July 2006

Educational Feature

Principle 3 of The Body’s Way

The Body is Balanced in Yin and Yang

The Body is Balanced in Yin and Yang. Therefore, you must respect this balance, and reflect it in the movement choices you make.

We can tell that the body is comprised of both yin and yang energies simply by observing the body itself. Yin – soft, “female,” inward-directed energy – is constantly being manifested by the body’s smooth, almost melodic movements. Yang – harder, “male,” outward-directed energy – is reflected by more explosive, rhythmic movements.

Inhaling is yin, while exhaling is yang. Intense activity is yang, while rest is yin. Warming up is yang, while cooling down is yin. All of these aspects of living and moving are indispensable and equally important. For example, how could you possibly inhale without exhaling?

Yoga is, in theory, a beautiful healing system that balances yin and yang energies within the body. In actuality, however, many Americans who practice yoga become overly yang in their movements, due to a highly physical, do-more atmosphere. Often, when people begin to practice Nia after they’ve received training in Americanized yoga, we need to remind them to balance their yin and yang, and to take what they’ve learned from their Yoga out onto the street. These people have trained their bodies to function in only one style, focusing on specific asanas. When our bodies become entrained to only one system we lose the ability to adapt to the variety of rhythms and movements in real life. That’s why Nia is such a wonderful complement to Yoga.

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