Yin Yoga + The Intelligence of Spring with Josh Summers
Sunday, March 14
12-3pm • Central Square
Dao Yin, Kidney Qi and the Art of Replenishment
Winter is the season when nature seems to do almost nothing. And perhaps there’s some wisdom in that.
Dao Yin, Fascia and the Restoration of Flow
Spring is what happens when all that quiet work of Winter begins to move.
In Chinese Medicine, Spring belongs to the Wood element—the season of growth, movement and renewed direction. Buds open, roots push deeper, branches reach outward, and the energy that Winter gathered below the surface begins to rise.
Within the body, Chinese Medicine associates this movement with the Liver and its responsibility for maintaining the smooth circulation of Qi. When that movement is available, we tend to feel flexible, responsive and capable of changing direction. When it becomes constrained, we may experience tension, irritability, frustration, or simply the feeling of being stuck.
In this special workshop, Josh Summers will explore the Wood element through Yin Yoga and Dao Yin, the ancient Chinese practice of “guiding and pulling” the body to cultivate the circulation of Qi.
Dao Yin gives us a fascinating way to reconsider Yin Yoga. Rather than imagining that a particular pose mechanically “stretches a meridian,” we can look at the body more holistically—as an interconnected network of connective tissue, fluid, tension and movement through which Qi is continuously being expressed and regulated.
This is especially relevant to Wood.
Chinese Medicine traditionally associates the Liver with the sinews—the fibrous tissues that organize and transmit movement through the body. Today, our understanding of fascia gives us another language for exploring this territory. Fascia, tendons and ligaments are not fixed structures; they are living, responsive tissues that adapt to the forces we place upon them.
Through sustained Yin postures, subtle Dao Yin movements and meditative attention, we’ll explore how changing tension within this connective-tissue network can create a felt sense of greater spaciousness, adaptability and flow.
But Wood isn't simply about becoming more flexible.
A tree needs flexibility, but it also needs direction. It needs roots and boundaries as much as it needs branches. In Chinese Medicine, healthy Wood expresses itself in our capacity to move toward what matters while remaining responsive to changing circumstances. When that capacity becomes rigid, we push. When it collapses, we lose direction.
The practice becomes an opportunity to explore that territory from the inside: Where can I soften? Where do I need support? And what becomes possible when I am neither forcing nor holding myself back?
Rather than treating Yin Yoga as passive stretching or reducing Chinese Medicine to a map of meridians, this workshop approaches the practice as cultivation—a meeting place between Dao Yin, fascia, Qi and contemplative practice.
Come prepared to move slowly, listen closely, and make a little more room for Spring.
Cost: $75
Please bring a yoga mat (rentals are available for $3 at the studio)
About Josh
Josh Summers, MAOM (Master of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine), is an acupuncturist and teacher of Yin Yoga and meditation with more than twenty years of experience. Founder of the Summers School of Yin Yoga, Josh has spent his career exploring the meeting place between Chinese Medicine, contemplative practice, fascia and the cultivation of Qi.
His teaching offers a contemporary approach to Yin Yoga rooted in both the classical insights of Chinese Medicine and a practical curiosity about how these ideas are experienced in the living body.