Getting the Most Out of Your Yoga Practice

Practicing yoga both on and off the mat

If you’ve been reading my essays for any amount of time, you will know that yoga is much more than just poses on the mat. Many of us start with that, I know I did. There is so much to learn about yourself and your body by practicing poses, but it’s only the beginning. Yoga is actually a multifaceted practice that involves the mind, body, and spirit. It can be practiced both on and off the mat. If you are only practicing poses, you are missing out on the larger benefits of yoga, for body, mind, and the world.

The Science of Yoga is broken down into 8 Limbs: Yama (how we relate to others), Niyama (how we relate to ourselves), Asana (poses on the mat), Pranayama (breath control), Pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses), Dharana (Concentration), Dyhana (Meditative Flow), and Samadhi (Union with Universal Consciousness).

The first four limbs are considered outward practices that relate to how you behave in the world and what you do with your body. The second four limbs are inward practices, relating more to your mental activities and your inner experiences. All the limbs connect to each other to create a discovery of who you are as a human: your thoughts, beliefs, and actions, and all that makes you you.

The Yamas and Niyamas

The first 2 limbs are what I like to call the “10 Commandments” of yoga. I say this a bit flippantly because none are actual commands like “that shalt not….” These are guidelines to live a more peaceful, conscious life.

I’ve learned and relearned these ideas numerous times over the almost 30 years that I’ve been practicing yoga. There are some wonderful books out there about these principles. Being Human by Sara Adams is one I love. She makes these normally cerebral, esoteric concepts understandable and relatable. She’s also funny and a flawed human like the rest of us, doing the best she can.

After reading this book, I found that I could integrate these concepts into my life in a more concrete way. She moves away from the all or nothing approach and finds ways to integrate even seemingly austere practices into her life in a way that’s doable. She adds softness and grace to practicing yoga that I appreciate.

In 2024 I wrote a 10 week series about the Yamas and Niyamas (see below) that I turned into my book Living Yoga: One Yoga Teacher’s Journey to Surrender. There are multiple interpretations of these principles, and reading and hearing many people’s perspectives has helped me incorporate these principles into my life, not only with how I practice yoga on the mat, but also how I operate in the world. What you practice on the mat you can take off the mat into your life, and vice versa.

The Yamas and Niyamas Series

The Basics

The Yamas and Niyamas are broken down into 5 principles each.

The Yamas:

• Ahimsa (non-harming: this applies to both your thoughts and actions. Practicing kindness toward yourself and others falls into this category.
• Satya (truth): telling the truth outwardly and to yourself. Letting go of the many little lies we tell ourselves and others. This is not an excuse to be cruel in your truth, we’re still practicing Ahimsa (all of these principles connect).
• Asteya (non-stealing): practicing boundaries, not stealing time from yourself and others in addition to not taking objects that don’t belong to you.
• Brahmacharya (non-excess): I think of this as practicing “enough.” Finding what is enough and finding satisfaction with that. Letting go of constantly needing more, and being grateful for what you have.
• Aparigraha (non-attachment): allowing events and people (including yourself) to be as they are. Letting go of our attachment and going with the flow in a way that feels easy and not disconnected. Not attached to the outcome, being able to be with what is.

The Niyamas:

• Saucha (purity): this is more related to cleanliness in your environment and yourself. “Purity” has lots of negative connotations with regard to sex and shame. I like to apply this principle to my surroundings, decluttering, and finding good feng shui. You feel more at ease when your space is clean, like pure fallen snow.
• Santosha (contentment): this relates to non-excess in the way that you find contentment in what you have. You are not seeking emotional extremes but looking for an underlying theme of contentment in your life. The middle path.
• Tapas (discipline): it takes a certain amount of discipline to apply these practices to your life, as well as take care of yourself in general. This is different from willpower, which is limited, and should be combined with compassion (Karuna) so that you don’t become rigid and stuck.
• Svadhyaya (self-study): learning about yourself through observation, meditation, journaling, therapy, whatever you need to look inward and get to know your thoughts and beliefs better.
• Isvara Pranidhana (Surrender): letting go of your resistance to what you think should be and accepting what is.

