19 Apr A Yogi Life Starts with You

Living the yoga life sounds like doing a lot of yoga, right? Well, if we look to yoga philosophy, we find that yoga starts with our relationship to ourselves and our relationships with those around us. It’s not until we have those things sorted that we make our way to the postures or asana. While we often do it the other way around these days, it’s still important to look at these fundamental ways of being. To do that, we look to the eight limbs of yoga.

What are the 8 Limbs of Yoga?

The eight-limbed path, found in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra is an eight-step journey to living a meaning life that also has a purpose. Designed around the yoga philosophy and practice, it’s essentially a code of morals and ethics as well as self-discipline. It guides us to health as well as spiritual connection.

Let’s consider the first limb – Yama

The first limb is all about teaching us how to deal with others. How to treat them with kindness and how to live life in an ethical way. There are five Yamas:

Ahimsa | Non-violence
Ahimsa asks us to act without violence. That’s violent action, thought, and speech. Essentially, it’s love and kindness, over reaction and hate.

Satya | Truthfulness
Truthfulness is a concept we know and understand. Satya is about being true in words and thought with ourselves and others. But we must do so without violence, otherwise, we would violate the concept of ahimsa. Be careful of the words you speak, true or not, making sure they’re not an act of violence or harm.

Asteya | Non-stealing
The concept of Asteya takes a little more contemplation. Yes, it asks us not to steal material things. But it also asks us to not steal time or energy. An example of this – being late to meet a friend is stealing time from them as they sit and wait for you. Negative thoughts and judgments about yourself steal your power and strength.

Brahmacharya | Chastity
Brahmacharya is about controlling our desires. Often our sexual desires. To help us get further towards a spiritual connection and reserve our energy for spiritual work. In modern application, it can be about reserving energy and only acting upon certain desires when they’re considered and thought out.

Aparigraha | Non-attachment
This asks us to let go of our greed and attachment. While our modern western world values objects and owning a lot of things, this part of the Yamas tells us that happiness is found without these things and our attachment to them is what contributes to our unhappiness.

Join us for an evening of yoga poses that allow us to experience these five Yamas and the second limb Niyama (more about our relationship to ourselves) through movement and stillness.

Living Yoga with Izzy
Friday 28 April 6.30pm – 8.30pm
Investment $60 or $55 for Tribe Members