Yield2Yin

I have always been fascinated by the yin-yang symbol and what it represents: the shadow and the light aspects of life - complementary, not opposing life forces, and both equally necessary if one looks deeper into their true meaning.

As most of us, I have led a mostly yang life, running on a hamster wheel to keep up with life’s many expectations and responsibilities, at the expense of my yin life: in-the-present-moment, calming activities, which clear the way for just “being” – repairing, recharging and rejuvenating.

This changed significantly when I started practicing daily yin yoga about 2 years ago at the start of the pandemic - I finally found a little more balance between "doing" (yang) and "being" (yin). I also learned some cool things about this type of yoga. Did you know that the yoga animal names for certain yin poses are different from the more popular vinyasa or hatha animal names for the exact same poses? For example, what is called “pigeon pose” in regular yoga is called “swan pose” in yin?

Through yin yoga and its slow, meditative nature, I experienced first hand that holding poses for 3 to 5 minutes, and yielding to what comes up during this time (both physically and emotionally) until you are “comfortably uncomfortable”, is not only valuable for your overall health, but also for your creativity.

During one of my savasanas, I saw images of the different animals doing their respective yin yoga poses, and thought they looked so unique and peaceful (in a “yin kind of way”) that I wanted to do something special with them.

So, I reached out to Romulo, an incredibly talented artist with 99designs by Vistaprint. I had hired Romulo to design my website logo for https://atherapistsadvice.com a few months earlier; this same logo in combination with the expression YIELD2YIN (which came to me as I was writing one of my blog posts) ended up becoming my brand.

Romulo, yet again, did not disappoint and was able to bring my ideas to life with the different animal images and the yin-yang background, which I then used for creating greeting cards with “matching” card expressions.

I am hoping to develop several more products with my 15 quirky animal designs, but for now am just grateful that I can offer these beautiful cards to my clients with my Etsy shop - enjoy and namaste!