Each principle is a millenia-old idea that still applies today, and we need them more than ever. I encourage you to spend a day, or an hour, practicing each principle and seeing how it might fit into how you live. In the essay series above (and my book) I try to make these ideas tangible, relatable, and applicable to your life. Take what you like, and let go of the rest.

As I age (I’m currently 53), I am more interested in letting go of beliefs that no longer serve me. I want to focus on what is actually true, rather than what I believe to be true. I find yoga to be incredibly helpful toward that end.

Feelings of being not enough, perfectionism, overworking, under-resting, eating poorly, not caring for yourself in the way that you deserve, and more can be shifted by studying and applying the Yamas and Niyamas. That’s why they exist. It takes time, and won’t happen all at once, but it’s work worth doing. It has been for me.

All humans have had similar experiences throughout history. Despite different external factors, we all have the same internal struggles, the same feelings, and the same emotions that people have had since forever. These 10 principles were created back in the time of the Buddha and earlier and are still relevant today. In our modern era, when we are so divorced from our body and its needs, as well as from each other, we need this work more than ever.

I invite you to explore these principles for yourself and notice what arises. I promise it will be worth your while if you seek ease and gentleness in your life.

Poses and breath

When I first started practicing yoga, I practiced Iyengar yoga, which delves deeply into your physical alignment in the poses (Asana). Pranayama (breath work) was a separate practice that you would do on it’s own, either before or after practicing poses.

Vinyasa yoga, which is what I have been practicing (and teaching) for the last 28 years, connects the breath with the movement, so that you practice Asana and Pranayama simultaneously. I find connecting the breath to the movement is a powerful practice that brings you fully into the present moment in your body.

With Iyengar yoga, I found myself constantly in my head, worried about practicing the pose perfectly. I got stuck and actually disconnected from my body in some ways. I learned a lot through practicing Iyengar, but it wasn’t the right yoga style for me. When I connected the breath with the movement, I found I could drop down out of my head and be in my body. For me, the breath was the key to help me feel grounded and in the moment.

There are numerous styles of Pranayama, since controlling the breath can change how you feel. There are breathing practices to energize, calm, warm, cool, ground, center, and more. With both Ashtanga and Vinyasa yoga you use Ujjayi pranayama to warm and energize your flow. It is also an audible focus for your practice, since the breath sounds like an ocean wave when you do it properly.

Moving inward

The last four limbs of yoga move you inward. Pratyahara is the step where you let go of your outward focus and start to withdraw your senses, noticing what is happening inside. You close your eyes to let go of sight, then move your attention away from sounds, smells, and sensations. You are aware that they are there, you allow them to exist, but your main focus pulls you into yourself.

Dharana and Dhyana are similar and related, but different. Dharana is what you practice in Savasana (Corpse pose) at the end of every yoga practice. Concentration means bringing all of your attention to one thing, like your breath. This is easier said than done, since the mind likes to wander. And it will. With practice, the mind wanders less. Dharana is concentrating on one thing for as long as possible.

When you are able to concentrate with less effort, you can drop into Dhyana, finding a meditative flow. This is what many people think of as meditation, and when you can’t find it, you think you can’t meditate. Start with Dharana to find Dhyana. Both take lots of practice, and it’s the practice that matters more than the results. Eventually it gets easier, to where you can “drop in.” This can take years of consistent practice, so don’t give up if it doesn’t happen right away.

Becoming one with Universal Consciousness

Samadhi is the final limb of yoga and is when all humanly restraints and restrictions fall away and you become one with everything around you. I have not yet found Samadhi, I may never, and that’s okay. Enlightened beings have found this oneness and we can learn from them.

There are wonderful teachers out there if you are interested in this life long pursuit. I am content with doing the best I can with the tools I have, always learning and growing, and discovering new tools.