30 min Beginner Yin Yoga in a Chair | Special Guest Melissa West

Hello and welcome to this beginner yin yoga class in a chair. My name is Melissa from Yoga with Melissa and a huge thank you to Sheri for having me as a guest on her channel today. If you go on over to my channel, Yoga with Melissa, you'll see Sheri's chair yoga class for balance on my channel. So go back and forth and you've got great offerings today. So let's get started. We're going to start with some centering, meditation and seated. All the holds in today's class are going to be two minutes and I'm going to be teaching you everything you need to know about yin yoga if you've never done it before, so don't worry. So start by feeling your feet on the ground and then feel your seat in the chair. Lengthen up through your spine, open up through the back of your neck, let your elbows be under your shoulders and feel your body. Draw all that attention that's been dispersed out back into your body and become aware of your breathing. Let your breath settle down and into your belly. While you're connecting with your physical sensations of your body and your breath, I'm just going to tell you a little bit about yin yoga. Yin yoga is a genre of yoga that focuses on the deeper connective tissues wrapping around the joints of your body, particularly your hips, pelvis and your lower spine. It's quite different from most forms of yoga which focus on the muscles. With yin yoga, we hold the poses for longer periods of time, usually for about five minutes, but for a beginner's class we're going to hold them for two minutes rather than the typical five breaths. Most forms of yoga focus on the superficial muscles rather than the deeper layers of connective tissues, ligaments and joints and bones that we focus on in yin yoga. Muscles respond well to the faster rhythmic movement that you find in these forms of yoga because this increases their fluid content, giving them more flexibility and strength. Okay, we're going to come into our first yin pose. So you're going to take your right ankle, you're going to cross it over your left thigh and in yin, we want to find an appropriate edge. So if you're feeling sensation in the outside of your right leg and into your glutes, you can stay here. If you are not feeling sensation, then you can lean forward. In yin, it's not about what the pose looks like, it's about what it feels like. So yin is not an aesthetic practice, it's you want to have sensation, not have it be sensational. So I'm just going to set a timer so that we stay in the pose for two minutes. So let's talk about the principles of yin. The first principle is that we choose an appropriate edge like I talked about. We want it to feel sensation in the pose but not have it be sensational. It wants to be something that we can stay with for a while. That's in this class, we want to be able to stay in the pose for two minutes. And then we want to soften and be still. So we're going to slowly come out of the pose on this side and release your leg down. And you're just going to pause here and feel the flow of chi, the flow of energy, the blood flow in your body. This is sometimes called the rebound. So let's go ahead and do this pose on the other side. So you're going to go ahead and take the left ankle and cross it over the right thigh, sitting up nice and tall. And you might be already feeling a sensation here on the outside of your left leg and into your left glutes. That's the case, you can stay here. If you're not feeling sensation, you can lean forward until you feel sensation. Remembering this isn't an aesthetic practice, we are focusing on how we feel on the inside, not what it looks like on the outside. And then I'll go ahead and set this timer again for two minutes for us, because we're beginners in this class. So let's just review those principles of yin. We've already chosen that appropriate edge, and that helps us to soften into the pose, which is another one of the principles of yin, so that we can be still, so that we don't fidget, we don't move around. This keeps the energy going into the joints, the connective tissue, the bones. And then we stay for a while, we stay for two minutes, so that it goes deeper into the connective tissues, the joints, and the bones, rather than staying up at the surface level, the muscles, like what happens when we do something like hatha yoga. Okay, slowly release this pose from your body. And then we pause at the end to feel that flow chi, the flow of energy, feeling the blood flow, we call this the rebound. Okay, our next pose is a twist. So you're going to rotate to your right, you can either put your hand, your left hand to the outside of your right knee, or you can hold on to the back of your chair. So rotating through the spine, we're going to focus in on each one of those principles of yin as we move through the class. The first one is to be still, I'm going to make sure I set my timer so we only spend two minutes in the pose. The first one is to be still, and this is a really different concept from a yoga class where we might move a lot or move with breath. So our breath is still moving us, but we don't fidget or fix or try to deepen into the pose. We just find that appropriate edge so that we can be still so that the pose moves deeper into the connective tissues and the bones, the joints. Now you might wonder where you're placing your attention in a yin pose. You can place your attention on the physical sensations in your body, and here it would be on the rotation through your spine. You could place it on your breathing. So you're going to slowly come out of the pose, come back to the center, and just give the spine a chance to unravel. Feel the flow of qi, and then we're going to go ahead and do this pose on the other side. So you'll take your right hand to the outside of your left knee, or you can hold on to the back of your chair, choosing an appropriate edge, somewhere where you can be still, soften into the pose, and stay for