People often say they choose to study yoga with me, either through my yoga classes or my yoga teacher trainings ,because of my honest relationship to the yoga practice. I am unsure how my external actions give that impression—I feel that I have a lot of personal work to do on this path! But it is true that I make it a regular, daily practice to embrace a yogic lifestyle. Of all the philosophies and belief systems that I study, it is yoga that I feel most connected to and has made the most impact on my life.

In the 200 hour yoga teacher training, we slowly read through the Yoga Sutras. In the 300 hour yoga teacher training, we slowly read through the Bhagavad Gita. It is these two books that frame the foundation of how I try to embrace a yogic lifestyle. I have had the chance to read these books every single year for the past 16 years, and have had rich discussions on these texts with other yogis. As a seeker, I recognize my myriad flaws on my path and the many challenges I face in embracing a yogic lifestyle. A yogic lifestyle is not about being perfect in all of our actions; it is about recognizing where and how we struggle, and then applying the strategies offered in the teachings as opportunities to grow.

I hope you will enjoy this new writing series, where I will highlight some of the important aspects of these two sacred Indian texts and how they have made an impact on my path to embrace a yogic lifestyle.

Let’s begin with the Yoga Sutras.

The Yoga Sutras

The Yoga Sutras are a collection of Sanskrit writings accredited to the Sage Patanjali, written somewhere between 500 BCE and 400 AD. Patanjali is said to have synthesized and organized these ancient wisdom teachings of yoga. The sutras (sutra means a thread, so sometimes they are referenced as “threads of wisdom”) offer a step-by-step method for living a unified life. In fact, a student from one of my 200 hour teacher trainings once made the comment that the Yoga Sutras was the “how to live your life” manual that he had always been searching for.

The Yoga Sutras outline eight steps—Ashtanga— to assist the seeker on the yogic path. They are:

1. Yama—social ethics

2. Niyama—personal ethics

3. Asana—physical postures

4. Pranayama—breathing practices

5. Pratyahara—control of the senses

6. Dharana—concentration

7. Dhyana—meditation

8. Samadhi—Bliss/Union

The word Ashtanga literally means this very eight step path outlined in the Yoga Sutras. The word is often equated with a fast paced vinyasa flow style of yoga, but that is a more recent iteration.

Ashtanga, the eight limb path, is not a linear progression. As yogis we will move through these stages in different depths and degrees throughout our lives. What is important about this list is to recognize that yoga is about much more than the asana practice—the physical postures that we equate with yoga, especially in the western world. Asana is only 1/8th of yoga! If we are to attempt to honor the lineage of yoga and to work at de-colonizing the practice, acknowledging the spiritual lifestyle component of yoga is the very first step.

Yoga is a way of being, not a form of exercise.

Yoga is about embracing the unity of all aspects of our lived existence; our bodies, our breath, our personal ethics, our ethical relationship with others, our relationship to our thinking mind, and our relationship to Source or the Divine. To embrace a yogic lifestyle is to be in constant reflection and deep consideration with all of these aspects of Self.

In the next installment, we will take a deeper look at the first of these limbs: Yama—our personal ethics, and the five stages within that limb.

Questions to consider:

Are you familiar with these eight limbs of yoga?

Have you considered yoga to simply be a form of exercise?

How did yoga become associated with only the physical practice?

How has yoga helped you? Physically? Mentally? Emotionally?

How can you deepen your practice of yoga?