Waking Energy 7 Timeless Practices Designed to Reboot Your Body and Unleash Your Potential
the go deep, open, and energize practice TIME OF DAY: Morning or evening QUALITY: Yin SUBTLE ENERGY: Opens, activates, and harmonizes the meridian system. BENEFITS: Relieves chronic holding patterns as it generates a deeply grounding, energized calm, a sense of well-being, and a lightness of spirit. PROPS: Yoga mat, blocks, blankets, and bolsters The Practice: Child’s Pose Butterfly Dragonfly Dragon Forward Bend Half Saddle Sleeping Swan Quarter Dog Eye of the Needle Sphinx and Seal Spinal Twist Corpse Pose (Savasana) Before You Begin Make sure that you have the necessary props on hand: a yoga mat, at least two yoga blankets, a bolster, two yoga blocks, a yoga strap, and an eye pillow (optional). These props, although they cost a bit up front, are really an investment in you. They will soon come to be your favorite companions because of the self-love they signify, and they will serve you well for years to come. We all have varying degrees of flexibility in our overall musculature, which is based on genetics, lifestyle, and physical conditioning, so before you embark on your yin journey, know that this practice is yours, and it is up to you to be respectful of the miraculous machine you are inhabiting, the one that is serving you in this life, your best friend and greatest ally: your body. Even if you are suffering from an acute injury, like the back injury I had when I started my yin practice, you can safely embark on a yin journey, and regular practice will go a long way toward helping you convalesce and rehabilitate. Compromising issues, such as restrictions caused by repetitive stress, trauma, or inactivity, are easily addressed with the use of props. You can achieve an ideal starting position that creates the appropriate amount of pressure to encourage the flow of prana, yielding the same kind of amazing benefits that someone with no issues or special considerations can achieve. Regardless of your age, health, or fitness level, yin yoga is deeply restorative and rehabilitative and can be tailored to your individual needs.
In the descriptions that follow, I’ll start by explaining the ideal pose and give modifications with props, so that you can make the pose more accessible to your body and situate yourself in the most advantageous starting position to derive the greatest benefits. The Meridian–Organ Pairs: Anatomy, Related Chakras, and Emotions As you develop friendships with the individual poses, you’ll enter them knowing their meridian and organ associations, and on some occasions you may choose to follow a sequence of poses designed to alleviate certain issues in the domain of a specific meridian–organ pair. The most important part of becoming familiar with the emotional energies of the organs is that you’ll be able to link them in your mind to those of the chakras, balancing them and consciously transforming your own energy, raising its vibration from the shadow to the light, literally converting it into usable prana for your health and your life. Let’s get better acquainted with our chakras and how they specifically relate to the organs and their corresponding meridian pairs for our yin practice: Root (muladhara): Kidney, urinary bladder, and small-intestine meridians (relating to elimination) Sacral (svadishthana): Kidney, urinary bladder, and small-intestine meridians (relating to sexual and reproductive function) Solar Plexus (manipura): Stomach, spleen, liver, and gallbladder meridians (relating to digestion) Heart (anahata): Heart and pericardium meridians Throat (visshudha): Lung and large-intestine meridians (relating to respiration and energy and physical elimination) Third Eye (ajna): Governing Vessel and urinary bladder meridians Crown (sahasara): Connected to the Conception Vessel and all meridians Note that in each of the upcoming descriptions for your meridians, there are two bilateral branches of each (whether a single-entity organ like the liver or a double entity like your kidneys) that mirror one another running along the right and left sides of the body. Lung (Yin), Large Intestine (Yang) Chakra: Throat (visshudha) In balance: Happiness, courage Shadow emotions: Sadness, grief The lung meridian starts in the center of the body and travels down into the large intestine before making an upward turn, running directly through the diaphragm and into the lungs, across the front of
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the go deep, open, <strong>and</strong> energize practice<br />
TIME OF DAY: Morning or evening<br />
QUALITY: Yin<br />
SUBTLE ENERGY: Opens, activates, <strong>and</strong> harmonizes the meridian system.<br />
BENEFITS: Relieves chronic holding patterns as it generates a deeply grounding, energized calm, a sense of well-being, <strong>and</strong> a lightness of<br />
spirit.<br />
PROPS: Yoga mat, blocks, blankets, <strong>and</strong> bolsters<br />
The Practice:<br />
Child’s Pose<br />
Butterfly<br />
Dragonfly<br />
Dragon<br />
Forward Bend<br />
Half Saddle<br />
Sleeping Swan<br />
Quarter Dog<br />
Eye of the Needle<br />
Sphinx <strong>and</strong> Seal<br />
Spinal Twist<br />
Corpse Pose (Savasana)<br />
Before You Begin<br />
Make sure that you have the necessary props on h<strong>and</strong>: a yoga mat, at least two yoga blankets, a<br />
bolster, two yoga blocks, a yoga strap, <strong>and</strong> an eye pillow (optional). These props, although they cost<br />
a bit up front, are really an investment in you. They will soon come <strong>to</strong> be your favorite companions<br />
because of the self-love they signify, <strong>and</strong> they will serve you well for years <strong>to</strong> come. We all have<br />
varying degrees of flexibility in our overall musculature, which is based on genetics, lifestyle, <strong>and</strong><br />
physical conditioning, so before you embark on your yin journey, know that this practice is yours, <strong>and</strong><br />
it is up <strong>to</strong> you <strong>to</strong> be respectful of the miraculous machine you are inhabiting, the one that is serving<br />
you in this life, your best friend <strong>and</strong> greatest ally: your body.<br />
Even if you are suffering from an acute injury, like the back injury I had when I started my yin<br />
practice, you can safely embark on a yin journey, <strong>and</strong> regular practice will go a long way <strong>to</strong>ward<br />
helping you convalesce <strong>and</strong> rehabilitate. Compromising issues, such as restrictions caused by<br />
repetitive stress, trauma, or inactivity, are easily addressed with the use of props. You can achieve an<br />
ideal starting position that creates the appropriate amount of pressure <strong>to</strong> encourage the flow of prana,<br />
yielding the same kind of amazing benefits that someone with no issues or special considerations can<br />
achieve. Regardless of your age, health, or fitness level, yin yoga is deeply res<strong>to</strong>rative <strong>and</strong><br />
rehabilitative <strong>and</strong> can be tailored <strong>to</strong> your individual needs.
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