“These pillars hold me tall and strong, even when the sun sets“

– Christina Sanders

Update: Quick note to all. As I’ve learnt and grown, and with the new knowledge I’ve gained, I’ve come to understand that my pronunciation of some Sanskrit words in some of the voice recordings for my blog are incorrect. My dearest apologizes for this mistake. I appreciate your patience while I update my recordings to correct these errors.

I thought before diving straight into my next entry I would take a moment to explain a little of what it is about, and what to expect over the next several entries. It took me quite some time to decide how I was going to construct this and because I contemplated and second guessed myself, I hesitated, and it has been two and half months since my last post. Over the next eleven-part entry series I am going to share with you my personal insights and reflections based on my first assignment in my yoga teacher training, it is about The Yamas and Niyamas of Raja yoga. I will introduce each of these to you and explain how they are relevant to our everyday actions, as well I will give examples of how they’ve impacted me and how I practice them each day.

My assignment was completed and I handed it in back in mid-February, and even though it was complete and the content was enough to share, I didn’t post it. I have come to realize that I always try to perfect everything that I do, so to feel like something is good enough takes an immense amount of time, thought, reflection and review. Basically, I tremendously overthink it and then procrastinate and don’t finish. This reminds me of a phrase I heard recently “progress over perfection” – unknown. This assignment deeply excited me and has really opened my mind to how connected we are to everything around us. It has opened a huge thought bank that I could write for days on, therefore I’ve hesitated posting. It’s as though all the realizations I have experienced over the past few years on my personal growth journey are being recited back to me through the lessons and shared experiences of my teachers and fellow students. It is like my mind is being spoken by someone else. Instead of me learning then applying I have become aware through discovery and experience, and through my training I can now deepen my understanding and strengthen my skills. I have been assured and reassured continuously each class that I am on the right path. I feel amazing each day I practice, and I always look forward to my next class and lesson.

 A lot has happened since my last post and many of us are having a difficult time adapting to the current challenges that we have all been faced with. The COVID-19 global pandemic was declared 3 weeks ago and many of us have been at home in isolation for most of this time. There have been complete lifestyle changes worldwide with everything being closed, nowhere to go, and not being able to socialize in person, almost the entire World is on pause. Yet, there is still an extreme amount of noise that surrounds us, the news, media, and internet are constantly feeding us with information. Although everything is on pause there still is no stillness. Everyday brings us new information, news, progression, and changes, and this can be extremely overwhelming. With the uncertainties, panic, and fear that surrounds us many emotions have and will continue to surface.  It is these moments that reminds us of what’s important, and how we react during these times that shape the next chapter in our lives. I know that if it was not for the personal development and mental strength that I’ve gained in recent years I would be handling these challenges much differently myself. The information I am going to share with you in the following entries are just some principles, values, and habits that I have implemented into my life that have helped me strengthen my entire body, mind, and spirit. I have also shared some of my reflections and realizations that I’ve had during this time. I share this all with you because I have personally experienced the positive changes it has made in my life, and if I can help inspire even one person, and make a difference in their life, it would bring me great joy. I have discovered something that I feel an obligation to share freely so everyone can experience the same or even other benefits.

Now you are probably still asking yourself “What are Yamas and Niyamas?” The Yamas and Niyamas are the first and second of eight limbs that make up Raja Yoga, they are said to be the foundations for living a happy and prosperous life. They are part of the path to self-realization. When these ethics are practiced and integrated into our lives as a set of values and principles that we base our actions and decisions on, life becomes enjoyable and fulfilling, you begin to feel happy and thankful, you discover the beauty and tenderness in everything and everyone, and your dreams start to come true. When we look at these values and principles and translate them into real life examples, they become familiar and recognized in societies throughout the world. What I find most interesting is that before learning what the Yamas and Niyamas represent, I began to recognize them through my own experiences, in addition to some being taught to me. Before deciding to take my yoga teacher training and one of the reasons I signed up was that I discovered a lot of these realizations through the stillness of yoga. Yoga made me feel good, so I kept doing it. The more I focused and the more time I spent practicing different branches of yoga, the more realizations I had and the deeper they have become. Whether you practice yoga or not, when treating yourself and others with kindness becomes the bases of you values, and you start to develop self awareness, life starts to shift. A transformation begins and once that change is recognized, once that door opens, there is no closing it or turning back. The Yamas and the Niyamas are the key to the door that opens this path to self actualization, a life of serenity and bliss.

There are a total of five Yamas and five Niyamas, as I mentioned before they make a lengthy entry so I am going to review each one separately as an eleven-part series, in effort to shorten the reading time of each entry and increase the frequency of my posts. If at any time you are intrigued and want to discuss a topic I write about here in more detail, then just send me a message. I would be happy to have a meaningful conversation with you.

Stay tuned as part two will be coming very soon…

Until next time…