The Eight Limbs: Niyama (Svadhyaya)
Svadhyaya = self study
It's also really fun to say.
This one is kinda special to me because not only is it a big part of my life, but I had to do my yoga teaching assessment for philosophy on Svadhyaya.
The key is, NEVER STOP LEARNING.
People are interchangeable beings. We move and shift and change all the time. The key to Svadhyaya is acknowledging this and never ever settling on one version of yourself. Because you may learn something about yourself, and then it may change, and then it may change again, and all you can do is observe that change and accept it.
So, what do I mean by self study?
Self reflection. You have to become aware of yourself. You look at yourself and you notice your strengths and weaknesses, your limitations, whether you're doing great or whether you need help. Learn how you respond to certain situations, your reactions to things, observe how you deal with good things and bad things. Notice if you do things that are self destructive and work to eradicate that. Become familiar with yourself.
In a yoga class, you will often hear me say "find what feels good," a line I picked up from my initial and amazing online yoga teacher, Adriene Mishler (Yoga with Adriene). I love this because that is really what yoga is about. It's about listening to your mind, your body and your heart and deciding what feels best for you. Svadhyaya is about noticing how your body and mind react to poses and then choosing the poses that feel good. Choose what is best for you. As a yoga teacher this is when I encourage people to notice and welcome their limitations. I know from experience that this is very difficult to do, but once you can it makes your practice so much lighter and so much more peaceful.
Svadhyaya is about listening to yourself, and not comparing yourself to others. I have been dancing for 10 years and I can tell you now, I am very familiar with comparing myself to others. Competing with others. Feeling bad when I am not as good as other people. Yoga has been amazing in helping me change my thought patterns from "oh no look how bad I am" to "oh wow look how amazing they are." I think it's about perspective and realising how amazing each and every being is without having to compare their accomplishments to your own.
As a teen, learning about myself is easy. There is so much to know about yourself and about the world and the teenage years is the time to learn all about it and what you think about it. It is also a good time to acknowledge that we are always changing because teenagers change sooo much, from day to day. This is the time to learn and to notice and start making changes where necessary. Start changing your perspective if you need to. Find what feels good.
So that is Svadhyaya!
I hope you got some insight from this :D
Namaste x
