// Practice Yin Yoga
Incorporating yin yoga into your weekly routine can have excellent benefits. Yin yoga focuses on deep connective tissues like fascia, ligaments, joints and improves the flow of energy within the body. Poses are held from 3-5 minutes and invite you to stretch to your edge and breathe deeply, allowing you to go inward. When long hold stretches are released, energy flows through your body more vigorously and brings you renewed vitality. If you think about it like a garden hose, when you bend the hose, the flow of water stops, the water builds up pressure, and when you release, flows swiftly through the hose again moving any stagnant water or blockages through the hose. Much like the flow of water, energy can be restored by practicing yin yoga.
The top 5 benefits of yin yoga:
1. Yin yoga teaches you to breathe through discomfort and push yourself to your physical and emotional edge without going to far.
2. By stretching and deepening into poses for a longer amount of time, we’re opening up any blockages and releasing that energy to flow freely - similar to the effects of acupuncture.
3. The stretches lengthen connective tissue, reducing aches and stiffness and improving flexibility.
4. Yin Yoga boosts circulation - remember the garden hose example from above?
5. The practice reduces stress levels - studies have found that yin yoga can have a significant impact on lowering stress levels, anxiety, and the risk of depression.
The body needs a mix of yin and yang practices. It’s important to listen to your body and practice yin yoga when you need to slow down.