Our resident Yin Yoga teacher and Teacher Trainer, Sarah Corbett, tells us why she's passionate about Yin.

I've loved yoga since I was a little girl but often felt frustrated by my practice the older I grew and the more injuries I encountered throughout my life. I often felt I needed to suspend my practice as I nursed a throbbing shoulder or a painful knee. Yin was a huge revelation to me, knowing I could safely practice whatever my circumstance and genuinely feel into my appropriate edge without compromising myself in any way.

Practicing Yin has allowed me to deepen my overall yoga practice in so many ways. On a physical level, my joints feel healthier and more mobile. I have gained a greater sense of clarity and insight into my bodies reactivities and responses when doing yoga because Yin has allowed me the time to investigate during practice. I am able to sink into Meditation far more easily these days with less distraction as I'm able to encounter difficulties more easily. Yin gives you the opportunity to broaden your Meditative awareness with its focus on the breath and training of the mind.

Yin is so unique as you are able to work simultaneously on the physical, energetic, emotional and mental bodies at the same time. Although it's possible to do that in other styles of yoga, you still need a certain amount of energy to achieve this. You can utilize Yin when you are feeling very depleted and much the same as you would feel after a Restorative practice, you leave feeling re-energized and revitalised. Yin has the added advantage of having helped to maintain joint elasticity by working more deeply on the connective tissues of the body. Although Yin is best understood from having a background knowledge of Chinese Meridian Theory, it can also be presented through a knowledge of the Indian concept of the Nadis and the Chakra system. We work deeply on enhancing the energy channels of the body and clearing the energetic pathways and blockages that may be encountered during a practice, helping to bring the organs of the body back to a heathy balance.

I would recommend it to students of all ages and abilities and experience because I have seen it work on those closest to me and on complete beginners and skeptics ! But more importantly because of the difference I have seen it make to people's level of confidence, especially when encountering yoga for the first time. Yoga can be Intimidating when someone feels as if they are too old, inflexible, uncoordinated or a myriad of other reasons making them feel it is too late to start a yoga practice. One should never feel that it is too late to start, but rather that it is the beginning of something attainable and life enhancing. Yin is a perfect way to begin and it is also a beautiful way to go forward for those already practicing who want the time to be able to develop and deepen their practice and skills.

Sarah teaches Yin Yoga classes on Mondays at 9.15am and runs regular workshops and Yin Yoga teacher trainings. Her next Yin Yoga workshop is on 20th October.

Yin Yoga Teacher Sarah Corbett

This workshop is about learning how to bring balance into your lives through yoga, through the art of the yogic breath and learning from the ancient science of Chinese Meridian Theory. 

Yoga can bring immediate positive benefits to our lives and in Yin yoga we learn how to have a more skillful inward drawn practice. We learn how to relax during a posture and be less reactive to the challenges of a pose. This in turn helps us to build less reactive responses to life’s challenges that we face daily.

Yin poses are traditionally cooling, calming and collective. They are soft, slow and still. We target the energy channels or meridians of the body thorough specially adapted Yin poses, using lots of soft comfy blankets and bolsters to help even the stiffest of us. The energy or ‘chi’ in the meridians is enhanced by encouraging chi flow and removing energy blockages in these invisible energetic pathways during practice. Balance is brought back to the subtle energy body.

Everyone can benefit from learning how to calm the nervous system, especially us busy Mums who are always left till last! (Really Dads should be coming too !) A Yin practice is also a wonderful way to start building a foundation for a more meditative practice. Expect to feel completely revitalized and to have a renewed sense of energy and wellbeing. As a dear non yogi friend said to me recently after a class, ‘I don’t know how it works, but it does.’ 

Yin has been increasingly popular in the West after hundreds of years of practice in the East. Yogis such as Sarah Powers and Paul Grilley have brought this type of yoga to the West after years of study in the East. You can check out their recent DVDs and books on their websites. 

I was fortunate enough to have had Sarah Powers as my teacher after years of a muddled yoga practice, always imagining I had to grow and ‘get better’ at yoga. Yin was a revelation to me, not just as a yoga teacher but as a mother, learning how to accept life’s changes and the inevitability of learning how to slow down gracefully !

Give yourself the gift of learning how to really use your intuition in your yoga practice and making it completely your own.

Sarah is a Level 2 teacher with Yoga Australia and Yoga Alliance USA and a Certified Yin/Yang Yoga Teacher with Sarah Powers.  She has also completed her Birthlight Pregnancy and Baby Yoga certification and is now working towards her Diplomas.  She is a qualified Senior First Aid member with the Australian Surf Life Saving Academy. 

Sarah's Yin Yoga workshop runs on Saturday 20 October 12pm - 3pm BOOK NOW

We've all heard the phrase 'Less is more'.  Nothing could be truer in yogic terms when it comes to describing Yin yoga.  Not only do you do less asanas in a class but you somehow end up feeling you've done more at the end of the practice than you would  do in a dynamic flow class.

How is this possible ?  In Yin yoga the twelve specific meridians or 'chi' (energy) channels are targeted through specially designed asana sequences.  It has long been known in Chinese medicine that every organ has many energetic components that affect us physically, mentally and emotionally.  For instance we might focus on the kidney sequence one day  and the liver on another.  The Chinese believe in chi balancing and grow up believing everything has a 'yin' quality and a 'yang' quality.  So in simple terms, in a Yin class you might expect to focus on one area of the body, clearing the energetic pathways and therefore bringing balance back to the energy body.   Because poses are traditionally held for longer periods of time, there is time to go deeper inwards focusing not only on the breath but on the subtle energy body too.  A yin practice gives us a strong foundation for a meditative practice helping to build awareness on how to train the mind.  

Yin is often practiced at the start of a class before the muscle or Yang tissues have had time to warm up.  Summer is therefore a wonderful time to practice Yin yoga as we remain still and therefore cool, focusing inwards.  Our contemplative and receptive qualities are enhanced during Yin and the deeper yin tissues (ligaments)are targeted.  Yin, though often seen as a quiet practice is just as beneficial for the adrenalin junkie whose cortisol levels are already high enough.  They may be surprised at the effect a Yin class may have on their overall sense of well being.  And just when you think you haven't done enough, you may realize that loading your ligaments has given you the deep stretch that you needed, you've learnt how to switch off, if only for a moment and your stress levels are down.  How much more could you want from an hour of practice ?

Over time, anyone who has ever practiced Yin recognises the long term benefits. Our overall sense of well being improves, we've learnt directly how to trigger our parasympathetic nervous system and we shout less at our loved ones ! 

Try it and see.  Suitable for all levels of yoga practitioners, beginners and ballerinas alike.

 Sarah Corbett is a Mum, Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT 500) with Yoga Alliance, USA  and Level 2 member of  Yoga Australia and a certified Yin/Yang yoga specialist with Sarah Powers.  She has been teaching across Asia and the USA and Australia for the past 7 years. You can experience Yin Yoga in Sarah's Yin Yoga classes at Adore on Mondays 10.30am or join her Yin Yoga workshop on Saturday 24 March, 12-3pm. SPECIAL CLASS! Try out Yin Yoga for just $20 at 10.30am on Monday 12 March. Book here.