How Yin Yoga Helped Me Find Wholeness Again
A Meltdown in the Rain
Last year, over Easter, my world shattered. Depleted, I locked myself inside my yoga studio in solitude. Rain poured outside, and my crying body curled into Yin postures. I was lost. Everything I believed in had collapsed. It felt like a mid-life crisis—but instead of divorcing my husband, I broke up with the yoga style I’d been married to my entire life.
Letting Go of Who I Was
The Iyengar Yoga qualification I had worked hard to achieve suddenly felt meaningless. The strong Ashtanga Yoga practice I had cultivated over the years became impossible. I felt fake, phony. My reality shattered into fragmented pieces. My battery was flat. I had no more pushing power. Chronic inflammation and fatigue lingered.
The Unexpected Embrace of Yin
Purely by chance—or perhaps by grace—I found solace in Yin Yoga. It became an antidote to my biased view of yoga postures. Rather than pushing toward the peak of a mountain in Yang (active) pursuit, I began to relax and flow with the river of Yin (passive).
Eventually, I enrolled in a Yin Yoga teacher training with Bernie Clark, rooted in the Paul Grilley style. Honestly, it’s been a lifeline—immensely insightful and healing. It’s the missing piece of my yoga puzzle.
A Practice That Breaks the Rules
Yin Yoga draws on the Chinese Meridian system and Daoist philosophy. It breaks all the rules of Yang Yoga, disregards classic alignment cues, and honors each individual’s interoception—our internal sensations. This approach resonated deeply with where I was physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
You Love Yoga, We Love Yoga—Let’s Stay Connected
Get yoga tips, a little inspiration, and friendly emails—because yoga is better with friends.
A Year Later: A Glimmer of Wholeness
Today, a little over one year since that major meltdown, I see a glimmer of wholeness—something I never thought I would feel again. It’s humbling to admit that over the past 16 years, as I built a career in yoga, I gradually lost the purity of passion that first ignited my soul’s revolution in the ’90s. The competition and one-upmanship of the yoga “industry” hijacked my heart’s essence and clouded my vision of what integrity in business truly meant.
A New Beginning
The stresses of life kept rolling in, and I stayed on the rollercoaster of hyper-vigilance—until, thankfully, it all collapsed. What a deep sigh of relief. A true, transcendent breakthrough. Now, it is a delight to start all over again—humbly—with a subtle, steady intention: to balance Yin and Yang, gentleness and strength.
Melanie de Villiers
Melanie de Villiers is a yoga teacher based in Madeira, Portugal. She is originally from Cape Town, South Africa. She’s been teaching since 2009 and practicing since 1995, when her psychology studies led her to explore Eastern philosophy. She is certified in Iyengar Yoga (RIMYI) and Vinyasa Yoga (Yoga Alliance), so her teaching blends precision with intuition.
After a personal health crisis, Melanie found healing through Yin Yoga and trained with Bernie Clark. Her classes now reflect a non-dogmatic, somatically aware approach that values self-discovery over performance. With experience across India, Thailand, South America, and beyond, she brings authenticity, curiosity, and reverence to every class, viewing yoga as a path of healing and personal evolution.
