The 8 Limbs of Yoga: Niyamas
This week, we’re picking up where we left off with the 8 Limbs of Yoga series (which started with the Yamas) and diving deep into the second limb, the Niyamas! The Niyamas, or “observances”, are made up of 5 practices (like the Yamas) that focus on cultivating confidence and happiness in our lives.
As I mentioned in my post about the Yamas, the 8 Limbs of Yoga offer guidance on how we can live a more purposeful and meaningful life, and apply to our practice on the mat as well as how we carry ourselves through our day-to-day lives.
Often, the 8 Limbs of Yoga are intertwined into a yoga teacher’s class through the messaging that they use as they’re guiding you through the postures, so you might already be familiar with some of them, but the purpose of this series is to dive a little deeper into each one so you can expand your knowledge of what it means to be a yogi, both in and out of the studio.
The 5 Niyamas are:
1) Shaucha: Self-Purification. This is the practice of cleansing the mind and the body. The yoga sages believe that the practice of self-purification is the ultimate goal of yoga, and that saucha is not only the foundation of bodily health, but helps to pave the way for deeper states of meditation, as well.
2) Santosha: Contentment. Santosha directly translates to “contentment” but can also translate to “joy, happiness, delight”. It comes from an acceptance of life as it is in the present moment, regardless of what life has brought us. When we’re content, we’re happy, and when we choose to be content with our life as it is, we’re actively choosing happiness.
3) Tapas: Self-Discipline. The direct translation of tapas is “heat” - specifically the heat that we build when we’re working hard towards something. It can be the physical heat of a workout or a yoga class, or the metaphorical heat that is built from the intensity of passion and determination. Tapas is required to bring about change in our lives, creates focus, increases strength and confidence, and helps move us forward in the direction of our dreams.
4) Svadhyaya: Self-Study. When we study the self, we begin “to recollect (to remember, to contemplate, to meditate on) the self” to help us discover who we are at the core of our beings… in our physical form and who we consider ourselves to be. Svadhyaya is all about quieting the ego and letting our true self shine from the inside out.
5) Ishvara Pranidhana: Self-Surrender. This is easily the most difficult of the Niyamas for students of yoga to embrace because it involves a total surrender to God (if “God” isn’t your thing, you can use the Universe here instead - “Ishvara” translates to an all-pervading consciousness, so it’s really open-ended). The important thing to remember here is that this is not an acceptance of defeat, or an excuse to just give up on everything because it’s “out of our hands”, but rather it’s the act of devoting ourselves to a higher purpose or power, helping us to cultivate a deep and trusting relationship with the universe.
In conclusion, B.K.S. Iyengar describes the Niyamas as:
“the golden keys to unlock the spiritual gates”
This is because the Niyamas transform each action that we take into something coming from a deeper, more connected place within ourselves, making each of those actions an offering to something bigger than us. Even if you don’t practice yoga or consider yourself a spiritual person, the Niyamas can help you to live a more purpose-driven life, and ultimately make the world around you a better place.
xo,
Kelsey