Start Game: Yin Yoga

I remember those days when I used to go to an actual yoga class in a yoga studio with actual human beings around me pre-COVID days… I love that moment when class starts and I consciously shut out the external world and escape into my body and let the sensations of stretch, strength, movement, breath, anything I can feel to take over and I am in euphoria.

Yesterday I was listening to a thought-provoking podcast about ESCAPE which was actually about role-playing games and how you can become addicted to escaping into the imaginary world of games and away from “reality.”

Playing video games sounds COMPLETELY opposite to practicing Yoga… but as I listened to this podcast, I couldn’t help but notice similarities to what I feel and what I say when I practice and teach Yin Yoga…

The “player” is the awareness/consciousness that travels through the landscape of my inner body. I encounter the challenge of physical restlessness, long-held tightness, holding patterns and I will linger there “fighting” that obstacle and see if I can get the reward of release and my body softening and melting. The more I “win” these “battles,” the deeper my awareness gets pulled inward, feeling more and more subtle sensations, which pulls me further away from the outer world and I get to escape “reality.” This inner world that I travel into is something we can not visually see so I often say we have to use some imagination.

I always thought that my Yin Yoga time is a way to face reality. The reality of my body, thoughts, and emotions. After listening to this podcast I have a new inquiry as I practice… Am I facing reality? or am I escaping reality? What is reality? I don’t have a clear answer.

One thing I do know is we can overdo anything. Too much of a good thing is bad. I have an addictive personality and used to be addicted to playing video games. I could easily get addicted to playing this Yin Yoga game. I love my Yin Yoga practice because I can escape the outer world for a certain amount of time to connect to that vibrant stillness inside me, but I don’t want to use it to avoid the outer world. I want to use it to skillfully deal with the outer world.

The practice should serve you; you are not a servant to the practice.
quote from Donna Farhi’s “Bringing Yoga to Life”