Have you engaged in any yin-based practices today?
Over the weekend, a group of pals and I were talking about the lack of cardio-driven activities we’ve been up to lately, while on a hike.
“I’ve been in a yin yoga phase…for the past two years,” I joked.
“Maybe it’s not a phase,” one friend responded.
And, indeed, it isn’t.
I deeply believe that we all need more yin activities in our lives to balance out the heavy “yang” of our culture.
We’re constantly going and doing, and doing more, moving from work to run club, to cooking a meal from scratch to working on a side hustle in the evening.
What we really need isn’t another run.
We need to lie in a room and let ourselves soften.
We need gentle lighting, soft music, and space for our nervous systems to exhale deeply. Not for one nanosecond before we turn out the bedside lamp, but for over an hour…
“I don’t have time for that…” I can hear you all, trust me.
And I’m going to cleanly and lovingly call you out on that.
You have 24 hours in a day: 8 of which are sleeping, often another 8 involve working, and so of the 8 left, I genuinely, truly hope that you can allocate one of them to let your body switch back into parasympathetic - where your body is in rest mode.
Some people stay in an activated state despite “time off", because they aren’t switching into yin-based activities.
They’re scrolling their phone, doing a HIIT class, or talking for an hour with the neighbour who can’t help but gossip about the entire block.
We, as a society, don’t think a lot about what fills our time. Not as much as I believe we need to, to feel our best; to live how we truly want to, in order to thrive.
One hour. To do something that signals to your system that it’s safe to unwind. To be.
It’s not another thing to add to a list. It’s something that genuinely makes you feel good, that you end up craving because of how it makes you feel.
For me, it’s yin yoga.
Not your thing? Maybe one of these yin-based practices are:
A warm bath
Handcrafts
Journaling or analog writing (yes, letters)
Colouring
Playing a card game
Stretching
Reading
Sitting outside
Going on a walk
Lighting a candle
And if you’re still saying, “I don’t have time for that” and rather feel the pull of “doing”, perhaps there’s an invitation to sit with here.
To ask why.
We are so addicted to doing, that slowing down to do something stretch can feel excruciating. For me personally, stretching is the one that feels impossible to fit in, but it’s not because I don’t have the time (even if that’s the excuse I make), it’s because it doesn’t activate me enough to feel the dopamine hit we crave in our phone-ridden culture. So, I found another practice that I love doing and accomplishing something very similar. It also helps that it’s a class I have to sign up for, that someone else leads, so I simply need to show up.
How can you make it easy for yourself to say yes to an activity that allows you to slow down, even just a fraction more?
Try switching out a “busy” routine for one of the activities above, or habit stacking it with something else. Find an accountability buddy or comment your activity below.
Whatever incentivizes you, try it for a week, and see what softens within you.
Much love,
Jessie
