Mmmmmmm...swan pose...

Home practice today was more yin. On the new Manduka mat, which seems to rock. Of course, I aired it out for days, so the rubbery stinkiness was gone. And I didn't sweat (I've heard the new ones get incredibly slippery when wet). It sure is cushy, though.

After last week's yin experience, I decided I needed more instruction. So today I popped Paul Grilley's DVD into the player and set about sitting on my butt. Sure, it seems like it's gonna be easy, sitting down throughout an entire practice, right? And it is, from a muscular perspective. The hard part is being still.

First off, I had to override my internal monolog (Whoa, this is a weird pose! Hey, how long am I supposed to stay like this? Is this even doing anything? How can this work, if I'm not generating any heat? Why am I always so attached to yoga "working"? Blah, blah, blah...) Then I had to hold the poses. For minutes on end. Which turned out to feel really good. They have this "sleeping swan" pose, which is like pigeon--and gosh, I was loving it. I was lying there on my plush mat, half asleep, thinking of how much it reminded me of eating chocolate or some other good food, or sex, or scratching the inside of your ear with a Q-tip. Super satisfying.

And then it's time to get out of the pose. Ow! Ow! Ow! Not so easy first thing in the morning. The thing that came clear was that my hips are hella tight, as are my hip flexors. The idea behind yin yoga is that it is supposed to work the joints/fascia, versus a more yang practice, which works the muscles. Okay, I can go along with that. Perhaps I will experiment with some yin sessions.

The kicker is that they say it takes a long time to stretch out the joints/fascia. And that everyone is different, and there is no prescribed method, and we all have to explore... Oh boy. It all seems so much more nebulous and touchy-feely than Ashtanga, which makes me a little impatient and a little suspicious and a little cynical. Which is probably a very good reason for me to give it a chance. Plus, I want some more of that swan pose...