December 2, 2024 • 31 mins
“Come to the edge," he said.
"We can't, we're afraid!" they responded.
"Come to the edge," he said.
"We can't, We will fall!" they responded.
"Come to the edge," he said.
And so they came.
And he pushed them.
And they flew.”
― Guillaume Apollinaire
Join our conversation as we unravel the fascinating intelligence hidden within your body's connective tissues. In this episode we unlock the 3 principals of yin yoga and transform your practice with insights that challenge conventional yoga paradigms. Discover how this style not only enhances flexibility but also prevents injury by targeting the body's less vascular tissues like tendons, ligaments, and fascia. Learn to master the art of finding your personal edge and experience the intelligent response of your body to stress, akin to non-Newtonian fluids adapting under pressure.
We explore the body's natural mechanisms for maintaining health, such as the formation of scar tissue and bone adaptation, all through the lens of yin yoga's unique approach. This episode sheds light on the holistic benefits of yin practice, emphasizing the importance of respecting physical limits while also navigating emotional and psychological boundaries.
By cultivating stillness and awareness through breath, this style confront the anxious and distracted mind, ultimately leading to personal growth and self-awareness. Hear personal reflections on how embracing discomfort rather than rushing to fix it has been transformative. For those inspired to deepen their practice, explore further training opportunities and connect with us at BecomeOneLiving@gmail.com. Let this episode be your guide to a more connected and mindful life.
We would love to hear from you! Email us at becomeoneliving@gmail.com or reach out to us on Instagram at BecomeOne Living.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Welcome back to another episode of Become One
Living.
My name is Dan Boisitz.
I'm here with my wife, jDomerstad-Boycets.
Today we're going to talk aboutyoga again, this time
specifically yin yoga, anotherpiece of yoga that Jodi has
studied pretty deeply, and itbrings our worlds together again
(00:41):
, me and you.
Yeah, the body.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yin yoga.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
There's three principles that make yin yin,
Differentiate it.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
And the first is edge .
The first is edge.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
The second is holding , and the third is stillness,
and this is all in relationshipto how we, how you, do yin.
And, and there's another piece,like all aren't, aren't all of
the yoga poses and yin on thefloor?
Speaker 2 (01:21):
yeah, all most yin poses, it's 99% of the yin poses
are on the floor and that's whyyou hold them for extended
period of time.
We're not holding warrior two,we're not doing crow pose.
These are poses that you'reable to stay in.
(01:42):
Some people say three minutes,and our yin people hold them
anywhere between 10 to 18minutes, and more isn't better.
What we've learned is, overtime, our people, our students.
I have people that have beentaking a yin workshop with me, I
(02:05):
think, for five years straightevery month.
They haven't missed and theycan what we call drop in quickly
.
And because they can drop inquickly, they stay in the pose
and the body starts to unwindpretty much like body work when
your hands are on someone.
(02:25):
But let's go back and start atthe edge.
I ask you to come into a shapein order to feel a certain
sensation.
We call that the target musclegroup.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
A certain sensation in a specific part of the body.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yes.
So first is target muscle group, and if I'm going to target the
glutes, I will say swan orsleeping swan or the shoelace
family.
Paul Greeley, who founded Yin,changed all the names of the
poses so that you don'tassociate with traditional poses
(03:08):
.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Simple, awesome.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Okay, so the shoelace family or the archetype
shoelace impacts the glutes.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Target muscle area.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Target muscle areas glutes.
Now the functional yin that Iteach says this I don't feel
pigeon swan, but dan does, so Ihave to find a pose within the
shoelace family family thatstretches my glutes.
(03:41):
That might not look like pigeonor swan.
That's what we mean byfunctional.
So in yin there's archetypalposes that hit different muscles
and we allow in our yinworkshop.
We allow people to takewhatever pose they want, as long
(04:03):
as they're in the target area.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Right right, right right.
Because the point is to feel it.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Yes, and then, once you find the target area, we
then discuss edge Right and Igive you time.
Is there a?
Speaker 1 (04:17):
percentage Like I remember hearing something like
30% to 50% or no more than 80%,or is there a range?
Speaker 2 (04:25):
I mean because you're not.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
You're not trying to kill it.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
If your edge, if you're at an edge where you
can't breathe or you can't relax, you've gone too far.
So my type A people and if oneof my students is listening
she's probably giggling becauseI remember her face.
We're in yin training.
(04:48):
She's in the pose, she can'tbreathe.
She's like is this right?
Is this right?
And everyone starts laughingand I go perfect example, don't
do what she's doing.
She is so type A, runninghiking, go, go, go, even in yin,
watching her break her foot andher knee.
And she turned around to thegroup and she's like, that's me
(05:10):
right, I should come out.
I'm like, yeah, me Good idea.
So, yes, an edge.
How I start with is this Ifyou're past or at your range of
motion, right at your range,edge of your range, or past it,
trying to get past it, you can'tbreathe, you're struggling,
(05:30):
tightening to hold it and youcan't let go.
You won't receive any benefitsthere because you're not able to
soften and unwind and allow soyou're past your edge.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Yeah, and it's important for the audience to
understand that the the lengthof time being in these poses
allows for the less vasculartissue in the body right, the
like um tendons to to to softenyes, yes, so we'll come back to
(06:05):
the edge, but since you broughtthat up, we can go there.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Well, we'll navigate over there.
That yin poses are held for acertain amount of time to impact
different tissue, like Dan said, and the tissue is less
vascular, it is denser and ithas less blood flow and it's
(06:30):
called tendons, it's calledligaments fascia and fascia.
