Yin Yoga Poses For Stress Relief

Yin Yoga is a boon to the fast-paced modern life. Yin Yoga is a slow-paced yoga that primarily believes in relieving hidden stress from tendons, fasciae & ligaments by staying in the pose for a longer duration.

The practise of Yin Yoga poses for stress relief gives you a relaxation effect similar to the one that you experience after a gentle body massage.

Breathe In, Get into a convenient yin yoga pose for relaxation, rejuvenation, and calming of your mind and body. Stay in the pose for 3 to 5 minutes while taking a few deep breaths.

Here’s everything that I will be covering about Yin Yoga Practice for De-stress:

Introduction To Yin Yoga For Stress Relief
Know About Yin Yoga
Yin Yoga Poses for Stress Relief
Principles Of Yin Yoga Poses for Stress Relief
Benefits of Yin Yoga For Stress Management
Tips While Practicing Yin Yoga For Stress management
The Practice of Yin Yoga Using Props to Relieve Stress

Introduction to Yin Yoga For Stress Relief:

In today’s fast-paced modern world, we experience stress in our everyday life. Working long hours to meet deliverables, tough relationships, financial problems &, etc cause stress. Even positive changes such as buying a home, and getting married might cause stress. Stress is the body’s natural way of protecting you.

Stress isn’t always bad. In lower doses, it can be of help in performing better and motivating you to do your best. But beyond a certain point, stress stops being helpful and starts harming your body and mind.

When stress remains unchecked, we start becoming doubtful about the work conditions, often feel drained, gut discomfort kicks in, suffer from a lack of motivation at work and our muscles tense up.

In addition to the negative impacts on our health, we start noticing negative impacts on our thoughts, feelings, and even behaviour.

Everyone will have different stress triggers. It can be easy to go through life believing that stress and anxiety are common. But, by understanding the reasons for stress and solving it you can be better in your work and daily life.

Managing stress is not the same for everyone. I have found my way of relieving stress by practising Yin Yoga poses and I am excited to share the same with you. Yin Yoga poses could change the way you respond to stress, improve your health, and help you remain calm under stress.

Know About Yin Yoga:

Yin Yoga is a form of yoga that is based on the principles of Yin -Yang theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

‘Yin’ is the stable, unmoving, hidden aspect of things;
‘Yang’ is the changing, moving, revealing aspect.

It is a slow and controlled speed yoga that believes in holding the poses for a longer duration and gently extending the connective tissue around a joint. Yin Yoga for stress relief consists of passive floor poses that majorly focus on the lower region of the body – the hips, pelvis, inner thighs, and lower spine.

Yin Yoga is one of the remedies to our fast-paced lifestyles. It encourages us to slow down and helps us focus on the present moment. Yin Yoga helps in overcoming stress by creating space to activate our parasympathetic nervous system.

Yin Yoga Poses for Stress Relief:

Yin Yoga poses for stress relief would ideally be initiated after a few minutes of meditation. The below yin yoga poses for stress relief can be practised by a beginner and can also be practised by practitioners of any level.

Practice the below soothing and easy yin yoga postures that are excellent for de-stress, relaxation and rejuvenation,

1. Child’s Pose:

Child’s Pose or Balasana is a beginner comfortable exercise that is an excellent pose for relieving stress. When you feel a wave of stress reaching you, get into the Child’s pose. The soothing touch of your forehead to mother earth calms you down and relieves anxiety.

The child’s pose mainly focuses on stretching hips, thighs and ankles along with the relaxation of the mind and body. While in the pose, closely observe the feelings that you are going through.

How Long should I remain still in Child’s Pose?

Beginners can remain in the pose for about 2 to 3 minutes.
Intermediate to Advanced level practitioners can remain in the pose for about 5 minutes

2. Shavasana:

Shavasana or Corpse Pose is a re-bound pose after completing the Child’s pose. The re-bound pose allows you to observe the changes in your body after the completion of the Child’s pose.

According to the most famous yoga master, BKS Iyengar,

“Savasana is being without was, being without will be. It is being without anyone who is”

Practising Savasana helps you calm the nervous system and helps in giving rest to your entire body. Savasana helps in relaxing the stressed muscles, tense shoulders, and tight jaws. In addition to relieving tension from the body, it also soothes and relieves stress and anxiety.

How Long should I remain still in Shavasana or Corpse Pose?

Beginners can remain in the pose for about 2 to 3 minutes.
Intermediate to Advanced level practitioners can remain in the pose for about 5 minutes

3. Sleeping Swan Pose:

It is believed that stress is often hidden in the lower back and hips. This hidden stress causes lower back pain, tight hips, and much more. The sleeping swan pose helps in relieving the hidden stress and tension from the hips and lower back.

The sleeping swan pose primarily focuses on the Liver, Gall Bladder, Stomach, Urinary Bladder, and Spleen. It is an intermediate yoga pose and can be practised anywhere, anytime.

