The Yin Yoga Podcast

When people ask me for an elevator pitch about what I do, the quickest, most accurate answer that I can give, is that I rehabilitate body image. Most people believe that Pain Care Yoga is all about stretching. And yes, Yoga for pain care may include stretching, but it's just one ingredient in a very complicated recipe. Each element is part of a process for building capacity and improving body...

During my wonderful 3 weeks in Croatia and Greece, I spent most of my time in areas where the sea meets the mountains. Indescribably beautiful, so many narrow streets and medieval villages to explore. But there is a particular feature of these locations, stairs. So many stairs, and hills. I watched countless people stand at the bottom of a daunting set of stairs to some magical scene with a mixtur...

We have a big problem with misinformation in the Yoga world. This problem seems most rampant around the hamstrings but is by no means exclusive to the hamstrings. The myth that stretching the hamstrings will “lengthen” the hamstrings and reduce the subjective experience of tightness has been going around for some time. For this 30 minute practice, we will practice a very traditional Yin practice f...

 This 30 minute practice is for you if you tend to get down on yourself, if you are a bit perfectionistic. I've borrowed from a meditation I got from the self compassion researcher, Kristen Neff. We will blend Yin Yoga poses with a breathing practice and simple meditation to establish warmth and affection. Our anatomical focus is the shoulders and chest.  Props Needed: A Yoga Block and a Blan...

 For our final practice in this four part series, we will be working with the upper back, or thoracic region of the spine. For your exploration, I've borrowed a bit from a Feldenkrais Method® Lesson, the thoracic clock. If you are a movement geek like me, you will be blown away by the simple complexity of this somatic experience. Prepare to feel stuff you may not have felt in your back before...

 This is the third class in our series, Getting to Know Your Back. You are welcome to explore these practices in any order. In this practice, we will explore another layer of the experience of the back, the Thoraco Lumbar Fascia. I am fascinated by fascia and have spent a great deal of time studying it. But the TLF is special. The fascia in the low back is unique as you will learn in this practice...

Many who have back pain believe that their spine is unstable. There is a distinct feeling of instability and vulnerability in the back that is reinforced by confusing or misleading messages coming from popular culture and even medical professionals. Current research shows however not that people with back pain are not unstable, but too stiff! In this short practice we will gently explore that stif...

Most of us think of the back as a collection of tissues; North of the hips and behind the core, supported by the spine. We don’t think too much about it unless something goes wrong. Which, happens a lot. Most adults will experience non-specific back pain within their lifetime. That is to say, back pain which has no specific etiology that can be seen on scans. The back is an incredibly complicated...

For this gentle but incredibly powerful practice, I have borrowed a lesson from the Feldenkrais Method. You will engage in gentle progressions to experience not just movement of the shoulder joint, but the embodied experience of the shoulder, from the tissues, to your thoughts and beliefs about your shoulder. A practice like this feels mild, but trust that your body is learning, that your nervous...

If I had a dollar for every time a student asked for a yoga pose for tight, or painful hips.... It's one of the main reasons that people come to Yin. The notion that stretching tight hips will relieve stiffness is well embedded into our Yoga/fitness culture. But, based on the evidence that I have seen, stretching does not adaptively lengthen muscles. So, can Yin help? YES! Just not for the re...

This is a gentle yet very effective practice for challenging our biases. Neck pain is one of the most common types of chronic pain and like all pain, is a product of bi-psycho-social factors. For today, we will focus of the psychological and cultural contributors to neck pain. We’ll do so with somatic movements intended to activate tissues in your neck, shoulder, and chest. You will also have time...

To me, Yin is the answer, the cure, for our stressful times. A practice which invites us to slow down, attend to the self and surrender is not just helpful, it's vital. So for this practice we will retreat from the heart opening, expanding and activating for an opportunity to soften, to close and defend to heal. As a people pleaser and perfectionist, this meditation and simple movement is not...