two minutes. So we were talking about where you can place your attention in the pose. So if focusing internally is difficult, you can always open your eyes and place your attention on an object in the room. You could have a mantra like I am here as you breathe in, this is now as you breathe out. You could feel your connection to the ground or the chair through your feet, through your seat. Okay, release this twist from your body and come back to the center and just allow your spine to unravel. Feel the flow of qi, of energy, feel the effect of that pose, allow it to integrate. Okay, we're going to move on to our next pose, and for this one you're going to extend your right leg and keep your left leg bent, and you're going to fold forward over it. So you'll want to be right on the edge of your chair so it's not uncomfortable on the back of your hamstring, the back of your leg, and fold forward over it until you feel sensation on the back of your leg. You're going to be here for two minutes, so I'll just press start on that timer. So in yin, we stay for a while, and we stay for a while to coax the qi, the energy, and the blood deeper into the connective tissues. So if you've ever been for acupuncture, they don't put the needles in and then take them out right away. You put them in and then you stay for a while. You usually have a little yoga nap, a little acupuncture nap, so that you can let the qi flow through the meridians, and it's the same thing in a yin class. We stay in the poses for a while to let the qi go deeper into the meridians, the connective tissues, the bones, the joints, and that's why we stay for a while. If your mind wanders in this pose, you can repeat that mantra, I am here as you breathe in, this is now as you breathe out. Okay, you're going to slowly come up, bring your extended leg back, and just pause here for a moment. Feel that flow of qi, the flow of energy along the back of the leg. So bend your right leg, extend your left leg, lengthen up tall through your spine, and you're going to hinge forward over that left leg until you feel sensation along the back of your leg. If the chair is digging in, you may need to scooch forward a little bit on your chair, and I'll just press that timer to start so that we're holding for two minutes. So the other thing, the other reason why we stay for a while in a yin class and in our yin poses is that yin is a mindfulness training. We are training to meditate, to practice mindfulness in this class two minutes at a time. So we're training our mind to stay in one place just two minutes at a time. So in a world where it's very easy to constantly distract ourselves, we're just asking ourselves to place our attention in one place for just two minutes at a time. So here it might be the sensation along the backs of your legs, it might be your breath, it might be looking at something, or it might be that mantra that we're as you breathe in, you say to yourself, I am here. As you breathe out, you say, this is now. So you're going to slowly come up to seated. You can bring your legs in, you might want to just scooch back a little bit on that chair, still sitting upright so that your spine is away from the back of your chair if you have a back. Okay, our final yin posture, we're going to focus on softening. And in this posture, we're going to do a pose in yin called dangling. So you're just going to open your legs, hinge forward through your hips, and just let your body dangle here. Let the back of your neck be long, let your shoulders dangle, and you're just going to hang forward here. And I'll set our timer for two minutes and really let your body and all your limbs be soft here. Okay, you're going to slowly make your way up, right? And to finish, we'll come into a seated meditation posture. Just bring your feet underneath your, about hip width apart, elbows under your shoulders, lengthen up through your spine, open up through the crown of your neck. Just noticing how you feel different from the beginning of the class and resting in this place of calm abiding, feeling your breath in your lower belly, feeling present and grounded in your body. Notice that sense of spaciousness in your joints, through your ankles, knees, hips, shoulders, spine. And stay in this stillness. I always finish my classes by reading a poem. So I have a poem for you today that was written by one of my students. His name is Richard Hammer. And if it resonates with you, great. If not, take what you like and leave the rest. People come into your life for a time then disappear. To give a blessing then move on. To receive your touch or be seen by you and leave. The road bends, curves, rises, new vistas appear. An ever-growing delight, an expansion into wonder, an evolving, a chemical mix. People, roads, vistas, come to us for a reason. Come to us with an invitation. Come with an offering. Come to see if we are listening. Open the door to the gift that is before you, that is a teaching, that is a dance partner for this moment. So if you made it all the way to the end of this class, put, I opened the door to a gift in the comments. Put, I opened the door to a gift in the comments. Give this video a thumbs up and be sure to subscribe to Sherry's channel and share this class with somebody else that you think would like to try a beginner yin class in a chair with a friend. And I want to thank Sherry so much for having me as a guest on her channel. Again, it's always a pleasure to be here and I also want to thank Sherry so much for making me the balancing yin class in a chair on my channel and be sure to go on over there and do that class with her over there as well. So thanks so much for being with me today and for practicing this beginner yin class in a chair and I will see you next time. I'm sending you much love from beautiful British Columbia. May your joy be as deep as the Pacific Ocean. May you be as rooted as the old growth trees in our forest and may you be as strong as our mountains. Much love, many blessings.