Yeah, it isn't muscle basedright and because muscles are
red blood pumps.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Very meaty.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah, and juicy, some juice to move.
And people say I've heard thismultiple times you don't want to
stretch your tendons, you don'twant to stretch your ligaments.
We're not stretching them,we're stressing them.
Okay, excellent, think of anelastic band.
(07:06):
If you don't stress an elasticband, over time it shrinks,
stuck, gets stuck and when yougo to pull it it breaks, it
loses its elasticity.
So we're not stretchingligaments and tendons so that
they get looser, because tendons, you have a muscle, your
(07:30):
muscles then turn into tendonsat the end as they insert into
your bone.
Okay, so we're going to thebone and ligaments wrap around
joints to hold them in place.
We don't want ligaments to beloosey-goosey.
We need to stress them so thatas you become more dehydrated,
(07:52):
as you age or repetitive motion,if you lose elasticity,
something will snap.
Is there anything you'd like toadd about this tissue?
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Yeah, I suppose it's good for people to know that
what lies beneath your skin isvery intelligent All of the
connective tissue.
And when you say connectivetissue these days, we're also
including the blood, because theblood has intelligence.
(08:35):
The way we talk about that isnon-Newtonian and Newtonian
liquids.
Right so a non-Newtonian liquid, a Newtonian liquid?
Speaker 2 (08:46):
This is one of those things.
No, I love this part.
Please share this.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
This is really cool, yeah but the funny thing for me
is this is what, like, like,affect a, f f e c t, or affect e
, f f e c t, I can neverremember which one's which right
, so one or the other.
So if it's a newtonian liquid,you can drop a quarter in a
bucket of water, and there isseemingly some, but it goes down
(09:08):
to the bottom of the bucketnevertheless.
Right, not too muchintelligence, the intelligence
of what lies beneath you, yourskin.
It both can fasten and it cansoften, depending on how you
work with it.
Right, like a bruise.
(09:29):
One of the teachers talks aboutlike a bruise, talks about a 2
000 pound tensile strength thatscar tissue can have.
Right, that's like cement.
Essentially, the beauty is thatyour the body's fluids and
connective tissue has thatintelligence, so that if you
work with it for hold a pose for10 minutes, you're giving it
(09:51):
the ability, you're giving itthe time it needs to soften,
because it requires thatconsistency to soften.
If you hold the pose just for aminute, it's not going to make
much change.
Holding the pose for a longerperiod of time will increase
your range of motion at thosejoints that are not working
fully for you.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Yeah, and to go back to non-Newtonian fluid, why?
It's pretty cool to hear,because when I think of blood, I
don't think it has anyintelligence whatsoever, it's
just doing something.
And then when you get into acar accident the next day or
three days later, next thing youknow you're stiff.
That's from the non-Newtonianfluids.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Those are good examples.
Yes, if you've been in anaccident and you feel stiff,
that's your body's intelligenceof what's beneath your skin
firming up because it's tryingto keep you together, right?
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah, no, I'm on the other side of this, smiling
because this is what excites usUnderstanding this allows us to
assist you.
Understanding these things doesnot make me or him more
intelligent.
It's when someone comes in withpain and they're saying, oh,
it's no big deal, the accidentwas like three weeks ago.
We know what's going on in thebody that somewhere something's
(11:10):
fastened or stuck or congealed,right.
So in yin, we're not changingfascia, it just gets congealed,
it gets stuck, and holding itover time to me is like putting
butter on a hot pan, right.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
And an anecdote, really just to interject here I
knew a graphic artist who wasgoing through a challenging time
in their life, and so theyimmersed themselves more into
their work, which required themto be at the computer for longer
periods of time even than theyordinarily would have been, and
(11:51):
an x-ray was taken of their headand their body began to make
little bony chips in the frontof the neck, where no bone
belongs.
And the result?
The reason, was because thebody was trying to do everything
it could to keep the head onstraight.
Okay, right, so theintelligence of what lies
beneath your skin is incredible,and for those of you who aren't
getting this yet, it's like ifyou hit your body, or somebody
punches you really hard in thearm, or if you hit your head, a
(12:13):
bump happens.
That's the intelligence of thatfluid happening because it's
resisting, it's trying to meetwhat's coming in, the force
that's coming in to keep youtogether.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Yeah, and also with scar tissue.
All right, I'm full of scartissue.
I had five bone amputations inmy toe so I have like no bone in
one of my toes and from walkingit actually impacted my jaw on
the other side.
So the tissue that bundles upthere, the scar tissue cells,
(12:47):
move around an injury to try toheal and if we don't move right
away or stretch right away itcan get stuck in, bundled in a
way that pulls the whole bodyout of alignment.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Right.
Let me share a little moreinformation and anecdote, or
just some educationalinformation to support what
you're saying about stressingthe muscle and body versus
stretching it.
Stressing, stressing uh, if youfeel around on your own body,
at your elbow or at your kneeand you can find essentially
(13:21):
bony landmarks are where muscles, muscles are going to attach.
Here's the thing I want toshare.
When you're a young being, allof the movement that you do
stressing, pulling, twisting,pushing, everything that you do
with your body stresses yourbody and your body's response is
(13:45):
that the bony landmarks wherethe muscles attach develop in
relationship to the amount ofstress that you put on them.
So it's crucial in the earlystages for development, for
healthy development.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
And it's also stressing is crucial because
it's shown that when you stressthis tissue it actually
stimulates more and new cells.
So lack of movement and lack ofstressing the tissue could
deplete or atrophy muscle.
Also, and the reason I want toshare that is because I hear
(14:22):
people say you don't want todump in a pose or hang out in
your limbs, why we're, we'restressing an area.
