It’s been a while now that I’ve been doing yin yoga, the quiet and passive style of yoga that has become my healing and restorative sanctuary.

The past couple of months when I’ve had to deal, as a caregiver, with family illnesses (including my own bout with mild flu) and 2 family deaths has been stressful and quite depressing, to say the least. Yin yoga somehow was always there to catch me on the emotional way down and would lift my spirits enough for me to have energy to keep on with tasks and chalkenges ahead.

But months of yin yoga coupled with quiet caring days for my house patient and the absence of blogging-related events Christmas holidays has kept me less active than usual and house-bound.

Tonight I felt the strong urge to go back and revisit my first love – vinyasa yoga. It felt good to don my yoga clothes again, knowing I’d get a good sweat this time. As I began my sun salutations, the familiar sequence that I often did in class rushed back and I eagerly did each one with purpose – staying in the pose as long as I wanted.

Yes, some unused muscles complained as each asana woke them and reminded them of how engaged they should be. I know I’d wake up to almost forgotten aches tomorrow as these muscles struggle once again to gain strength. But it felt good. My body was looking for it and I simply responded.

Truly, yin and yang go hand in hand and depending on one’s present state of body, mind and spirit, one form will be more appropriate than the other.

I am grateful for tonight’s vinyasa practice and I give thanks for all my yoga teachers who shared their vinyasa practice with me over the years.

Love and light to all…namaste.

 

For an idea of what yin yoga is, please read all about my first encounter with yin yoga HERE.