Yin Yoga · Nervous-system · Stress · Back
Ten minutes of breathing before a single shape
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Class 12 of Creating Peaceful Moments, and it takes its time. The first ten minutes are a settling meditation and 4:8 breathing — in for four, out for eight — before a single shape.
Sphinx for five minutes, elbows under or in front of the shoulders but never behind them, chest shining forward. Crocodile to rest. Seal for two if the deeper backbend appeals, Crocodile again.
Then the long piece: a reclined twist on each side, with Cat Pulling its Tail offered as the deeper version — bottom leg bent, that foot caught behind you, top leg out to the side. Three minutes a side.
Half Butterfly for three minutes each way, and afterwards a rainbow reach overhead into the side of the ribcage, which a forward fold never touches. A seated twist each way.
Then something most Yin classes skip entirely: several minutes of neck and shoulder work — fingers interlaced behind the back, one elbow drawn back, ear towards the shoulder, then the throat, then each side.
Five minutes in Corpse to close.
Her line early on is the one that sets the hour up: you have arrived at your mat, the hardest part is over, and all there is to do now is be.
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No, it's the design. This is from the Creating Peaceful Moments series, which is explicitly about slowing down, so it opens with a settling meditation and two minutes of 4:8 breathing — in for four, out for eight. If you're short of time, that opening stands on its own.
Cat Pulling its Tail is the deeper option offered from inside the twist: you bend the bottom leg and reach down to take that foot, while the top leg stays out to the side. It adds the quad and the front of the hip to what the twist is already doing. Staying in the plain twist is completely fine.
Katie gives the reason here rather than just the cue — grounding both shoulders is what stops the spine twisting further than it should. If one lifts, you've gone past where the pose wants you.
After the fold, you come up with a straight spine and arc one arm overhead towards the opposite foot — a rainbow, as she calls it — looking up at the thumb, about three breaths each way. It opens the ribcage, which the forward fold doesn't reach.
No. A cushion or block to sit on helps in Half Butterfly, and one under the bent knee if it's sensitive, but the class is built to work without either.
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