We leave it up to you.
I don't say in yin, hey, dan,go for it.
I say, dan, back out a little,back out a little.
Most people don't.
That's not, that is not myresponsibility.
(14:47):
My responsibility is to teachyou an edge in which you learn
about yourself.
And I have people.
I'm blessed with my students.
I get students that are with mefor years and I watch them
shift and over years the onesthat do go for it stop and they
say, wow, I finally learned Ineed 30% in this pose, not 80.
(15:11):
And so what does 30% mean?
In yin, you have to feel asensation.
That's what's important.
It is not restorative yoga.
You're not on 40 blocks and 50blankets to not feel something.
Okay, you can use props.
(15:31):
We that's what we do in our yin.
We use straps and bolsters andblocks, to support you, to feel
an edge of at least 20 or 30% asensation.
I mean, we're trying to use apercentage here, but really it's
do you feel it a little?
And an edge this will beanother episode.
(15:52):
An edge can be emotional,mental, psychological and
spiritual, or physical.
Well, that's implied Because Ihave people where I'll say,
they'll say to me I'm not doingthis pose, and I'll say, oh, why
does it hurt?
No, it doesn't hurt your knee,no.
(16:13):
Then may I ask, can I help you?
And they'll say well, I injuredthis knee 30 years ago and I
don't want to bend it because Idon't want to hurt it.
And and then, because I knowthem, they will whisper, I'm
afraid, I'm scared.
That's an emotional edge, andso I say let's find another pose
that supports you in thismoment, or go into the pose if
(16:43):
you want to be with that edgeand come out at any time into
something else.
And and so that's alsoimportant to know that, dan, we
share this in a few of theseepisodes over the episodes that
we've had that it's aboutrelationship.
Yin gives you an opportunity tobuild a relationship with
yourself.
Because you're in a pose for anextended period of time at an
edge, and I watch fidgeters, Igot to move, I got to move, I
(17:06):
got to move, and so the nextpiece is holding these study.
They're studies.
They're pretty old, they couldbe old, I'll look them up, but
again.
But it takes 90 seconds tostretch a muscle, so it's like
around 90 seconds where muscletissue starts to move.
So it's like around 90 secondswhere muscle tissue starts to
(17:29):
move, and it's three or more fortendons, fascia, ligaments,
because it's thicker, denser,it's like dough.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Less vascular.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Yes, there's no fluids, so think of dough with
not a lot of water, right andmore flour.
So we hold it.
We need you to stretch it,meaning you pull the attachments
away from one another Right One, one this way, one that way,
left, right, pulling sensation,and then you stay there for an
(17:58):
extended period of time, forheat, for blood flow, for
glucose, for blood flow, forglucose, for all your attention
and your awareness now movethere, because it's over a
suspended period of time.
You're going.
What the heck's going on?
The intelligence of your bodymoves towards that and I want to
(18:20):
say and, dan, maybe you have adifferent word it's like the
volume of it changes, thetexture of it changes yeah, the
muscle, yeah, oh, I mean thetendon, the tendon the whole,
the whole area really doesblossom, it gets, it gets full
yes, and in that it unwindsorganically, meaning it releases
(18:45):
a little within your range ofmotion and your limitations.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Only the individual knows thethresholds Right.
Each practitioner has theirthreshold and intuitively
they'll know if they've gone alittle bit too much or if they
(19:12):
need a little bit more.
It's another piece of deeplylistening, deeply sensing,
deeply feeling that you have tonavigate yin, but at the end of
the yin workshops that we do,everyone's so peaceful.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Well again those people that take our yin
workshops that we do everyone'sso peaceful.
Well again, those people thattake our yin workshops have been
with us for multiple yearsbecause it's a learned practice.
Most this yin is opposite ofalmost every other yoga.
It is a complement to everyother yoga, though we live again
(19:48):
in a society of hustle and go.
I got to run, I got to exercise.
I have to do this, I have to dothat.
Yin says stop and sit still.
Now why does it promotestillness?
Because every time you fidget,every time you move, your brain
sends signals to there, and nowyou're distracted, but you're
also moving energy to places itdoesn't need to go.
(20:11):
The idea is to be with what'shere, to slow down, be present,
use your breath or a focal point.
I also teach prompts in my yintraining.
I teach the yin teachers to beand my students different
(20:32):
check-in points if they getanxious or if they start
disassociating or attaching tostories like I'm hungry, I want
to eat, I hate this pose.
I use different prompts tobring them back to focus.
Yin was very healing for mebecause I have a fixer part.
(20:55):
My shoulder hurts, let's fix it.
My hamstrings are tight.
Get rid of it.
Got to fix it.
My neck hurts, let's fix it.
And I found myself in yin,using a pose to get something
out of it yes.
I gotta get my hip flexors openand that changes the orientation
(21:15):
of meeting something, because Iwant to open something yeah,
you're just making me think, uh,another.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Another piece that comes with experience is your
ability to I don't want to freakeverybody out because it's an
energetic thing and it takestime and wisdom and experience
to get there.
But holding space.
Holding space is not a physicalthing.
Holding space is a veryenergetic thing, that kind of
(21:50):
meanders in slowly over time andyou learn how to hold space for
a room of people to be able tounwind deeply.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
You can only hold space for others to the degree
that you hold space for yourself.
I'm going to say that again.
It's important for my yogateachers to hear, for
practitioners to hear hear thisyou only can hold space to the
degree that you hold space foryourself and for your parts, and
(22:23):
I mean for all of you, the good, the bad, the ugly, and I have
people that want to help others.
