Tamika Caston-Miller, E-RYT 500, is the director of Ashe Yoga, where she curates yoga experiences and trainings in service of collective healing and community repair. See also: More Yin and Restorative practices with Tamika Caston-Milller
If it does not, feel free to add props to create all of the conditions of rest you need. Because of all of the twists in this practice, an unsupported Savasana might feel welcome. If you cannot let it go, breathe, soften, and let it be.įrom Child’s Pose, make your way into Savasana. Then, perhaps you release it-if not forever, at least for a while. Twists, according to this wisdom, provide an opportunity to release all of the energetic crap that doesn't nourish us.ĭuring this Yin Yoga practice, you're given the opportunity to move your body and your energy in various ways, to breathe, and to listen so that you may access what might not be serving you. Energetically, according to Traditional Chinese Medicine, it's the same.Īnd just as elimination is a lot harder when we overtax the body with things that aren’t useful, the same is true when we’re holding on to energy we don’t need. Physically, the bladder eliminates what we don't need. To conceptualize how this meridian functions and its potential for energetic release, consider how its corresponding organ functions. Twists can stimulate different meridians, but they most effectively compress the urinary bladder meridian. According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, each meridian corresponds to a different organ. These are similar to the nadis in yoga philosophy. Yin Yoga is informed by the Traditional Chinese Medicine principle that there are energetic lines, or meridians, throughout the body. While science has debunked the theory that twists wring our organs and therefore detoxify our bodies, Traditional Chinese Medicine suggests twists can bring about deeper release in the subtle energetic body. Twists have been said to do a lot of things in yoga, from detox to deep release.
This article originally appeared on Yoga Journal