YOU'RE INVITED TO JOIN US AT COMMUNITY YOGA CENTER FOR YANG YOGA WITH HANNAH!
Yang yoga is a vitalizing postural practice that optimizes energetic activation. It works muscles and the cardiovascular system through intense rhythm and repetition. Yang yoga tends to be a fast, moving, dynamic asana practice, like vinyasa flow, that builds strength and increases stamina. It can ease body tension and calm mind stress through synchronized movement that allows the body to release gross and subtle energetic blocks.
We practice indoors, in a large room. We recommend wearing comfortable layered clothing to help regulate preferred body temperature. If you have postural practice supports like mats, blankets, bolsters, blocks, and straps, please bring them with you. We have community practice supports for you to use as well. Feel free to borrow any community practice support to facilitate and enhance your practice.
We also suggest bringing water to maintain hydration after practice.
No experience is necessary and there is never a cost. We welcome everyBODY. We so hope to practice with YOU in commUNITY!
A NOTE ABOUT YIN & YANG ENERGIES IN YOGA
In Taoist philosophy the yin-yang symbol represents the interconnectedness of contrary forces and the archetype of unity in diversity. These two energies are relative to each other - one cannot exist without the other. The two seeming opposites are interdependent - contained within each, is a piece of the other. Yin and yang energies are present in everything. The ancient yogis even referred to right-half and left-half of the body as “ha,” and “tha,” Sanskrit terms that can be translated to English to mean “sun” and “moon.” Yoga invites us to balance these energies of the body-mind, understanding these seeming polarities as a natural part of life and always in flux.
Yang energy is bright and warm like the daytime sun. It invites us into alert, focused, pervading, and active spaces. Yang energy is overt, open, obvious, and direct. It likes “to do” with effort. Yang is masculine, with an external gaze. Its air and fire elements allow it to bloom and lift, like a hot-air balloon. Its seasons are spring and summer – birth and the beginning of life – our first inhale. Its direction is south.
Yin energy is dark and cool like the nighttime moon. It invites us into calm, receptive, yielding, and passive spaces. Yin energy is covert, concealed, discreet and indirect. It likes “to be” with ease. Yin is feminine, with an internal focus. Its water and earth elements allow it to ground and root, like a lotus in mud. Its seasons are autumn and winter – the end of life and death – our last exhale. Its direction is north.
Some asana practices are more yin in nature, while others are more yang. Fast, moving, dynamic asana practice that straightens and squeezes the body embraces yang energy. It works muscles and the cardiovascular system through intense rhythm and repetition. Asana practice based in yang energy builds strength and stamina. Slow, still, quiet asana practice that rounds and softens the body embraces yin energy. It reaches the deep, dense tissues of the body (joints, ligaments, tendons) through long-held poses. Asana practice based in yin energy grows flexibility, patience, and open- heartedness.
Asana practice provides an opportunity to feel into the aspects of yin and yang energy, noticing our preferences for one energy over the other, and balancing into energy that we may be resisting.
WE ARE BUILT ON GIVING
Our practice opportunities are provided solely through voluntary giving. The giving of many is what allows the practice opportunities to be offered so freely. Anyone who’s experienced benefit from our offerings is invited to give for the benefit of others.
In giving, we loosen the grip of our greatest source of suffering - self-absorption. We expand our hearts in a way that recognizes we are not actually separate from others. Giving is a letting go of a sense of separateness that’s based in ignorance. When we practice giving, we feel into how we all depend on one another - how we are all part of the whole. In this way, giving is the natural response of the awakened heart.
You’re invited to give according to your volition and means - in whatever ways resonate with you. You might like to make monetary donations, contribute to our collective resources, or dedicate your time and skill to assist the community.