They don't help themselves.
So that that's the degreethat's directly related and
that's why I hold a lot of spacefor me and my pain and I get
people that can hold my pain ormy discomfort or my sadness and
(22:44):
my grief so that when I come toclass I'm not afraid of it.
So somebody I just had thisquestion in one of the trainings
I just taught on trauma.
Someone asked what do you dowhen someone's emoting?
What do you do if someone'semotional and crying?
And I said nothing and theylooked at me.
I said listen, when you go overand say are you okay If someone
(23:08):
is hysterical, crying, I'mpretty sure they're not okay.
Right, I'm pretty, I'm prettysure, obviously something you're
good at reading that sign.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Oh, thank you.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
So what I do do is I let them go and I'll walk over
after a little time and ask doyou need anything?
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Right.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Not, are you okay?
I don't want to stop thisprocess that has occurred
through.
Now I'm going to go right backto yin, because you're holding,
you have an edge which isuncomfortable.
Now you're holding it, you'rewith it, and then your stillness
, and in our yin it's usuallysilent.
(23:48):
We don't play music, but Dandoes use chanting to help people
focus on a mantra to get intotheir bodies like so hum, and we
still leave a lot of stillnessand silence.
And we teach people to getcomfortable with silence and
stillness.
(24:08):
And now in that, what happensis they have the opportunity for
their nervous system todownregulate and in
downregulation, emotions riseand people think yoga magically
makes crying happen.
Or pigeon, it's so funny.
Oh, in pigeon my hips open andI release stuff in my hips.
(24:30):
You're not holding stuff inyour hips y'all.
Specifically, I mean we can getinto a whole podcast on that, I
know I like to run, okay, stayhere.
But what happens is, when youfeel safe enough and your
nervous system is regulatedenough, you will feel that you
don't have to run anymore andyou can hold sadness.
(24:53):
You can hold the tears Ifyou're running and gunning and
hustling to get away fromemotions and you won't be able
to hold them.
So in yin yoga, at the end orin the middle from the long,
extended period of time in thepose with self and you feel safe
enough in community and witheveryone, emotions rise to be
(25:16):
felt and released.
That doesn't happen often invinyasa, not because vinyasa is
bad or bikram is bad.
It's more of a faster paceinhale, exhale, and you're
standing and you're moving.
So you have to be mindful inall that.
And yin, you're on the floor.
All you have is the sensation inyou yeah and time to be with
(25:39):
that which which is healing, andI find yin also the gateway to
meditation yeah, I was justthinking for those folks who are
newer into their yoga practices.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
it's like, you know, they could hear this and be like
, well, I don't really have timefor that crap, you know, but
jody's, jody's been along aroundlong enough to to, to have the
experience of somebody comingback to her people in their 70s
and saying and actually some ofthem feeling emotion at 70.
(26:18):
So you can put it off for awhile and keep yourself busy and
duck your head into the workand party on Friday night and
all that stuff, and that's fine,and I'm sure there's people
that can do that an entire lifeand and I, I probably there's a
part of me that's jealous ofthat, you know.
(26:39):
But but really, really, whenyou, if you want to live a full
life, rich in in in feeling andemotion and connection with
yourself and others, these aresome tools that will take you to
this.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
these, these places a more meaningful place I find
what I witnessed when Iintroduced yin to, when I first
brought it back from learning itand introduced it in the people
that stayed with me.
They said that they have neverhad such a profound experience
(27:15):
and result in their other stuff,other yoga practices, that they
have never felt that relaxedafter yin.
And also in my yin workshops.
I do four poses in 90 minutesWorkshops I do four poses in 90
minutes.
So if you're a yin teacher, Iinvite you to stay longer than
(27:37):
three minutes.
I've had my students come backand say they took yin yasana.
That's a joke.
Yin vinyasa.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Yeah, every three minutes, it was like switch
switch, switch, switch Everythree minutes.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
it was like switch, switch, switch, switch People.
The nervous system needs thiswas a study years ago.
It takes 12 minutes.
Dan said this in anotherepisode.
Judy Lassiter Judith Lassiter,when I took her restorative
training years ago talked aboutthis 12 minutes years ago.
(28:13):
It took for the nervous systemto relax.
I've witnessed 30, 40 minutes.
I've witnessed people notcoming down at all in a 90
minute class with me.
So we need to retrain ourselvesand our nervous system to come
back to down regulation becausewe've cut off connection with
(28:35):
all of our inter interoception,our inner signals.
Yin is another way of creating arelationship with your signals
and relearning.
Wow, I just passed my edge.
I watch myself sometimes in themorning wake up and feel stiff
(28:58):
and I get in a yoga pose and I'mlike I want to get it out, get
it out.
And I have to stop and say, joe, what are you doing?
Relax.
And next thing I know 20minutes later I come, come out
of half saddle, which is a quadand hip flexor stretch, and I
just get up and go to work.
I'm a different human thetexture of my eyes, the, the
(29:21):
tejas, the sparkle, the relaxingin the muscles.
So give yourself time toexperience yin.
If you teach it, don't bescared of holding them,
especially if you understandfunctional yin.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Right and get comfortable with the fidgeting,
witnessing the fidgeting.
Get comfortable with that.
Let the bodies work throughthat.
Yes, get comfortable with that,let the bodies work through
that.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Yes, One thing is invite them.
I'm going to give you twothings as we start to wrap this
up.
One give them an opportunity toexplore.
So I let them come into the yinpose and I say take a few
breaths and explore and find anedge to be with right now.
(30:12):
And then, when they're movingand fidgeting, I don't say, hey,
you over there, stop moving.
