‘Be honest about what you want while doing yoga’

While all the stretching, twisting, balancing and occasional falling over is very beneficial and certainly opens the gateways to a healthier, more vibrant and ‘alive’ sense of being, it is just once branch on a very big tree of yoga. 

Ancient texts such as the Hatha Yoga Pradipika and The Yoga Sutras focus very little on physical yoga postures (asana), and in fact when Patanjali speaks of asana, he is not referring to physical postures; he’s talking about the position you choose to sit in while meditating — your ‘seat’. 

It’s the tantric traditions that focused more on what the body could do, and these texts show more evidence of where the postures come from. The benefits of paying attention to the yamas and niyamas may not be as instantly gratifying as a good asana class, but they can be deep and long lasting. 

Contemplating them can shine the light of awareness on parts of ourselves that we don’t always notice and help us live in a way that doesn’t cause harm, which in turn allows for less regret and a more peaceful mind. Satya translates to ‘truth or not lying’ and in practice it means being honest in our words and actions with ourselves and those around us. 

As we all know, there’s nowhere to hide when it’s just us and the yoga mat, and this is often the place we get to take a good look at ourselves. Practicing asana with satya in mind can be very similar to applying the first yama, ahimsa to physical practice. How many times have you ignored or pushed past an injury or limitation just to get into that yoga posture? Even if it’s only staying in a challenging pose for a few breaths more than our bodies really needed to; it’s this dishonesty with ourselves that can often cause physical pain. 

Our yoga practice is here to serve our bodies and minds, not harm our joints and ligaments –— so each time we get on the mat it’s important to have complete honesty with what we actually need in that very moment. One very simple way of observing truth in our practice is by paying closer attention to the breath. 

The breath is such an important factor in asana practice, but one of the most important aspects is that it tells us when to back off. If the breath is strained or shallow, it’s likely that the body isn’t happy with what it’s being asked to do — so even though it might hurt our ego a little bit, honesty requires listening to the breath in every moment and working with it. Honesty is the foundation of any strong relationship, whether it be romantic, platonic or within our families. But letting our ego get in the way of our heart can often stop us from forming meaningful relationships with others. 

Being truthful is something appreciated by everyone, and when others know we are honest towards them, we’ll build a trusting relationship. Each situation we come across offers us the opportunity to see the truth if we are open to it. A daily practice of slowing down, taking a couple of deep breaths and observing things as they really are can help us move closer towards a state of peace and stillness in the mind.