Art of Yin Yoga - Yin Yoga Training

The Art of Yin Yoga: An Interview With Its Founder, Paulie Zink When you think “Yin Yoga,” what comes to mind? Perhaps you visualize a yoga teacher sitting quietly at the front of a classroom as students languish in passive, long, and deep stretches. This is the Yin Yoga that many of us have come to know, and perhaps even practice regularly.

But Paulie Zink, founder of this increasingly popular practice, has been teaching Yin for over 40 years in an entirely different fashion. Read on to explore the vision behind Zink’s teachings and the holistic benefits of this artful practice. Discover what sets his style of Yin apart from the rest, and you may never see Yin Yoga the same way again.

How would you define Yin Yoga?

Yin Yoga is rooted in the ancient shamanic tradition of China, and in the Chinese Taoist philosophy of being at one with everything and in harmony with your own nature. Yin postures are based on the characteristics of animals and on the five alchemical elements contained in the universal life force all around us and through us. The life force, known as chi or prana, is the subtle yet very powerful energy that informs nature. It’s the pulsation of the yin and the yang, the feminine and the masculine, the ebb and flow of the universe.

[According to Traditional Chinese Medicine] The five elemental energies are Earth, Metal, Water, Wood, and Fire. Each of these energies expresses a distinct quality, such as stillness, hardness, fluidity, springiness, and lightness.

Yin Yoga is about awakening your body and mind to the energetics of the posture you are holding. Flexibility is developed by growing into postures and activating the alchemical elements of the postures.

For instance, if you hold the posture of a frog every day for a few minutes, eventually you will grow right into the posture and become the essence or spirit of the frog, which has a very springy quality. The intention in Yin Yoga is that of becoming endowed with the essence of a posture by embodying the energies of the creatures and the alchemical elements.

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