This practice is a special offering just for my listeners with neck pain. I do a lot of episodes about neck pain. Why? Because it's one of the most common types of chronic pain. And because it's hell. Many of my pain care clients come to me for neck pain and so I have a pretty big library of tools and strategies. This practice focuses on restoring the rhythm between the sternum, neck, ja...

This is one of those practices that you just crave. You’ll spend the whole hour on your back enjoying delicious somatic movements and simple Yin poses. Throughout your practice I will be encouraging you to tap into subtle experiences of self. Your efforts will culminate in a meta awareness that feels so good and right. This practice is so valuable if you are someone who suffers with chronic pain....

In this very supported practice we will be focusing on the movements of the spine: delicious forward folds, sublime twists, exquisite sidebands and soft hearted back bends. As we gently experience the body in these movements and poses, we will explore an idea from the Buddhist tradition, that it takes a strong back and a soft heart to practice compassion. Throughout your practice, I'll be enc...

We are each granted an amazing opportunity in life to cherish and protect this priceless vessel that we get to live in. I've noticed that when my students learn more about their body they can't help but be in awe of how incredible it is. How unfathomable and amazing is it, that this flesh facilitates our unique and evolving consciousness throughout our lifespan? I've learned over th...

This Week's 30 minute practice is designed to usher you into a deep and restful sleep. We will combine a breathing practice with simple yoga poses that you can do in your bed right before it's time to turn in. Equal parts, nervous system regulation and gentle stretch, this practice is all about shifting into your rest and digest nervous system platform.  Props: a yoga bolster or firm pil...

Posture is an incredibly loaded topic in our culture. If you've been involved in yoga for any time you've been receiving messages about posture that may not be helping you. We have hundreds of not thousands of sources daily telling us that our bad posture is the cause of maladies such as chronic pain functional movement issues breathing issues and more.  The problem with these well meani...

So… unfortunately, none of the movements in Yin actually achieve the conditions that are required to build strength. BUT! Yin can be an amazing complement to strength training. Active restoration and rest are as essential to building muscle, endurance and stamina as weight training and cardio. Those activities break us down a bit, in a good way! And rest supports the natural regeneration of tissue...

This practice is what you need if you've been struggling with tight, uncomfortable hips. In addition to some familiar Yin poses we will also be practicing bits and pieces from a Feldenkrais Method® lesson that I've borrowed. We really tend to vilify tension in our culture. We've got dozens of ways to blast, release, roll and massage this supposed problem. But what if the tension you...

To be an adult is to sometimes struggle with upper back and neck tension and even pain. This is my professional opinion. Though this pain/tightness can really disrupt your life, it’s important not to get too tied up about it. This practice is to give you some go to tools for managing this suffering. Knowing that you have a way to feel better, is a medicine in its own right. Though you really feel...

 This is an important practice for all of my fellow sisters and brothers in perfectionism. If you are someone who never feels like they can take a break, who only looks at accomplishments and sees what they didn't do right, who has critical self talk, I hope that you sill spend an hour with me here. Perfectionism is a hard habit to break. Sometimes we even criticize ourselves for being self c...

All of the nerves in our body require a state of sliding and gliding within our tissues. When nerves get stuck, or compressed, they tell us. While the causes of sciatic nerve pain or sciatica are numerous and not terribly well understood. We do know that restoring a suppleness and fluidity to the tissues of the low back, glutes, pelvic floor and thighs can be helpful . To restore or maintain this...

This is a very gentle practice focused on the side bodies. I wanted to work with a part of the body that most of us don’t experience too many problems with so that we could really just work with observing sensation. As you move through the poses, I will add another layer to practice. Our true goal is to practice self awareness or interoception. This is an important skill for developing self compas...

I get a lot of requests for practices that focus on the low back and hips. These are notoriously sensitive areas and students really want stretches to address the tightness and pain that they are experiencing. The only issue is, I don't really think stretching is the best way to release these or really any tissues. For this practice, we will do some familiar Yin poses but with a different ang...