YIN YOGA Going Beyond Flexibility and Extending the Yielding Approach of Yin Yoga to Master Your Mind. Yin Yoga Poses with photos and description. Sasy Cacace © Copyright 2019 - All rights reserved. The content contained within this book may not be reproduced, duplicated or transmitted without direct written permission from the author or the publisher. Under no circumstances will any blame or legal responsibility be held against the publisher, or author, for any damages, reparation, or monetary loss due to the information contained within this book. Either directly or indirectly. Legal Notice: This book is copyright protected. This book is only for personal use. You cannot amend, distribute, sell, use, quote or paraphrase any part, or the content within this book, without the consent of the author or publisher. Disclaimer Notice: Please note the information contained within this document is for educational and entertainment purposes only. All effort has been executed to present accurate, up to date, and reliable, complete information. No warranties of any kind are declared or implied. Readers acknowledge that the author is not engaging in the rendering of legal, financial, medical or professional advice. The content within this book has been derived from various sources. Please consult a licensed professional before attempting any techniques outlined in this book. By reading this document, the reader agrees that under no circumstances is the author responsible for any losses, direct or indirect, which are incurred as a result of the use of information contained within this document, including, but not limited to, — errors, omissions, or inaccuracies. Table Of Contents Introduction Chapter 1: Yin Yoga, The Process Of Yielding And Letting Go. The Creation Of Yin Yoga. Yin Principles. The Chinese Five Elements. Chapter 2: The Science And Benefits Of Yin Yoga. The Sympathetic/Parasympathetic System. Chapter 3: The Power Of Breathing. Ujjayi, Ocean Breath. Chapter 4: Yoga And Joint Health. Contracture. Fixation. Chapter 5: What Is Limiting Your Range Of Motion? The Vipassana Approach. Chapter 6: 19 Powerful Yin Yoga Poses, Variations, And Their Benefits. 1. The Butterfly Pose. 2. The Caterpillar Pose. 3. The Dangling Pose. 4. The Dragon Pose. 5. The Dragonfly/Straddle Pose. 6. The Frog Pose. 7. The Snail Pose. 8. The Saddle Pose. 9. The Sphinx Pose. 10. The Fire Log/Square Pose. 11. The Happy Baby/Stirrup Pose. 12. The Sleeping Swan Pose. 13. The Shoelace Pose. 14. The Recline Twisting Pose. 15. The Melting Heart/Puppy Pose. 16. The Bananasana. 17. The Shavasana/Corpse Pose. 18. Stressing The Arms. 19. Pec Stretch/Shoulders Roll. Conclusion. Introduction Thank you for reading “Yin Yoga: Going Beyond Flexibility and Extending the Yielding Approach of Yin Yoga to Master Your Mind. Yin Yoga Poses with photos and descriptions”, which is my sequel to The Key to Happiness. If you read my previous book, then you learned about how everyone can improve their life with the yogi lifestyle. By beginning your spiritual journey with meditation and Yin yoga you can reduce stress, increase wisdom, and even slow down the process of aging. Of course, this isn’t some miracle cure, I do not claim to eradicate all aging or stress. But, you can greatly lessen these negative aspects of life, as has been proved through many scientific studies. We will go over the science and studies in this book, and more so that you can plainly see the amazing benefits the yogi path has to offer. You can trust in knowing that the tools and methods taught in this book are reliable and helpful. I am an Experienced Yoga Alliance Registered Yoga Teacher (E-RYT 500) and a Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider (YACEP). I use these certifications not only to master the yogi path, but also to teach and help others discover the yogi path, understand its benefits, and learn how to faithfully follow the lifestyle themselves that is not designed to tone or stretch your body but it is designed to free us from obstacles and liberate us from any fear. Before adopting the yogi path I have been a detective on the police force for twenty years. While I can certainly help many people while working in this field, it is not an easy position. It would be difficult for anyone to witness the crime and pain in the world daily for their job, especially a soft-hearted man like myself. I am someone who has always dreamed of a world free from pain. While having a world free from pain is a dream and not reality, I still believe that it is possible to lessen the pain in the world. We all have the opportunity to transform our pain, and the pain around us, thereby increasing joy, peace, and growth. We can use these experiences as a way to improve ourselves and our lives, constantly growing and becoming better people. This is doing Yoga. After fifteen years of walking the yogi path on my spiritual quest, this is what I have discovered, and I would like to share this knowledge and the tools needed to accomplish the goal of a better life with you. While you may be familiar with standard yoga classes, Yin yoga is much more powerful and meditative. This process focuses on promoting deep physical, spiritual, and mental awareness. Rather than just working the surface of your joints and muscles, you can work your deeper tissues. Your connective tissues and fascia are included in the poses, as well! People often lose vital flexibility as they age, with stiffness in the fascia causing pain resulting in the muscles becoming overwork. Yin yoga helps to increase flexibility and overall health as you age, reducing the risk of injury. With fast-paced yang yoga, people can often miss out on many of the benefits it has to offer, such as the deep connection it requires with a person’s own soul, body, emotions, and sensations. On the other hand, Yin yoga excels at slowing down and allowing a person to truly connect deeply, offering benefits on all levels. It is necessary to understand that it is not the movement that frees you, but the quality