THE YAMAS & NIYAMAS: LIVING YOUR YOGA BEYOND THE MAT
PART ONE
For many people, yoga begins with the physical practice.
We come to class to move, stretch, build strength, improve mobility, breathe, or simply feel better in our bodies. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. The physical practice is valuable.
But yoga was never meant to end when we roll up the mat.
Long before yoga became associated with studios, leggings, flexibility, and physical postures, it developed as a much broader philosophy for understanding ourselves and the way we move through life.
At the heart of that philosophy are the Yamas and Niyamas.
WHERE DO THE YAMAS AND NIYAMAS COME FROM?
The Yamas and Niyamas are most famously organized in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, an ancient collection of teachings on yoga philosophy generally dated to somewhere around the early centuries of the Common Era.
Rather than presenting yoga primarily as a physical exercise system, Patanjali described an eight-part path traditionally known as the Eight Limbs of Yoga.
Those eight limbs are:
Yama — ethical principles guiding how we interact with others and the world
Niyama — personal observances guiding how we relate to ourselves
Asana — physical posture
Pranayama — awareness and regulation of breath
Pratyahara — turning the senses inward
Dharana — concentration
Dhyana — meditation
Samadhi — deep absorption or integration
What is interesting for those of us practicing yoga today is where Asana appears on that list.
It is third.
Before physical posture come the Yamas and Niyamas.
That alone tells us something important about the original intention of yoga.
Yoga was never simply about what the body could accomplish.
It was also about the person we were becoming.
WHAT ARE THE YAMAS AND NIYAMAS?
The Yamas are traditionally five principles that help guide our relationship with the world around us:
Ahimsa — non-harming
Satya — truthfulness
Asteya — non-stealing
Brahmacharya — wise or intentional use of energy
Aparigraha — non-grasping or non-attachment
The Niyamas turn the attention inward:
Saucha — cleanliness and clarity
Santosha — contentment
Tapas — discipline and committed effort
Svadhyaya — self-study
Ishvara Pranidhana — surrender to something beyond our individual control
These words come from another time, language, and culture, but the questions behind them remain remarkably relevant.
How do we treat people?
How do we treat ourselves?
Where do we spend our energy?
Are we honest?
What are we holding onto?
Can we be disciplined without being harsh?
Can we be content while continuing to grow?
Can we recognize what is within our control and release what is not?
These are not ancient questions.
They are everyday questions.
LIVING YOUR PRACTICE
One of the things I appreciate most about yoga is that the mat gives us a small place to practice how we want to live in a much bigger world.
Consider what happens during one ordinary yoga class.
Something becomes uncomfortable.
We have a choice.
Do we force ourselves through it, become frustrated, compare ourselves to the person next to us, or pay attention to what our body is actually telling us?
A posture does not happen the way we expected.
Can we stay present anyway?
We become tired.
Can we recognize the difference between giving up and listening?
We lose our balance.
Can we begin again without turning one imperfect moment into a judgment about ourselves?
Someone beside us moves differently than we do.
Can we stay focused on our own experience?
The physical practice constantly gives us opportunities to observe ourselves.
That awareness is where yoga starts becoming much more interesting.
Because eventually we notice that the same tendencies follow us outside the studio.
Impatience does not only appear in a difficult posture.
It appears in traffic.
Comparison does not stay on the mat.
It follows us into work, relationships, parenting, aging, success, and social media.
Our difficulty establishing boundaries does not disappear because class has ended.
Neither does our tendency to overextend ourselves, avoid uncomfortable conversations, hold onto resentment, or expect ourselves to control things that were never ours to control.
Yoga gives us somewhere to notice these patterns.
The Yamas and Niyamas give us a framework for understanding them.
YOGA DOES NOT MEAN ALWAYS BEING AGREEABLE
Living your yoga is sometimes misunderstood.
There is an assumption that being a "good yogi" means always being peaceful, agreeable, accommodating, forgiving, or willing to accept whatever happens.
I do not believe that is what these teachings ask of us.
Ahimsa, or non-harming, does not require us to allow someone else to harm us.
Satya, or truthfulness, may require saying something another person does not want to hear.
Protecting our energy may require saying no.
Non-attachment may require walking away.
Self-study may require recognizing that something we have tolerated for years is no longer healthy.
Discipline may mean keeping a boundary even when maintaining it is uncomfortable.
Yoga should not remove our discernment.
Ideally, it strengthens it.
The goal is not to avoid every uncomfortable situation.
The practice is learning to respond with greater awareness instead of automatically reacting from anger, fear, habit, ego, or expectation.
THE PRACTICE IS IN THE PAUSE
We will not perfectly live every principle every day.
That is not the point.
The word practice matters.
Sometimes the practice is simply creating a little more space between what happens and how we respond.
Before sending the message.
Before saying yes when we mean no.
Before reacting.
Before assuming.
Before deciding that one difficult experience defines an entire situation.
That pause gives awareness somewhere to enter.
And over time, those small moments begin to change us.
We become a little better at recognizing what deserves our energy.
A little more comfortable telling the truth.
A little less interested in comparison.
A little more accepting of what we cannot control.
A little more aware of how our choices affect other people.
And perhaps a little more compassionate toward ourselves in the process.
That is what it means to take yoga beyond the mat.
Not performing yoga.
Living it.
COMING NEXT: PART TWO — THE YAMAS
In Part Two, we will look more closely at the five Yamas and how these ancient ethical principles show up in very modern situations.
We will explore Ahimsa, Satya, Asteya, Brahmacharya, and Aparigraha through relationships, boundaries, communication, comparison, energy, work, and everyday choices.
Because how we move through the world is part of our practice too.
COMING NEXT: PART THREE — THE NIYAMAS
Part Three will turn the attention inward.
We will explore Saucha, Santosha, Tapas, Svadhyaya, and Ishvara Pranidhana and how they relate to discipline, contentment, self-awareness, personal growth, letting go, and learning to live with greater clarity.
The mat may be where we practice yoga.
Life is where we discover whether we are actually learning it.
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