We don't move in yin.
No, you say.
I wonder what it would feellike to be still for even a
breath, for just one breath.
You invite curiosity, nottelling them stop moving, but
invite.
(30:32):
What would it feel like to notmove for just a breath?
What would it feel like?
And and so yin changed my lifebecause it allowed me to be with
me and for years I ran from me,so it was just another tool in
my toolbox of well, I have yin,and then I have neurosculpting,
(30:56):
and then IFS, and I started tocommunicate with self on a more
intimate level.
That's when change occurs.
So yin yoga rocks man.
Right on.
Okay, my friends, questions ortraining.
I do a yin training if you'reinterested.
But if you have any questions,just reach out BecomeOneLiving
(31:19):
at gmailcom.
Bye.
Welcome back to another episode of Become One
Living.
My name is Dan Boisitz.
I'm here with my wife, jDomerstad-Boycets.
Today we're going to talk aboutyoga again, this time
specifically yin yoga, anotherpiece of yoga that Jodi has
studied pretty deeply, and itbrings our worlds together again
(00:41):
, me and you.
Yeah, the body.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yin yoga.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
There's three principles that make yin yin,
Differentiate it.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
And the first is edge .
The first is edge.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
The second is holding , and the third is stillness,
and this is all in relationshipto how we, how you, do yin.
And, and there's another piece,like all aren't, aren't all of
the yoga poses and yin on thefloor?
Speaker 2 (01:21):
yeah, all most yin poses, it's 99% of the yin poses
are on the floor and that's whyyou hold them for extended
period of time.
We're not holding warrior two,we're not doing crow pose.
These are poses that you'reable to stay in.
(01:42):
Some people say three minutes,and our yin people hold them
anywhere between 10 to 18minutes, and more isn't better.
What we've learned is, overtime, our people, our students.
I have people that have beentaking a yin workshop with me, I
(02:05):
think, for five years straightevery month.
They haven't missed and theycan what we call drop in quickly
.
And because they can drop inquickly, they stay in the pose
and the body starts to unwindpretty much like body work when
your hands are on someone.
(02:25):
But let's go back and start atthe edge.
I ask you to come into a shapein order to feel a certain
sensation.
We call that the target musclegroup.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
A certain sensation in a specific part of the body.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yes.
So first is target muscle group, and if I'm going to target the
glutes, I will say swan orsleeping swan or the shoelace
family.
Paul Greeley, who founded Yin,changed all the names of the
poses so that you don'tassociate with traditional poses
(03:08):
.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Simple, awesome.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Okay, so the shoelace family or the archetype
shoelace impacts the glutes.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Target muscle area.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Target muscle areas glutes.
Now the functional yin that Iteach says this I don't feel
pigeon swan, but dan does, so Ihave to find a pose within the
shoelace family family thatstretches my glutes.
(03:41):
That might not look like pigeonor swan.
That's what we mean byfunctional.
So in yin there's archetypalposes that hit different muscles
and we allow in our yinworkshop.
We allow people to takewhatever pose they want, as long
(04:03):
as they're in the target area.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Right right, right right.
Because the point is to feel it.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Yes, and then, once you find the target area, we
then discuss edge Right and Igive you time.
Is there a?
Speaker 1 (04:17):
percentage Like I remember hearing something like
30% to 50% or no more than 80%,or is there a range?
Speaker 2 (04:25):
I mean because you're not.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
You're not trying to kill it.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
If your edge, if you're at an edge where you
can't breathe or you can't relax, you've gone too far.
So my type A people and if oneof my students is listening
she's probably giggling becauseI remember her face.
We're in yin training.
(04:48):
She's in the pose, she can'tbreathe.
She's like is this right?
Is this right?
And everyone starts laughingand I go perfect example, don't
do what she's doing.
She is so type A, runninghiking, go, go, go, even in yin,
watching her break her foot andher knee.
And she turned around to thegroup and she's like, that's me
(05:10):
right, I should come out.
I'm like, yeah, me Good idea.
So, yes, an edge.
How I start with is this Ifyou're past or at your range of
motion, right at your range,edge of your range, or past it,
trying to get past it, you can'tbreathe, you're struggling,
(05:30):
tightening to hold it and youcan't let go.
You won't receive any benefitsthere because you're not able to
soften and unwind and allow soyou're past your edge.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Yeah, and it's important for the audience to
understand that the the lengthof time being in these poses
allows for the less vasculartissue in the body right, the
like um tendons to to to softenyes, yes, so we'll come back to
(06:05):
the edge, but since you broughtthat up, we can go there.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Well, we'll navigate over there.
That yin poses are held for acertain amount of time to impact
different tissue, like Dan said, and the tissue is less
vascular, it is denser and ithas less blood flow and it's
(06:30):
called tendons, it's calledligaments fascia and fascia.
Yeah, it isn't muscle basedright and because muscles are
red blood pumps.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Very meaty.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah, and juicy, some juice to move.
And people say I've heard thismultiple times you don't want to
stretch your tendons, you don'twant to stretch your ligaments.
We're not stretching them,we're stressing them.
Okay, excellent, think of anelastic band.
(07:06):
If you don't stress an elasticband, over time it shrinks,
stuck, gets stuck and when yougo to pull it it breaks, it
loses its elasticity.
So we're not stretchingligaments and tendons so that
they get looser, because tendons, you have a muscle, your
(07:30):
muscles then turn into tendonsat the end as they insert into
your bone.
Okay, so we're going to thebone and ligaments wrap around
joints to hold them in place.
We don't want ligaments to beloosey-goosey.