of the relationship you have with it. With Yin yoga, you are no longer distracted by movements as people are with flowy Yang yoga practice. By removing the distractions while maintaining a still pose you have the ability to focus inward and meditate. As you will discover later in this book, the pairing of Yin meditation and yoga has many benefits to the soul and mental health, benefiting you in everyday life. Most people are not adjusted to living a life with stillness and meditation. Instead of keeping the body and mind still, most people are always looking at their phones or running around doing task after task, in a constant flow of doing, doing and doing that they forget what it is simply be. But, there are many important benefits to sitting still and meditating. Simple be instead of doing. It will take time to adjust to the process of Yin yoga and meditation, but with work, you will find that your time of meditating and practicing poses is rejuvenating and cleanses your body and mind for the day to come. To truly gain all of these benefits, you should read my other book, The Key to Happiness, in which we discuss methods of meditation, life-altering tools to increase peace and to let go of pain, the keys to gaining joy and happiness and more. In this book, you will learn all about Yin yoga, its benefits, nineteen poses with their variations, for a total of 51 asanas with photos and an extra section for shoulders and neck health using Yin yoga principles, and more. Let’s take this journey for better health and a better life. All you have to do is begin. Chapter 1 Yin Yoga, the Process of Yielding and Letting Go. Allow every aspect of your life be your growing edge. Your efforts won’t be wasted and what you gain won’t be overturned. If that is your way of life, you are doing Yoga. Sasy Cacace Yin yoga is both an ancient method and a new practice. This is because the practice of both Yin meditation and traditional (Yang) yoga were combined to increase the benefits of both Yin and yoga. By combining the two, the effects become even more profound. Who was it that combined these two methods? While the teachings of many people were used, the person who combined all of the knowledge into a single method is Paul Grilley. Some of his influences in the combination of all this knowledge were Paulie Zink who was the heaviest influencer and laid the groundwork, Dr. Gary Parker who taught the importance of anatomy, and Dr. Hiroshi Motoyama reminded Grilley of the greater purpose of yoga in Daoism. Now, let’s look into the creation of the original yoga and Yin yoga. After all, if you want to reap all of the benefits that this practice has to offer, you need to understand the theory behind it. The Creation of Yin Yoga. Documentation on the history of yoga has been found that dates back hundreds and thousands of years. This includes ancient texts such as the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, Yoga Sutra, Gheranda Samhita, and more. Yet, you simply can’t only read these works in order to gain all of the understanding from them. You require the help of a master or guru to fully understand and utilize the knowledge these ancient texts share. The texts themselves only share a part of the knowledge, a condensed version which requires the proper teaching through the guidance of a teacher. Why is this? The premise was that only a master could know when their student was ready to gain the knowledge. Therefore, much of the knowledge was kept in secret at the master's discretion, until they felt their student was advanced enough for the understanding. The ancient texts themselves do not fully explain how yoga was physically practiced. However, it is plain to see that the deeper purpose of yoga was more than just physical. Yoga was meant to help prepare a person for the deeper implementation of meditation. The earliest spiritual books of India, the Vedas, had many meanings for yoga. One of these was the word “discipline”. On the other hand, “asana” which is a series of poses commonly practice used in yoga today, is not named. Instead, the closest word to asana is described as a block on which people sit to meditate. When the Yoga Sutra was written, the practice of yoga had advanced further since the Vedas. By this time, asana was a part of the practice, but only a small part of it. In fact, the Sutra only mentions asana twice. At this time yoga was defined as a psychological-spiritual method meant to attain the pinnacle of enlightenment and liberation. It is important to mention that when the Yoga Sutra mentions asana it defines what the movements should be like. It uses the words “sthira” and “sukham”, meaning that the movements should be both steady and calm (Sutra 2.46). This is important information, as these are key qualities of Yin yoga, rather than the Yang yoga often used throughout the West. Yoga was created as a tool to facilitate meditation, deeper understanding, and liberation. While there are many types of yoga with their own principles, the ultimate original goal of all yoga is to achieve this end. Some of the yoga methods place a higher emphasis on the movements of the body, whereas others left almost no mention of poses and movements. Some methods of yoga were so extreme, and unhealthy, that they believed that the body only got in the way of enlightenment and liberation. Therefore, they sought a way to attain out-of-body experiences as rapidly and quickly as possible. This resulted in unhealthy practices that only damaged the body. Thankfully, there were also yoga methods that outright rejected the idea of the previous extreme. For instance, the Hatha yoga method placed emphasis on maintaining a strong and healthy body. Their principle stated that since people can only attain knowledge and liberation while in their body, the body should be cared for, kept healthy, and strengthened. By doing this, the yogis of the Hatha principle were able to maintain meditation for hours on end, as their bodies were so well trained that they could stay still much longer than a