Yin Yoga · Patience
and that’s exactly why it’s for you
By Ilse-Marie Sobering · 6 min read
Maybe you’ve thought it, or said it out loud to a friend who just came back from a yin class. “That’s not for me. I can’t lie still.” There’s something of falling short in that, as if sitting still is a talent you either have or don’t, and you clearly don’t.
Here’s the good news: that thought is exactly the reason to start.
Not despite your restlessness, but because of it.
The misconception about yin
Most people think yin yoga is for calm people. As if you have to prove you’re calm enough before you’re allowed on the mat. But yin is precisely where patience is built.
No one is born still. You learn it, layer by layer, the same way you learned to ride a bike or speak a language. The restlessness you feel in the first minutes of a long pose is no proof that yin isn’t for you.
It’s the starting point of the training.
The science · fascia
What’s happening in your body right when you’d rather get up
There’s a reason yin uses long, passive poses instead of the dynamic movement of, say, vinyasa. It isn’t primarily about your muscles. It’s about your connective tissue: the fascia that runs through your entire body like a three-dimensional web.
Fascia researcher Robert Schleip and anatomist Carla Stecco have shown that connective tissue responds differently from muscle tissue. Muscles respond quickly to movement. Fascia needs time, minutes, not seconds. Under sustained, gentle pressure, the tissue begins what researchers call “creep”: a slow lengthening in which hyaluronic acid in the fascia becomes more fluid and the layers glide more easily past each other.
The uncomfortable moment right before you want to get up is often the moment the tissue starts doing what you came for.
Why your nervous system needs time too
The same applies to your nervous system. Research on breathing shows that a longer exhale and shorter inhale shift the body toward the parasympathetic system, the part that drives rest and recovery. Your relax mode.
At a breathing rate of roughly 6 to 8 breaths per minute, with emphasis on the exhale, the vagus nerve is measurably more active than at a faster breathing rate.
That shift doesn’t happen instantly. Your body needs a few minutes of stillness and slow breath before the signal changes from action to “I’m allowed to stay here.” It’s exactly in that transition moment that the strongest urge to move often arises. Not because something is going wrong, but because your system is right in the middle of switching over.
My experience, and I hear this often from participants too, is that right after that discomfort, something shifts. If you keep breathing through it, a deep calm suddenly appears. A moment of surrender to the pose. What didn’t seem possible at first, simply lying still, suddenly works, and it feels really good.
Patience really does come from practice
There’s also research on what happens in your brain when you practice holding impatience and discomfort more often. In a study of military personnel who completed an eight-week mindfulness training, researchers measured how the brain responded to an uncomfortable physical stimulus before and after the training. After training, the response in the insula and anterior cingulate cortex, the regions that signal internal discomfort, had measurably decreased. The same stimulus felt less alarming.
That’s the point. Your capacity to tolerate both impatience and discomfort isn’t a fixed trait. It’s trainable, literally visible in brain activity. Every time you stay in a yin pose while feeling restless, and don’t give in to it right away, you’re practicing that skill. Not by forcing yourself, but by returning, again and again.
That returning is exactly what the InnerPower Method is built around:
LAND
You land in what’s there, even if that’s restlessness.
BREATHE
You use your breath as an anchor.
FEEL
You feel what’s happening without wanting to change it right away.
Not a trick to make restlessness go away, but a practice in letting it be there for a while.
And it’s exactly by letting it be there and practising with it repeatedly that you’ll notice that restlessness and impatience can ease. Yin yoga is a really good way to do that. Practice regularly, and you’ll also notice you get better at handling restlessness and impatience off the mat too.
In practice
7 practical tips for when impatience hits
Start shorter
A five-minute yin pose is often too much for beginners. Start with two minutes and build up slowly. Fascia responds to repetition over time, not one perfect, long session.
Count breaths instead of minutes
Watching the clock increases impatience. Count ten full breaths instead. Once you’re done counting, just start again.
Exhale longer than you inhale
For example, four counts in, six counts out. That small difference helps your nervous system make the shift toward rest faster.
