rebound in Corpse Pose
Meditate now on patience.
Think of it like having faith in the process -– not in a religious sense, though that is such a beautiful thing for a lot of people — but trust that good things will come with the fullness of time. We can trust in what is… and we can trust in what isn’t. If you allow yourself a pause, you know in your gut what to do. Many of us still push forward and ignore our intuition. Do not let anyone rush you. There is no timeline... If you can’t bear it when something hasn’t happened that you wanted…you must lean into the notion that maybe it wasn’t meant to be. If things just aren’t turning around with no end in sight, know that your work is sitting with it. With patience. Despite our immense human willpower somethings things just don’t go our way. Life is complicated. And frustrating. There will be many places along the way where our hearts get broken into a million pieces. And eventually we pick them up, patch them up and start to trust again. Or else we know, we will only suffer deeper…
We have to settle. Step by Step. Trust in divine timings and in yourself. Draw deeper into your inner awareness with three slow breaths.
Savasana - have patience and stay
8 - 20 min | Savasana
Final Note:
The Buddha considered patience to be a ‘perfection of the heart’ — one of the basic spiritual qualities that expresses our deepest nature. Patience is not the absence of strong emotions, nor is it the denial of unpleasantness. Patience is the ability to feel at home in the moments of in-between, the moments of waiting, the moments of unknown.