Monday evening. Not sure about you, but that’s one of my “meh” days… After a full day of touristing with my family, I needed some “me” time, and some mind and body care.

Of course, yoga to the rescue! 😉
This time I thought I’d try something more or less new: a class I’d never been to before in Planet Yoga, one of my favourite studios in town. Full disclosure: I used to be a regular in the Saturday morning class with Holger, but discontinued during last summer when I thought the room was getting too hot and stuffy.

The Monday evening class was a Yin & Yang Yoga session led by Sarah, who I’d come to meet in an open day at the studio. The concept of this 90-minute class is half yang practice – strong, energizing vinyasa flow – and half yin practice – winding down with relaxing long asanas.

We must have been about 10 yogis in the room, which is a refreshing number compared to what you can expect on the weekends. Not that I “benchmark” but I couldn’t help noticing that some of my fellow yogis knew parts of the yang flow by heart – and I must say, I want to learn it too because it was fantastic!

We started with very gracious hip and heart openers, then built up core strength with powerful balance poses, such as warrior III, eagle pose, half moons and tree poses. There were a lot of many different poses we practiced in this fast-paced but not rushed flow. Sarah is such a magnificent demonstrator that I sometimes stopped for a split second to watch her in action! So graceful and precise, strong and seemingly effortless – this is how she flowed and led us through perfectly choreographed sequences.

Probably about half-way into the class we slowed down the pace gradually and entered into “yin territory” – the restorative part. We used props (blankets, bolsters, even the walls…) to make ourselves as comfortable as possible and hold poses without strain. In between poses we relaxed completely in brief shavasana poses, before a final longer relaxation. While I usually prefer dynamic yoga, sometimes I have to say a good long shavasana is just pure bliss!

No wonder they say opposites attract: yin and yang yoga go together in perfect harmony, just as in this wholesome, beautiful class! And yes, I’m sure you can have one without the other but I like to strive for harmony – hope you do too ♥