We need to stress them so thatas you become more dehydrated,
(07:52):
as you age or repetitive motion,if you lose elasticity,
something will snap.
Is there anything you'd like toadd about this tissue?
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Yeah, I suppose it's good for people to know that
what lies beneath your skin isvery intelligent All of the
connective tissue.
And when you say connectivetissue these days, we're also
including the blood, because theblood has intelligence.
(08:35):
The way we talk about that isnon-Newtonian and Newtonian
liquids.
Right so a non-Newtonian liquid, a Newtonian liquid?
Speaker 2 (08:46):
This is one of those things.
No, I love this part.
Please share this.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
This is really cool, yeah but the funny thing for me
is this is what, like, like,affect a, f f e c t, or affect e
, f f e c t, I can neverremember which one's which right
, so one or the other.
So if it's a newtonian liquid,you can drop a quarter in a
bucket of water, and there isseemingly some, but it goes down
(09:08):
to the bottom of the bucketnevertheless.
Right, not too muchintelligence, the intelligence
of what lies beneath you, yourskin.
It both can fasten and it cansoften, depending on how you
work with it.
Right, like a bruise.
(09:29):
One of the teachers talks aboutlike a bruise, talks about a 2
000 pound tensile strength thatscar tissue can have.
Right, that's like cement.
Essentially, the beauty is thatyour the body's fluids and
connective tissue has thatintelligence, so that if you
work with it for hold a pose for10 minutes, you're giving it
(09:51):
the ability, you're giving itthe time it needs to soften,
because it requires thatconsistency to soften.
If you hold the pose just for aminute, it's not going to make
much change.
Holding the pose for a longerperiod of time will increase
your range of motion at thosejoints that are not working
fully for you.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Yeah, and to go back to non-Newtonian fluid, why?
It's pretty cool to hear,because when I think of blood, I
don't think it has anyintelligence whatsoever, it's
just doing something.
And then when you get into acar accident the next day or
three days later, next thing youknow you're stiff.
That's from the non-Newtonianfluids.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Those are good examples.
Yes, if you've been in anaccident and you feel stiff,
that's your body's intelligenceof what's beneath your skin
firming up because it's tryingto keep you together, right?
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah, no, I'm on the other side of this, smiling
because this is what excites usUnderstanding this allows us to
assist you.
Understanding these things doesnot make me or him more
intelligent.
It's when someone comes in withpain and they're saying, oh,
it's no big deal, the accidentwas like three weeks ago.
We know what's going on in thebody that somewhere something's
(11:10):
fastened or stuck or congealed,right.
So in yin, we're not changingfascia, it just gets congealed,
it gets stuck, and holding itover time to me is like putting
butter on a hot pan, right.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
And an anecdote, really just to interject here I
knew a graphic artist who wasgoing through a challenging time
in their life, and so theyimmersed themselves more into
their work, which required themto be at the computer for longer
periods of time even than theyordinarily would have been, and
(11:51):
an x-ray was taken of their headand their body began to make
little bony chips in the frontof the neck, where no bone
belongs.
And the result?
The reason, was because thebody was trying to do everything
it could to keep the head onstraight.
Okay, right, so theintelligence of what lies
beneath your skin is incredible,and for those of you who aren't
getting this yet, it's like ifyou hit your body, or somebody
punches you really hard in thearm, or if you hit your head, a
(12:13):
bump happens.
That's the intelligence of thatfluid happening because it's
resisting, it's trying to meetwhat's coming in, the force
that's coming in to keep youtogether.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Yeah, and also with scar tissue.
All right, I'm full of scartissue.
I had five bone amputations inmy toe so I have like no bone in
one of my toes and from walkingit actually impacted my jaw on
the other side.
So the tissue that bundles upthere, the scar tissue cells,
(12:47):
move around an injury to try toheal and if we don't move right
away or stretch right away itcan get stuck in, bundled in a
way that pulls the whole bodyout of alignment.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Right.
Let me share a little moreinformation and anecdote, or
just some educationalinformation to support what
you're saying about stressingthe muscle and body versus
stretching it.
Stressing, stressing uh, if youfeel around on your own body,
at your elbow or at your kneeand you can find essentially
(13:21):
bony landmarks are where muscles, muscles are going to attach.
Here's the thing I want toshare.
When you're a young being, allof the movement that you do
stressing, pulling, twisting,pushing, everything that you do
with your body stresses yourbody and your body's response is
(13:45):
that the bony landmarks wherethe muscles attach develop in
relationship to the amount ofstress that you put on them.
So it's crucial in the earlystages for development, for
healthy development.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
And it's also stressing is crucial because
it's shown that when you stressthis tissue it actually
stimulates more and new cells.
So lack of movement and lack ofstressing the tissue could
deplete or atrophy muscle.
Also, and the reason I want toshare that is because I hear
(14:22):
people say you don't want todump in a pose or hang out in
your limbs, why we're, we'restressing an area.
We leave it up to you.
I don't say in yin, hey, dan,go for it.
I say, dan, back out a little,back out a little.
Most people don't.
That's not, that is not myresponsibility.
(14:47):
My responsibility is to teachyou an edge in which you learn
about yourself.
And I have people.
I'm blessed with my students.
I get students that are with mefor years and I watch them
shift and over years the onesthat do go for it stop and they
say, wow, I finally learned Ineed 30% in this pose, not 80.
(15:11):
And so what does 30% mean?
In yin, you have to feel asensation.
That's what's important.
It is not restorative yoga.
You're not on 40 blocks and 50blankets to not feel something.
Okay, you can use props.
(15:31):
We that's what we do in our yin.
