I had the wonderful privilege of attending a yin yoga and Reiki class last night at Grace Tree Yoga & Growth Studio in West Chester, OH (just north of Cincinnati) with one of my former classmates from my yoga teacher training class. It was a delightful evening of rich conversation during the drive down and back that framed a truly amazing session on the mat.
If you’ve never tried it, yin yoga is a style of yoga that focuses on opening up the connective tissues and joints, particularly in the hips and spine, by holding poses for long periods to allow the stretch to penetrate into these deeper tissues. The opening of these deeper tissues can improve comfort in meditation postures and facilitate emotional release of traumas that we may be holding in these parts of our bodies. Each posture involves settling into a pose and then opening and relaxing into it to allow the body to gradually soften into the pose over time.
This style of yoga makes it particularly easy to combine with Reiki because people are stationary for long periods while holding each pose. During last night’s class, there were two Reiki practitioners moving throughout the room giving Reiki as we held each pose. Given that we were already opening and relaxing into each pose, it made being open to receiving Reiki a natural extension.
In addition to the yin yoga (which is incredibly relaxing and restorative) and the Reiki, we were also led in a beginning and ending meditation that included focus on our chakras and a long savasana accompanied by sound therapy in the form of crystal singing bowl music. All in all, it was a perfect combination of things to create a healing and rejuvenating experience that was well worth the drive! I hope to find a way to create a similar class here in Indianapolis for more people to have access to this combination of practices.