We’re currently in the midst of a three-part road trip with the 2-year-old. First, a Last Hurrah Beach Weekend, then visiting my mom, then heading up north for a friend’s wedding (in which my daughter will be the flower girl!) Honestly I’m a little tired just thinking about it all, mostly just because it has been a very travel-heavy summer— fortunately this kid is no stranger to long car rides, so we’ve got that going for us. She’s a real champ, especially when cheddar bunnies and strategically-parceled-out pages of puffy cat stickers materialize out of thin air over the course of the drive.
If you are here because of beguiling baby tech or talking to my grandmother, you might be like, wait, what is this, why the hell am I getting a yoga class in my inbox? The answer is: I crave multiplicity and wear many hats (dramatic sigh) and I like to send out the occasional yoga class as a little gesture of thanks to my paid subscribers. As much as I would love to be able to just pick a newsletter lane, I cannot— motherhood is a 4-lane highway; it is also a windy, unpaved backroad, a forest through which we must blindly bushwhack our way, a grocery store aisle, a parking space, an exit ramp. So I feel obliged to warn you that if you’re here hoping for sloppy, regularly published think pieces, you might be disappointed— those only make an appearance once in a blue moon. You will also be receiving semi-poetic nonsense, personal ramblings about pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding, frustrated thoughts on mom brain, ungrounded streams of consciousness, heart-explosion word shrapnel about how much I love my daughter, existential indulgences, kitchen floor musings and, sometimes, some mom-centric yoga/mindfulness stuff like this. I promised you a combo meal, didn’t I?
Alright there’s my disclaimer (actually, there’s another one at the end of this email).
Now, onwards!
I subbed a fellow teacher’s prenatal class recently, and since it was happening at the same time as my yin class, we decided to blend them and offer a one-off prenatal yin mashup. I really loved teaching it, so I’m sharing it with you in case you’re pregnant (or not!) and searching for some relief and introspection.
Yin yoga is a slow-paced, low-to-the-ground practice with long-held postures. It’s a lovely way to quiet down the mental chatter and practice dropping into the body and the felt sense during pregnancy. We’re not really seeking comfort in yin, though. We’re coming to our appropriate sensational edge, stopping before it becomes intolerable, and then resolving to be still for a few minutes. Staying with sensation, especially intense sensation, is not easy! This “staying” in yin teaches us to get comfortable with discomfort and helps build resilience in both the mind and body. Our tissues need stress to stay healthy, and the connective tissues — the fascia, bones, ligaments, joint capsules, tendons— respond really well to the gentle stresses provided by tensile stretching and long, compressive holds. Yin is a balm to the nervous system as well; it can help nudge us into parasympathetic activation (in other words, it gives us an opportunity to turn on the “chill-out” branch of the nervous system). Doing yin sequences like this one right before bed was often the only thing that helped me get some decent sleep during my pregnancy.
Here, we hold poses for 1-3 min max. This is because in pregnancy the tissues are “looser” due to the release of the hormone relaxin, and we don’t want to over-stress them. You’ll want to stay with your pre-pregnancy range of motion here. If you’re not pregnant, feel free to hold the postures for 3-5 min, or even longer. You can always use the Insight Timer app for a mellow mode of keeping track of time.
You’ll likely need lots of props for this (unless you’re in your first trimester) but the good news is that you can create makeshift props with things you have around the house — grab a bunch of pillows to use as bolsters, some thick books to use as blocks, a couple thick blankets and you’ll be on your way! If you’re not pregnant, you can feel free to do this with minimal to no props.
In between poses, pause, and give yourself plenty of time for the tissues to rebound. Obvious disclaimer here: always listen to your body, and stop if something feels incorrect for you. Not because you are fragile, but because you are strong and wise. You can always can try something out and change your mind. You’re never stuck!
I’m including the sequence of postures that we work with in this class in list-form down below, because sometimes I’m off-camera demonstrating or helping students get set up. You can find more guidance on the yin postures here! from the wonderful yin teacher Bernie Clark.
I hope you enjoy, and I’m here if you have any questions— I truly love this stuff, so don’t hesitate to send me a message.
Take care,
Berlin
PS- Here are a few more prenatal/postpartum-friendly yoga classes:
Leave the familiar for a while.
Let your senses and bodies stretch out
Like a welcomed season
Onto the meadows and shores and hills.
Open up to the Roof.
Make a new watermark on your excitement
And love.
Like a blooming night flower,
Bestow your vital fragrance of happiness
And giving
Upon our intimate assembly.
Change rooms in your mind for a day.
All the hemispheres in existence
Lie beside an equator
In your heart.
Greet Yourself
In your thousand other forms
As you mount the hidden tide and travel
Back home.
All the hemispheres in heaven
Are sitting around a fire
Chatting
While stitching themselves together
Into the Great Circle inside of
You.
— Hafiz, “All the Hemispheres”