Give the restlessness a name, not a judgment
Say to yourself simply “there’s the restlessness again” instead of “I can’t do this.” The first is observing. The second is a story about yourself that isn’t true.
Allow small movements
Yin doesn’t ask you to freeze. A small adjustment of your position is fine, it’s refining. Freezing completely often backfires.
Pick one anchor point
Direct your attention to one spot instead of everywhere at once: the weight of your forearm on the mat, the temperature of the air at your nostrils. One spot is enough.
Build up instead of stacking on
Don’t immediately add a long yin class on top of everything you already do. Instead, swap one busy workout a week for a short yin session. Less, but consistent, works better than a lot, but sporadic.
What you actually gain from this
If you keep going, even when it stays uncomfortable, something tangible happens. Your connective tissue gets the time it needs to become more supple. Your nervous system practises the shift toward rest, a shift that gets faster with repetition. And your capacity to tolerate discomfort without fleeing immediately grows along with it. Not just on the mat, but off it too: in a difficult conversation, in a waiting room, on a day that doesn’t go as planned.
So no. You’re not too impatient for yin yoga.
You need yin yoga, precisely because you’re impatient.
In short
• Restlessness in yin isn’t proof it’s not for you. It’s the starting point.
• Fascia needs minutes to change, not seconds.
• Your nervous system only truly shifts to rest after a few minutes of stillness.
• Tolerating discomfort is trainable, not a fixed trait.
• Every time you return to your breath, you’re practising LAND · BREATHE · FEEL.
Sources: Schleip, R. et al. (2012), Fascia: The Tensional Network of the Human Body · Stecco, C. (2015), Functional Atlas of the Human Fascial System · research on prolonged exhalation and autonomic nervous activity (PMC, 2018) · Haase, L. et al. (2016), Mindfulness-based training attenuates insula response to an aversive interoceptive challenge, Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.
Frequently asked questions
Does restlessness during a yin pose mean yin isn’t for me?
No, quite the opposite. The restlessness you feel in the first minutes of a long pose isn’t proof that yin isn’t for you. It’s the starting point of the training. No one is born still, you learn that layer by layer, the same way you learned to ride a bike or speak a language.
What can I do when impatience hits during a pose?
Start shorter than you think: two minutes instead of five, and build up slowly. Count ten full breaths instead of watching the clock, that only increases impatience. Fascia responds to repetition over time, not one perfect, long session.
Why does a yin pose last so long if I can’t handle even a minute?
Fascia responds differently from muscle tissue. Muscles respond quickly to movement, fascia needs minutes, not seconds. Under sustained, gentle pressure, the tissue only starts to change after a while. That’s exactly why long, passive poses are used instead of dynamic movement.
What do I gain from staying, even if it remains uncomfortable?
Your connective tissue gets the time it needs to become more supple, and your nervous system practises the shift toward rest, a shift that gets faster with repetition. Your capacity to tolerate discomfort without fleeing immediately grows along with it, both on and off the mat.
This blog shares scientific insight and practical experience and is not medical or therapeutic advice. If complaints persist, it’s good to have someone assess your personal situation.
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Ilse-Marie Sobering is the founder of House of InnerPower and the creator of the InnerPower Method: LAND • ADEM • VOEL (Land, Breathe, Feel), a cyclical practice of returning to yourself again and again. She has studied yoga philosophy and Eastern philosophy for more than 25 years, and has worked professionally since 2015 as an E-RYT 500 yoga and Yoga Nidra teacher, mindfulness and breathwork coach, Ayurveda practitioner and EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) practitioner. In Spain, where she lived for seven years, she taught trainings, teacher trainings and retreats at various locations in the Málaga region, including near Periana, Nerja and Frigiliana. She now works from the Netherlands, teaching trainings and speaking in the Netherlands, in Spain and online. Within the method she works with Yin Yoga, Yoga Nidra, breathwork, meditation, Qigong and somatic work, complemented with elements from her hypnotherapy training. She teaches teacher trainings, continuing education and company training, for people living with long-term stress and for professionals who want to deepen the way they guide others.
