Yin yoga is now becoming a part of an ecosystem of healthy living.
INTERVIEW WITH
PAUL GRILLEY BY N a n c y A l d e r
Nancy Alder: How did you come to practice yin yoga and what about it was appealing to you?
Paul Grilley: I learned the practice from Paulie Zink back in 1989. It was delightful to discover a practice that didn’t leave me tired and sore. Back in those days, I still didn’t know about skeletal variation and so I believed the mythology that all people can do all the poses if they work hard enough. But I had been practicing yoga very hard for eight years and couldn’t come close to doing many poses. Yin yoga was so different. I thought maybe it was the missing element that would finally open me up. I was mistaken about achieving any kind of photo-worthy flexibility, but I found the practice so soothing that I have continued it long after I abandoned my purely athletic ambitions. NA: Are you surprised by the popularity of yin yoga today?
PG: I think it is a natural balance to a yang lifestyle and yang health culture. It makes sense to me that a culture of physical health and exercise had to take root before it would be necessary to balance it out. Decades ago, there were not health clubs or yoga studios
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on every corner - this has been a huge cultural shift, and yin yoga is now becoming a part of an ecosystem of healthy living. NA: Your book was re-released in 2012 for the 10th anniversary. What is different about the new edition?
PG: The new book presents more detail on what a student will feel when doing yin yoga - more of it’s energetic, rather than merely physical, benefits. It also goes into much greater detail on the theories of chakra meditation.
NA: Can you elucidate the important connection between Yin Yoga and the Traditional Chinese Energy meridian system?
PG: All of yoga, not just yin yoga, is given an appealing theoretical foundation by the theory that meridians are structured channels of water in the fascia. This helps explain yoga’s mental and physical benefits. Stimulating fascia in yin and yang ways has healing effects beyond muscle and bone. The meridians influence the health of all tissues and are the link between mental and physical processes.
Paul Grilley helped to catapult the practice of yin yoga, a style pioneered in the United States by his teacher, Paulie Zink, to popularity. This practice of stretching connective tissue during longer holdings of poses is now common in yoga studios as a compliment or alternative to more yang-based classes. The incorporation of Traditional Chinese Medicine meridians and chakras has long been part of Grilley’s approach to yin yoga. His work on skeletal variation strongly influences his anatomy teachings and is considered an essential study for many teacher-training programs.