How Long should I remain still in Sleeping Swan Pose?

Beginners can remain in the pose for about 1 to 2 minutes. You can make use of props if the pose is challenging.
Intermediate to Advanced level practitioners can remain in the pose for about 5 minutes

4. Supine Lateral Right Side Stretch:

Supine lateral right side stretch is also known as Supine Crescent Moon Pose or Banasana. Supine lateral right side stretch helps in stretching the liver and gall bladder meridian, which runs along the side of the body. This pose also Mobilizes the spine in lateral flexion.

Steps to do Supine Lateral Side Stretch:

Lie down on your yoga mat and come to Savasana Pose
Cross your left ankle over the right ankle
Stretch your hands over your head
Move your legs and hands to the right side of the body, with the lower back, legs and the entire body remaining grounded.

How Long should I remain still in Supine Lateral Side Stretch or Supine Crescent Moon Pose?

Beginners can remain in the pose for about 2 to 3 minutes.
Intermediate to Advanced level practitioners can remain in the pose for about 5 minutes

5. Supine Lateral Left Side Stretch:

Supine lateral left side stretch helps stretch the Gall Bladder meridian, which runs along the side of the body.
This is similar to the Supine Lateral Right Side Stretch. The only change is that we move our legs and arms towards the left side of the body.

6. Caterpillar Pose:

Duration: 5 Mins
Stress is often stored in the hip muscles, the Caterpillar pose helps in reducing accumulated stress around the back and hip muscles.

7. Reclining Bound Angle Pose

Duration: 5 Mins
This pose helps in relieving stress accumulated around the muscles of the hip and thighs

8. Reclining Right Side Twist:

Duration: 5 Mins
This pose helps in relieving stress accumulated around the muscles of the spinal cord

9. Reclining Left Side Pose

Duration: 5 Mins

Principles Of Yin Yoga Poses for Stress Relief:

Yin Yoga sequence for stress relief would be generally follow the below principles,

Get into a yin yoga pose until a point where your body shows the initial sign of resistance to the movement.
Remaining complete still and staying in the posture for 3 to 5 minutes or more.

Yin Yoga requires the muscles to get a gentle stretch around the connective tissue in order to relax and release the stored stress, so not every yoga pose can be done effectively when practising the yin yoga sequence for stress relief.

Please talk to your doctor and inform the trainer if you are suffering from any health conditions before starting yin yoga for stress relief practice.

By holding yin poses for a longer duration, we unwind our body’s deeper layers of tissues such as the tendons, fascia, ligaments and other connective tissues which allows us to rest and digest.

While holding yin yoga poses for stress relief and resting, we will be able to witness sensations, thoughts, and emotions that we are going through.

Gentle movement, and profound stillness, brings out the trapped reasons for stress to the surface where we can recognize it, and then set emotional release through yin yoga.

Benefits of Yin Yoga For Stress Management:

Yin yoga for stress relief sequence balances the Yang energy
Deep relaxation of mind and body
Soothing Yin Yoga poses calm anxiety
Yin Yoga makes you adept self-care

Tips While Practicing Yin Yoga For Stress Management:

Make sure you wear some warm clothing
Move slowly and gently into the pose
Never stretch so far as to cause pain
Remain calm and still in the pose, without fidgeting or shifting position too much
Hold the pose for 3 to 5 minutes or as instructed by the trainer

The Practice of Yin Yoga Using Props to Relieve Stress:

The goal of yin yoga for stress relief is to focus and calm your own mind and not compete with anyone else. It is about being still in a pose for a long time and understanding what is happening in your mind.

Yin yoga for stress relief is about staying in the pose for a long time and being comfortable during the duration. This is to help you focus on your mind and if this is being difficult, you can use the necessary props such as walls, blocks, bolsters, straps &, etc to practise yin yoga.

Does Yin Yoga Help in Stress Relief?

Experimental Results:

Currently, there are no specific scientific studies of Yin Yoga being beneficial for stress relief.

However, there are a few clinical trials that indicate Yin Yoga to be beneficial for relaxing stress.

A study indicates that a 5 Week Yin Yoga practice helps in increasing psychological health in stressed adults.
Another study indicates that Yin Yoga helps in decreasing stress and increasing mindfulness

Personal Experience:

When I started practising Yin Yoga in Mind.Fit’s Jayanagar Aayana Center, My body started to feel uncomfortable staying in the pose after 1 minute as it is supposed to naturally.

However, by overcoming the natural urge to come out of the yin asana for stress relief, staying in the pose by taking a few deep breaths.

I observed that my muscles, tissues, and ligaments started adapting to the opposition and I also observed that all my thoughts about meeting deadlines at work, financial commitments, pressing matters, and the never-ending to-do tasks started fading away – finding solutions on their own by staying in the present moment.

At the end of the 70 mins Yin Yoga sequence, I came out being relaxed, de-stressed, joyful and content.