We use straps and bolsters andblocks, to support you, to feel
an edge of at least 20 or 30% asensation.
I mean, we're trying to use apercentage here, but really it's
do you feel it a little?
And an edge this will beanother episode.
(15:52):
An edge can be emotional,mental, psychological and
spiritual, or physical.
Well, that's implied Because Ihave people where I'll say,
they'll say to me I'm not doingthis pose, and I'll say, oh, why
does it hurt?
No, it doesn't hurt your knee,no.
(16:13):
Then may I ask, can I help you?
And they'll say well, I injuredthis knee 30 years ago and I
don't want to bend it because Idon't want to hurt it.
And and then, because I knowthem, they will whisper, I'm
afraid, I'm scared.
That's an emotional edge, andso I say let's find another pose
that supports you in thismoment, or go into the pose if
(16:43):
you want to be with that edgeand come out at any time into
something else.
And and so that's alsoimportant to know that, dan, we
share this in a few of theseepisodes over the episodes that
we've had that it's aboutrelationship.
Yin gives you an opportunity tobuild a relationship with
yourself.
Because you're in a pose for anextended period of time at an
edge, and I watch fidgeters, Igot to move, I got to move, I
(17:06):
got to move, and so the nextpiece is holding these study.
They're studies.
They're pretty old, they couldbe old, I'll look them up, but
again.
But it takes 90 seconds tostretch a muscle, so it's like
around 90 seconds where muscletissue starts to move.
So it's like around 90 secondswhere muscle tissue starts to
(17:29):
move, and it's three or more fortendons, fascia, ligaments,
because it's thicker, denser,it's like dough.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Less vascular.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Yes, there's no fluids, so think of dough with
not a lot of water, right andmore flour.
So we hold it.
We need you to stretch it,meaning you pull the attachments
away from one another Right One, one this way, one that way,
left, right, pulling sensation,and then you stay there for an
(17:58):
extended period of time, forheat, for blood flow, for
glucose, for blood flow, forglucose, for all your attention
and your awareness now movethere, because it's over a
suspended period of time.
You're going.
What the heck's going on?
The intelligence of your bodymoves towards that and I want to
(18:20):
say and, dan, maybe you have adifferent word it's like the
volume of it changes, thetexture of it changes yeah, the
muscle, yeah, oh, I mean thetendon, the tendon the whole,
the whole area really doesblossom, it gets, it gets full
yes, and in that it unwindsorganically, meaning it releases
(18:45):
a little within your range ofmotion and your limitations.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Only the individual knows thethresholds Right.
Each practitioner has theirthreshold and intuitively
they'll know if they've gone alittle bit too much or if they
(19:12):
need a little bit more.
It's another piece of deeplylistening, deeply sensing,
deeply feeling that you have tonavigate yin, but at the end of
the yin workshops that we do,everyone's so peaceful.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Well again those people that take our yin
workshops that we do everyone'sso peaceful.
Well again, those people thattake our yin workshops have been
with us for multiple yearsbecause it's a learned practice.
Most this yin is opposite ofalmost every other yoga.
It is a complement to everyother yoga, though we live again
(19:48):
in a society of hustle and go.
I got to run, I got to exercise.
I have to do this, I have to dothat.
Yin says stop and sit still.
Now why does it promotestillness?
Because every time you fidget,every time you move, your brain
sends signals to there, and nowyou're distracted, but you're
also moving energy to places itdoesn't need to go.
(20:11):
The idea is to be with what'shere, to slow down, be present,
use your breath or a focal point.
I also teach prompts in my yintraining.
I teach the yin teachers to beand my students different
(20:32):
check-in points if they getanxious or if they start
disassociating or attaching tostories like I'm hungry, I want
to eat, I hate this pose.
I use different prompts tobring them back to focus.
Yin was very healing for mebecause I have a fixer part.
(20:55):
My shoulder hurts, let's fix it.
My hamstrings are tight.
Get rid of it.
Got to fix it.
My neck hurts, let's fix it.
And I found myself in yin,using a pose to get something
out of it yes.
I gotta get my hip flexors openand that changes the orientation
(21:15):
of meeting something, because Iwant to open something yeah,
you're just making me think, uh,another.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Another piece that comes with experience is your
ability to I don't want to freakeverybody out because it's an
energetic thing and it takestime and wisdom and experience
to get there.
But holding space.
Holding space is not a physicalthing.
Holding space is a veryenergetic thing, that kind of
(21:50):
meanders in slowly over time andyou learn how to hold space for
a room of people to be able tounwind deeply.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
You can only hold space for others to the degree
that you hold space for yourself.
I'm going to say that again.
It's important for my yogateachers to hear, for
practitioners to hear hear thisyou only can hold space to the
degree that you hold space foryourself and for your parts, and
(22:23):
I mean for all of you, the good, the bad, the ugly, and I have
people that want to help others.
They don't help themselves.
So that that's the degreethat's directly related and
that's why I hold a lot of spacefor me and my pain and I get
people that can hold my pain ormy discomfort or my sadness and
(22:44):
my grief so that when I come toclass I'm not afraid of it.
So somebody I just had thisquestion in one of the trainings
I just taught on trauma.
Someone asked what do you dowhen someone's emoting?
What do you do if someone'semotional and crying?
And I said nothing and theylooked at me.
I said listen, when you go overand say are you okay If someone
(23:08):
is hysterical, crying, I'mpretty sure they're not okay.
Right, I'm pretty, I'm prettysure, obviously something you're
good at reading that sign.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Oh, thank you.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
So what I do do is I let them go and I'll walk over
after a little time and ask doyou need anything?
