NIYAMAS – PRACTICES FOR PERSONAL GROWTH
The Niyamas are habits for healthy living which can help make us and the world around us a better place. They focus on creating a more positive and loving relationship with ourselves so that we can create deeper and more meaningful relationships with others.
Saucha – Purity
Many of us have destructive or impure habits that don’t nourish us. Saucha is about sifting through these habits so everything we do helps us in becoming healthier and happier. It is about having the self-respect to maintain our physical and mental health – decluttering our environment from possessions, wearing clean clothes, bathing or showering daily, eating healthy food, stopping self- criticism and generally getting rid of the disorder in our lives.
Santosha – Contentment
Life will throw whatever it wants at us, so santosha is about being happy with who we are and what we have. This doesn’t mean we can’t grow or work towards goals, it just means we need to recognise which goals are really important to our wellbeing and work towards them without basing our sense of peace and joy on achieving them. In order to escape the cycle of happiness, sadness, calmness, anxiety, love and fear, we need to find happiness and love within ourselves so we can love, trust and give ourselves fully to the world.
Tapas – Self-discipline
Tapas is our inner fire. It’s what gets our heart pumping and gives us the courage to get outside of our comfort zone so we can heal and grow. It is the burning desire to learn and do the work required to find a place of peace and freedom. This involves having the determination to follow a healthy diet and exercise regularly, to break unhealthy habits like smoking or drinking, to ignore the voices in our head that tell us we’re not good enough, and to refrain from any actions that cause us suffering or prevent us from thriving.
Svadhyaya – Self-study
By studying ourselves we become more aware of the things that hurt us or cause us harm and of those that heal us and make us happy. Svadhyaya encourages us to question our thoughts, feelings and actions: Why am I feeling stressed? Why am I drinking this cup of coffee? Why am I thinking about the size of my thighs? It helps us to be fully aware, to recognise habits and thought processes that are harming us, and to notice what we are doing and how we are feeling from moment to moment. This self-observation often acts as a catalyst for healing and transformation.
Ishvara Pranidhana – Commitment to Connection
Ishvara pranidhana is about our connection to something bigger than ourselves. This may be a God, a universal power, all of humanity or a sense that we are all one. It’s about putting our selfish desires and comforts aside and doing what is best for humanity. Instead of being ruled by our ego, it’s about surrendering the control, worries, judgements and fears, trusting our intuition and doing our best for the world. This will ultimately lead to freedom.
The Niyamas are habits for healthy living which can help make us and the world around us a better place. They focus on creating a more positive and loving relationship with ourselves so that we can create deeper and more meaningful relationships with others.
Saucha – Purity
Many of us have destructive or impure habits that don’t nourish us. Saucha is about sifting through these habits so everything we do helps us in becoming healthier and happier. It is about having the self-respect to maintain our physical and mental health – decluttering our environment from possessions, wearing clean clothes, bathing or showering daily, eating healthy food, stopping self- criticism and generally getting rid of the disorder in our lives.
Santosha – Contentment
Life will throw whatever it wants at us, so santosha is about being happy with who we are and what we have. This doesn’t mean we can’t grow or work towards goals, it just means we need to recognise which goals are really important to our wellbeing and work towards them without basing our sense of peace and joy on achieving them. In order to escape the cycle of happiness, sadness, calmness, anxiety, love and fear, we need to find happiness and love within ourselves so we can love, trust and give ourselves fully to the world.
Tapas – Self-discipline
Tapas is our inner fire. It’s what gets our heart pumping and gives us the courage to get outside of our comfort zone so we can heal and grow. It is the burning desire to learn and do the work required to find a place of peace and freedom. This involves having the determination to follow a healthy diet and exercise regularly, to break unhealthy habits like smoking or drinking, to ignore the voices in our head that tell us we’re not good enough, and to refrain from any actions that cause us suffering or prevent us from thriving.
Svadhyaya – Self-study
By studying ourselves we become more aware of the things that hurt us or cause us harm and of those that heal us and make us happy. Svadhyaya encourages us to question our thoughts, feelings and actions: Why am I feeling stressed? Why am I drinking this cup of coffee? Why am I thinking about the size of my thighs? It helps us to be fully aware, to recognise habits and thought processes that are harming us, and to notice what we are doing and how we are feeling from moment to moment. This self-observation often acts as a catalyst for healing and transformation.
Ishvara Pranidhana – Commitment to Connection
Ishvara pranidhana is about our connection to something bigger than ourselves. This may be a God, a universal power, all of humanity or a sense that we are all one. It’s about putting our selfish desires and comforts aside and doing what is best for humanity. Instead of being ruled by our ego, it’s about surrendering the control, worries, judgements and fears, trusting our intuition and doing our best for the world. This will ultimately lead to freedom.