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Writer's pictureRosalba Randal

YIN YOGA AND LETTING GO

Updated: May 6


(Francis and Rosalba Randall)


If we want to change and create something new in your life, we may need to let go of what we have, what we believe, what we feel, that which is familiar although not always pleasant. When we remain holding on, we tend to get more of what we already have and we keep repeating cycles. Holding emotions and beliefs becomes a skill that we developed through our lives, and often has been important in order to survive and to protect ourselves, but there is this moment when holding on is in the way of our growth and happiness and becomes a constant burden.


That is the moment when the process of letting go becomes an opportunity to unlearn and disengage form our negative beliefs and emotions. Often times we blame the feelings for our suffering and do not realize that is our resistance to feel and allow them to be and let go.


Being Letting go a Simple process, why we usually find the it so complicated?


We are convinced that holding on is vital for our survival and security. This is the job of our Egos and a very good job it does, so much so that we end up stressed, feeling isolated and afraid of our growing shadow which keeps following us where ever we go.


This is a big subject but I would like to illustrate the process of letting go, that may be for its simplicity is underestimated. In this process, the first step is to identify what you want or need to let go. The wisdom of the body is vital here, as the body knows what is safe to release. Embodiment the feeling and diving into the feelings and emotions help us to acknowledgment of them towards acceptance.


The second Step is to ask yourself if you can welcome this emotion, bringing it into your awareness and experience it may be unpleasant and painful. When we are starting the process of letting go, there is lots of resistance to move through you and may be the resistance itself is what you need to let go of. The body is a sensorial instrument that can aid this process, intensifying the feeling and helping you to locate it.


The Third Step is the readiness and willingness to let it go, after we acknowledge, welcome and allow ourselves to feel whatever we are feeling, the following step is releasing. When the feeling is released, a lot of energy is liberated, this energy can be very transformative. As t is said that emotions are energy in motion. When we let go, the emotion goes but the energy stays and it can be very powerful.


In the Forth Step there is a great expansion of self. The more we practice letting go the easier it becomes. As we we see the benefits the practice becomes more enjoyable and naturally engrained in our lives.


YIN YOGA AS A TOOL TOWARDS LETTING GO


A diligent and consistent Yin Yoga practice, gives plenty of room and time to explore our minds, bringing therefore important psychological benefits. Playing with the edge in Yin yoga means finding that place in the posture that you can hold, it’s not painful but still is providing a healthy stress to your body.


The time holding the posture on that edge, will give you the chance to explore and dive into any emotion, memory and feeling that the body has stored. Breathing with total awareness in each posture, gives the chance to transform the practice in a series of mini-meditations; from one asana to the next one. You meditate with focus on that part of the body at work plus explore the feelings, that this work triggers, sometimes anger, irritability, frustration… the list goes on.


When in your practice these emotions are triggered (which they will), because of our emotional body-, there is a great opportunity to embrace emotions and feeling that very often we neglect and suppress. Being in the posture for a length of time is the perfect setting to acknowledge and embody these feelings, and through the breath and the time in the posture, let them go.


The letting go process starts with the acceptance and welcoming the emotions, memories into your body. When these have been fully felt and accepted, the letting go comes naturally when the intention of letting go is real and profound.


Let go is simpler than we think when we have as anchors body and breath awareness. These two become our best allies in the process of de-identify ourselves of our emotions and our feelings.


Through my years as a yoga student and teacher, I have found that good a good Yin yoga teacher always make the most of the practice guiding the students further/deeper from the body towards emotional awareness, instigating curiosity for the students to explore and let go of emotions, memories that are in the way to be joyful, happier, healthier, lighter.


Yin Yoga classes have been in my experience opportunities to dive deeper into my shadows and these corners that I don’t want to face, and providing that I am ready and the intention is clear, letting them go. The body becomes a tool towards self-knowledge and liberation.


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