Yoga is not just a physical practice and is much more beyond asanas. The ultimate goal of yoga is to be in a state of bliss. Patanjali, who is considered to be the Father of Modern Yoga described an eightfold path to yoga, known as Ashtanga Yoga or the eight limbs of Yoga.
Yamas and Niyamas are the first 2 limbs of Patanjali's Ashtanga Yoga. They are the foundational principles towards the path of yoga that provide guidelines to live our lives in the best way possible.
Yamas are the principles that help to make our relationships with people around us better. The 5 Yamas are: 1. Ahimsa (non-violence) 2. Satya (truthfulness) 3. Asteya (non-stealing) 4. Brahmacharya (energy moderation) 5. Aparigraha (non-possessiveness).
Niyamas are the principles that help to build a better relationship with ourselves. The 5 Niyamas are: 1. Soucha (cleanliness) 2. Santosha (contenment) 3. Tapas (self-discipline) 4. Svadhyaya (self-study) 5. Ishwara Pranidhan (surrender to the higher consciousness).
Practicing Yamas and Niyamas in day-to-day life
One can think of Yamas and Niyamas as the tools that help us handle situations in our lives better and allow us to operate smoothly and easily in the world. They can be applied during our yoga practice as well as in our day-to-day lives. For example, practicing Ahimsa, the first yama, could mean being kind to oneself, not pushing oneself too much during the yoga practice and doing as much as the body allows. From a day-to-day perspective, it could mean practicing Ahimsa in your thoughts - having purity in thoughts & not causing harm to oneself through negative and damaging thoughts.
My journey with Yamas and Niyamas
What and Why?
These 10 Yamas and Niyamas are closely interlinked and connected. For example, when you are practicing Ahimsa, you are also practicing Soucha (cleanliness) as you are trying to keep your thoughts clean. Similarily, you are also practicing Santosha (contenment) on your mat as you are trying to not overexert yourself and be content with your practice. However, a beginner may find it hard to practice all of them together. For my own practice, I picked one Yama -'Ahimsa' and one Niyama -'Svadhyaya' to begin with. I chose Ahimsa (non-violence) because I have always been a person who is too hard on oneself. I tend to push myself too much beyond boundaries most of the times which leads to fatigue and exhaustion instead of doing much good. Also, I found myself doing a lot of emotional eating, feeding my body with a lot of junk and unhealthy food which needed to stop. I chose Svadhyaya (self-study) because I felt it would strongly compliment my practice of 'Ahimsa' as I would need to take a step back and introspect on why I am eating what I am eating, or why I am being too hard on myself.
How did I practice them and challenges faced?
On the mat, I practiced Ahimsa and Svadhyaya by setting my intention at the beginning of every yoga session that I will consciously listen to my body and practice as much as my body allows me to do. I will not compare myself with anyone and only aim at doing better than what I could do. The body's stamina level & flexibility may vary from day-to-day; I will be mindful of that fact and attempt the practice accordingly.
The challenge I observed during this practice was finding that right balance between throwing yourself over the edges and not pushing yourself up to your potential. At times, as you don't want to overexert and take it easy, you may even not try up to your maximum possible potential. I tried to overcome this by striving to go one step more at a time. Whenever I felt I have reached an edge, I would see if I could take just one step more and stay there since it is necessary to stay challenged in order to make a better version of yourself. Ofcourse, this comes with constant self-study (svadhyaya) and continuous awareness of your body & thoughts.
In my daily routine, I committed to practice Ahimsa by feeding my body only with healthy, nutritious food and avoiding all sorts of junk food (being non-violent to my body). Within the first week of starting this practice, I started having really bad cravings for sweets & chocolate cakes and I ended up indulging in them. I restarted my practice by maintaining a daily journal (svadhyaya) where I would note at what point and time in the day I am having those sugary cravings and how is my mood at that point. I realized that when I put things down in paper and confronted my feelings, I felt more accountable and driven to solve for the better. Also, what really helped me was finding a healthy alternative for the sweet cravings I had. It is pretty hard to give up everything at once and the change needs to be gradual. Hence, having a healthy substitute such as Dates in place of sugary sweets or nuts in place of fried snacks is helpful. I also allowed myself 2 cheat days in a month as a reward for staying committed to the practice.
Overall, the practice of Yamas and Niyamas has allowed me to go deeper into my yoga practice and stay composed in life's tough situations. I still struggle to keep up with a 100% healthy routine and give up completely on sweets & chocolates however I clearly see a major difference in my cravings and control over what I eat. Next, I plan to practice 'Aparigraha' (non-possessiveness) and 'Tapas' (self-discipline) in order to take my practice to the next level. Which Yamas and Niyamas are you practicing today?
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