Gentle Yoga

Gentle Yoga: A Calming Experience

Young man and woman in yoga pose in a Vinayam studio class

Gentle Yoga  at Vinayam is a non-heated, slow-paced style of yoga in which postures, known as "asanas" are held for a certain period of time. We typically ask you to hold each posture for between five and eight breaths. This spiritual, meditative style of yoga is beneficial for recovery after injury, for pain management, and for enhancing the mind-body connection. While more active yang styles, such as vinyasa yoga, focus on body sculpting, strengthening, and toning, yin is the opposite. Gentle yoga targets the deep connective tissues, known as the fascia, within the body. This non-heated, meditation style helps regulate energy flow throughout the body.

Gentle Yoga Poses

During your Gentle Yoga class at Vinayam, you will find that most yin poses are seated or reclined postures. You will follow a meditative approach, rather than a physical approach. The goal during practice is not to body sculpt, but to release tension from the fascia. Meditation is an important component to this practice. You might initially struggle with sitting still and working through feelings and sensations that come up during each posture. However, with the help of your Vinayam instructor, you can get the hang of it. Cultivating a meditative mindset is important for finding spiritual stillness, harmony and balance.

Gentle yoga teaches you to truly sit still and listen to your body. In our high-stress, high-demand lives, it can be difficult to find moments of stillness and surrender. In yin practice, it is the perfect time to bring full awareness into one's own body and mind, accept what is, and simply learn to be. This spiritual practice is important for working through not only physical limitations, but also past emotional traumas. Emotional pain that has been locked away within the body resurfaces. For this reason, yin postures are often included in a Vinayam class as part of the yoga therapy for individuals who have suffered deep emotional traumas, such as rape or the loss of a loved one.

Benefits of Gentle Yoga

Benefits of a non-heated yin practice at Vinayam include: 

  • regulating energy levels in the body
  • calming and balancing the mind and body
  • increasing mobility, especially in the joints and hips
  • lowering stress levels,  and 
  • generating faster recovery from injury. 

Releasing tension from the fascia is important not only for movement, stamina and flexibility, but also for achieving greater relaxation. Once you get into a regular practice, you are able to sit still longer for meditation, and you will find the practice of meditating more rewarding and calming. Our instructors will be with you every step of the way to ensure that you are getting the most out of your gentle yoga class.

You will also find that practicing non-heated gentle yoga once a week can significantly improve your Vinayam yang yoga practice, such as vinyasa. Like the yin/yang symbol, both practices are essential to a whole, healthy and spiritual individual.

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