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Right.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Not, are you okay?
I don't want to stop thisprocess that has occurred
through.
Now I'm going to go right backto yin, because you're holding,
you have an edge which isuncomfortable.
Now you're holding it, you'rewith it, and then your stillness
, and in our yin it's usuallysilent.
(23:48):
We don't play music, but Dandoes use chanting to help people
focus on a mantra to get intotheir bodies like so hum, and we
still leave a lot of stillnessand silence.
And we teach people to getcomfortable with silence and
stillness.
(24:08):
And now in that, what happensis they have the opportunity for
their nervous system todownregulate and in
downregulation, emotions riseand people think yoga magically
makes crying happen.
Or pigeon, it's so funny.
Oh, in pigeon my hips open andI release stuff in my hips.
(24:30):
You're not holding stuff inyour hips y'all.
Specifically, I mean we can getinto a whole podcast on that, I
know I like to run, okay, stayhere.
But what happens is, when youfeel safe enough and your
nervous system is regulatedenough, you will feel that you
don't have to run anymore andyou can hold sadness.
(24:53):
You can hold the tears Ifyou're running and gunning and
hustling to get away fromemotions and you won't be able
to hold them.
So in yin yoga, at the end orin the middle from the long,
extended period of time in thepose with self and you feel safe
enough in community and witheveryone, emotions rise to be
(25:16):
felt and released.
That doesn't happen often invinyasa, not because vinyasa is
bad or bikram is bad.
It's more of a faster paceinhale, exhale, and you're
standing and you're moving.
So you have to be mindful inall that.
And yin, you're on the floor.
All you have is the sensation inyou yeah and time to be with
(25:39):
that which which is healing, andI find yin also the gateway to
meditation yeah, I was justthinking for those folks who are
newer into their yoga practices.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
it's like, you know, they could hear this and be like
, well, I don't really have timefor that crap, you know, but
jody's, jody's been along aroundlong enough to to, to have the
experience of somebody comingback to her people in their 70s
and saying and actually some ofthem feeling emotion at 70.
(26:18):
So you can put it off for awhile and keep yourself busy and
duck your head into the workand party on Friday night and
all that stuff, and that's fine,and I'm sure there's people
that can do that an entire lifeand and I, I probably there's a
part of me that's jealous ofthat, you know.
(26:39):
But but really, really, whenyou, if you want to live a full
life, rich in in in feeling andemotion and connection with
yourself and others, these aresome tools that will take you to
this.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
these, these places a more meaningful place I find
what I witnessed when Iintroduced yin to, when I first
brought it back from learning itand introduced it in the people
that stayed with me.
They said that they have neverhad such a profound experience
(27:15):
and result in their other stuff,other yoga practices, that they
have never felt that relaxedafter yin.
And also in my yin workshops.
I do four poses in 90 minutesWorkshops I do four poses in 90
minutes.
So if you're a yin teacher, Iinvite you to stay longer than
(27:37):
three minutes.
I've had my students come backand say they took yin yasana.
That's a joke.
Yin vinyasa.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Yeah, every three minutes, it was like switch
switch, switch, switch Everythree minutes.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
it was like switch, switch, switch, switch People.
The nervous system needs thiswas a study years ago.
It takes 12 minutes.
Dan said this in anotherepisode.
Judy Lassiter Judith Lassiter,when I took her restorative
training years ago talked aboutthis 12 minutes years ago.
(28:13):
It took for the nervous systemto relax.
I've witnessed 30, 40 minutes.
I've witnessed people notcoming down at all in a 90
minute class with me.
So we need to retrain ourselvesand our nervous system to come
back to down regulation becausewe've cut off connection with
(28:35):
all of our inter interoception,our inner signals.
Yin is another way of creating arelationship with your signals
and relearning.
Wow, I just passed my edge.
I watch myself sometimes in themorning wake up and feel stiff
(28:58):
and I get in a yoga pose and I'mlike I want to get it out, get
it out.
And I have to stop and say, joe, what are you doing?
Relax.
And next thing I know 20minutes later I come, come out
of half saddle, which is a quadand hip flexor stretch, and I
just get up and go to work.
I'm a different human thetexture of my eyes, the, the
(29:21):
tejas, the sparkle, the relaxingin the muscles.
So give yourself time toexperience yin.
If you teach it, don't bescared of holding them,
especially if you understandfunctional yin.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Right and get comfortable with the fidgeting,
witnessing the fidgeting.
Get comfortable with that.
Let the bodies work throughthat.
Yes, get comfortable with that,let the bodies work through
that.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Yes, One thing is invite them.
I'm going to give you twothings as we start to wrap this
up.
One give them an opportunity toexplore.
So I let them come into the yinpose and I say take a few
breaths and explore and find anedge to be with right now.
(30:12):
And then, when they're movingand fidgeting, I don't say, hey,
you over there, stop moving.
We don't move in yin.
No, you say.
I wonder what it would feellike to be still for even a
breath, for just one breath.
You invite curiosity, nottelling them stop moving, but
invite.
(30:32):
What would it feel like to notmove for just a breath?
What would it feel like?
And and so yin changed my lifebecause it allowed me to be with
me and for years I ran from me,so it was just another tool in
my toolbox of well, I have yin,and then I have neurosculpting,
(30:56):
and then IFS, and I started tocommunicate with self on a more
intimate level.
That's when change occurs.
So yin yoga rocks man.
Right on.
Okay, my friends, questions ortraining.
I do a yin training if you'reinterested.
But if you have any questions,just reach out BecomeOneLiving
(31:19):
at gmailcom.
Bye.
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