Yin yoga has also been my primary practice for the past month. In yin yoga, you hold gentle floor poses (seated, prone, or supine) poses for several (2-5) minutes. Holding the stretches for so long encourages my muscles to really just kind of melt into the pose. It seems to be a magic bullet for my back pain. The long-held stretches are doing wonders for keeping my back muscles relaxed and the spine healthy. I am almost completely pain-free most days.
Recently I have added ujjayi breathing with breath retention to the yin yoga practice: breathing in for 8 counts, holding the breath in for 4 counts, breathing out for 4 counts, holding the breath out for 4 counts. In this way 2'45" (the current length I am holding each pose) takes about 10 breaths.
It is said that the real purpose of the asanas is to prepare the student for meditation. That certainly seems to be true of yin yoga. Sometimes in this practice, I find my mind disturbed with unrest. Not full-formed thoughts exactly, but a jitteriness or prickliness that is hard to describe. Maybe "mental white noise" comes closest as a description. I find myself irritated at the music I'm listening to (I often play Pandora's Spa Radio station), wishing I could get up and skip forward to the next song. Unrest.
I have experienced similar sensations at times when I meditate.
Then sometimes when I'm doing yin yoga my mind is calm and untroubled, peaceful and relaxed. This I have experienced many times during meditation.
One thing I would like to do, but haven't found time for, is meditate for at least 40 minutes after my hour-long yin yoga session. I bet that would make for a nice, deep meditation. I had hoped to do that last night, but traffic was slow and I got home later than I expected. I'm not sure I'll have time tonight, either. Soon, I hope.
Nice post.
ReplyDeleteI sort of moved into this practice in the reverse order you described. Sitting for more than 20 minutes in meditation started to prove difficult for one of my knees. One day I decided to try a few minutes of yoga before sitting. Of the poses I tried, the one that made the biggest difference was Half Pigeon. Since I like to sit early in the morning, when my body is stiffest, I would do Half Pigeon for seven or eight minutes on each side. Not only did it eliminate my knee pain while sitting afterwards, but I found, as you suggest, that the steady tensions and discomforts of Half Pigeon provided me a mental focus point for meditation, as well.
So now my only real problem is figuring out where my yoga leaves off and my meditation starts. ;-)
I love Half Pigeon! I tend to have a tight piriformis muscle, so Half Pigeon feels very good to me.
ReplyDeleteIt is encouraging that you found yin yoga to help you with pain during sitting in meditation. My meditation practice has been to sit in a chair rather than on the floor, and I have certainly found my back problems to interfere with that (and not just recently, either. For years, as my muscles relaxed during meditation, I would become aware of the lateral bend in my spine and need to readjust). I expect as I continue the practice, yin yoga will help with my own physical difficulties in meditating.
So now my only real problem is figuring out where my yoga leaves off and my meditation starts. ;-)
I'm not sure it really matters!