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How to bring the yamas into your daily life

What does it mean to live life skillfully? The yoga tradition, along with many other traditions, has its own way of framing the answer. Patanjali, the sage and scholar who lived some time before 4th century CE, provided the first known written account of yoga’s eight-fold path. The yamas, guidelines that are part of this path, provide one approach to a skillfully lived life. So, how do you put them into practice?

Yamas on the daily

I’ve found that when I keep the yamas in my awareness, I end up coping better with life. When I don’t, anxiety and lack of clear seeing kick in. On a recent Instagram 5 day challenge (what? you missed it?), we started to build awareness of how each yama appears in our lives. Take one of the yamas below, and focus on it every day for a week. At the end of the week (or daily if you prefer), reflect on the experience through writing, then move on to the next one.

Ahimsa starts with loving kindness to self

Ahimsa (non-harming): Start with the practice of paying attention to your inner voice and how you speak to yourself. I know once I started listening, I realized how critical of myself I was being. To help build awareness of your inner critic, ask yourself, would I say that to a friend? No matter how you extend this practice further into your life, choose things, activities, and people that nourish you, not deplete you.

Satya (truthfulness): This concept encourages us to speak our truth, but in a way that is not harmful (hey, there’s ahimsa). Notice throughout the day how you may be holding back, denying, judging or manipulating situations. This may come in the form of negotiating with yourself because you are trying to convince yourself of something. You need that chocolate croissant, right? I know, me too. It may also come in interactions with others because you’re trying to either gain approval or fear rejection. Try to make clear requests instead. What do you really mean or want?

Too much time on your phone? Asteya, help us out.

Asteya (non-stealing): The idea here is to not take what is not yours or anything that is not freely given to you. One way to begin to work with asteya is to look at your relationship with time. How might you be stealing time from yourself or others? This isn’t an excuse for those among us who like to overdo it in the activity department until we are spent. This is more about looking at where you are procrastinating or where you’re not fully engaged in what you are doing at the moment. See how you divert time away from either your job, yourself, or friends/family.

Brahmacharya (non-excess): Since its traditional interpretation is celibacy, this one is everyone’s least favorite. You are likely not moving to a cave to meditate by yourself for the rest of your life, so we’ll take a more relevant interpretation of this concept. Look at how you direct your energy, and notice if it is moving excessively in one direction. Think of addictions. Addictions come in many forms, including food, substances, love, sex, people, technology, approval, and perfection. Notice where there is a sense of imbalance in your life, and if you are using outside means for an inside job.

What if we embraced the impermanent with the practice of aparigraha?

Aparigraha (non-attachment): This is the practice of not clinging, and of recognizing everything is impermanent. This is probably the only real truth in life, and very difficult to accept. How can you work with letting things go in small ways? Maybe you’re holding on to an object that you don’t use. See if you can practice fully feeling whatever it is that you associate with that object (disappointment, sadness, fear, resistance) and then let it go. Another way to work with this is to focus on your actions (the project you’re working on, the meal you’re making etc) instead of the results of your actions (e.g. pleasing someone).

As you become more familiar with the yamas and have more practice focusing on them in daily life, they will become more meaningful and integrated. Try it out, and see what works for you or shifts! And if you fall off of your own path or feel out of step with yourself, it’s okay; just readjust and get back on it.

 

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