The Eight Limbs of Yoga
When most people think of yoga, they think of relaxation music, deep breathing, and of course, stretching. We envision a bunch of thin, beautiful, peaceful people in tight-fitting clothes performing contortions and balancing acts with serene expressions on their faces in front of the setting sun while the ocean waves crash on a deserted beach… no? Just me? However, what most people don’t think of is the fact that yoga isn’t just about Downward Facing Dog and Child’s Pose. Yoga can be a guide for how to live your life both on and off of the mat. Traditionally, there are eight facets or limbs of yoga, each one focused on how to bring your life into balance and equilibrium.
Yamas
The yamas are basically how you live your life in an external way, or how you behave in society. This is practicing kindness and generosity towards others, having morals and ethics, and being honest and truthful. Another part of the yamas is living in moderation; being mindful of our guilty pleasures such as eating, drinking, and other behaviors that are fine as long as you don’t overdo it. Living a well-balanced life might mean admitting to yourself that you don’t need to buy that 17th pair of shoes, or that one glass of wine is plenty. Practicing the yamas also means giving to charity, being thoughtful of others, and expressing love. Whenever you comfort your children, have an honest and intimate conversation with your spouse, or offer kindness and support to a friend, you are practicing yoga! Who knew?
Namayas
If the yamas are practices for the outer world, the nayamas are practices for the inner world. Nayamas are your personal practices, such as your daily rituals, spiritual practices, shadow work, journaling, and self-study. These are the things that you do to connect with yourself. Every morning, I bring my tea to my desk, put on some quiet music, and do my journaling. I repeat some daily affirmations to myself, I do a four part check in (body, mind, heart, soul), and record this in my journal, along with a daily tarot card and rune, and the moon cycle information. This is time for me to do the inner work; to set intentions, to release negative thoughts, to focus my mind, and chart my path for the day. Nayamas are also practicing personal hygiene, so mindfully brushing your teeth and hair, washing your face, and putting on your makeup every morning is also considered yoga!
Asanas
Asanas are the physical poses or postures that you practice in the yoga studio. Taking good care of your physical body, health, and well-being is an important part of living a well-balanced and healthy life. Being physically fit is considered an important part of yoga, because a healthy body contributes to a healthy mind. Getting exercise is also a way to practice self-love and self-respect. If you aren’t able to practice even one asana each day, can you go for a walk, get a massage, or put lotion on your feet before bed? Any way that you can care for and maintain your physical body is better than ignoring it! Caring for the living vessel that houses your soul, your emotions, and all of your wisdom is akin to keeping your house weather tight so that the rain can’t come in and ruin the furniture!
Pranayama
Pranayama means breath and the practice of mindful breathing. The breath is your life force; without breath there is no life. In yoga, regulating the breath is an important part of both your physical and mental wellness. Controlling the timing, duration, and frequency of the breath can assist with grounding, awakening the senses, releasing tension, and helping to connect the body and mind. Stop reading this for just a second and take a deep breath. Feel the gathering of energy that the inhale gives you, and the releasing of tension with the exhale. Did you notice that your shoulders relaxed a bit with that one breath, or that you felt slightly less stressed, or that you became a little more aware of your body? Imagine if you could feel like that all day every day… this is the goal of pranayama.
Pratyahara
Pratyahara is all about controlling your reactions to outside disturbances. The word can be translated to “withdrawal of the senses.” While becoming aware of physical sensation and awakening your senses is a wonderful grounding technique and is essential to mindfulness, pratyahara does not ask you to stop feeling, but rather to choose not to let feelings derail you from your purpose. This is a tough one for me, especially during yoga class. If I am talking my students through a guided meditation when the neighbor starts up their lawnmower, I immediately feel upset. I am drawn away from the task at hand, my focus is shattered, and I allow the sound of a lawnmower to literally control my emotional state. I have been drawn away from the meditation now, and it is not the neighbor’s fault; it is mine. There will never be an end to outside stimuli; it is a fact of living. But yoga asks us to practice not allowing any of the sensations we experience to control our state of mind.
Dharana
Dharana means concentration, focus, or attention. When you meditate using a mantra which you repeat over and over, this mantra is your tool for achieving dharana. It is the practice of focusing your mind on only one thing, which blocks off the paths to other thoughts which try to enter your mind. Hatha yoga is great for this, as the combination of asanas, mantras, mudras, and meditation keep the mind focused and occupied so that thoughts from the no longer and the not yet are held at bay temporarily. Other techniques include focusing on the breath (paranayama) or using a variety of breathing techniques, or using guided meditations. One meditation I enjoy is where you sit on your mat and contemplate where your body and the mat touch. Try to decide where your butt ends and the mat begins… it’s harder than you think! There are a lot of ways to help achieve focus and concentration, from prayer, chanting, or singing to tapping, focusing on chakras, or visualizations.
Dhyana
Dhyana is meditation. It is the state of bliss that you can achieve when thoughts slow enough to be unnoticeable. While in yoga class we often practice “stepping out of the stream” in order to attend to our practice while the thoughts are allowed to run in the background, dhyana is the part of the class where you are so involved with what you are doing that you don’t have any thoughts at all; you are fully present and aware. This does not happen for long stretches of time for most people, but rather we get glimpses of this state of bliss in certain situations. Have you ever gotten so involved in a mindful activity that you realize you have not been thinking about anything for a while? I find this happening to me when I am engaged in a task that keeps my hands busy and my mind empty, like when I do intricate coloring pages, when I’m peeling and chopping vegetables, or doing other “mindless” tasks. Taking your yoga “off the mat” and into life means seeking this mindless state as often as possible. How can you make each of your daily tasks singular, so all you pay attention to is the task at hand?
Samadhi
Samadhi is the practice of living in balance and harmony with nature and the universe. It is reaching a state of “oneness” with the world. It sounds intimidating or impossible, I know! But remember that yoga is a practice. Can you think of a time that you may have stood on the edge of the ocean looking out at the waves, or you hiked to the top of a mountain and saw the view below, and felt a sense of awe and smallness, but at the same time you felt you belonged to the earth? Perhaps you feel this way in the forest, where you can sit still and allow the birds and squirrels to get close, or when you swim in a lake, watch the sunset, or eat straight from your garden. That feeling of connection to the cycle of life, interdependence with nature, and belonging that you feel in those times is Samadhi. When you drive to work, let your arm hang out the window and feel the flow of the air. Stop what you’re doing and look out the window; see the clouds going by or the trees moving. Tune into your sense of place in the universe. This, too, is yoga.
Can you do all of these at once and 24 hours a day? I would say no, unless you are the next Buddha perhaps! But to start, maybe writing them on a sticky note and posting them where you will look often might be a helpful reminder. Or, pick one limb each morning and choose to make that your practice or focus for the day. Start to notice where you are able to achieve moments of yoga in your daily life. Take note of these experiences so that you can cause them to happen more frequently in the future. You may be surprised that you are easily able to experience more yoga in a day than just the one hour class you signed up for! If anything, taking even a small piece of your yoga practice off of the mat will add more balance and peace to your life.
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