Episode 08 - The Niyamas and Svadhyaya - Our Self-Study featuring Tiffany Russo
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Please enjoy this excerpt featuring Tiffany Russo on the niyamas and self-study.
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Featured here:
“Obviously our relationship with ourselves, things like Saucha - cleanliness, not really about how, obviously we're showering, but how do you keep your desktop? Is there clutter in your life? Is there unnecessary clutter? It's those things of little clutter that kind of pull us off of course, and distract us if you will. Santosha - contentment, being completely content and at ease with where we're at, we're not comparing. They say comparison is the thief of joy. So we're really at ease with who we are and where we are today. Tapas - purification, fire, heat. However you want to create that cleansing piece of it. Isvara Pranidhana is always knowing that there is a higher power that we devote to. Oftentimes that's within us.”
IN THIS EPISODE:
In this episode Tiffany and I discuss the niyamas - the second of the eight limbs of yoga - and in particular svadhyaya, our self-study. This one is how we show up in this world, our internal discipline for how we live.
There are five niyamas:
Tapas (purification through discipline)
Santosha (contentment)
Saucha (purity)
Svadhyaya (self-study)
Ishvara Pranidhana (devotion to a higher power)
There are so many various translations of the niyamas and svadhyaya. What does it mean to you?
What is your advice for yoga students to connect to svadhyaya?
How does svadhyaya show up on and off the mat?
LINKS
Find Tiffany Russo online at:
TRANSCRIPTS
Note: Please excuse any errors in the transcription.
Monica Phillips (00:46):
Welcome back to yoga philosophy for everyday living. I am here again with Tiffany Russo, who was introduced in the episode on the eight limbs. And you can find out more about her in the show notes.
Tiffany Russo (01:32):
Thank you very much for having me.
Monica Phillips (01:34):
We're going to talk about the niyamas today. This is the second of the eight limbs. As we talked about in the episode on eight limbs, the order is not important. They all come together to complete this wheel of life. This one is how we show up in this world, our internal discipline for how we live. The five niyamas are Tapas (purification through discipline); Santosha (contentment); Saucha (purity); Svadhyaya (self-study); and Ishvara Pranidhana (devotion to a higher power) and we're going to focus mostly on Svadhyaya. I'd love to welcome you first to talk about the niyamas in general. How do you think of them?
Tiffany Russo (02:14):
Niyamas are obviously our relationship with ourselves, things like Saucha - cleanliness. It's not really about how - obviously we're showering - but how do you keep your desktop? Is there clutter in your life? Is there unnecessary clutter? It's those things of little clutter that kind of pull us off our course, and distract us if you will. Santosha - contentment, being completely content and at ease with where we're at, we're not comparing. They say comparison is the thief of joy. So we're really at ease with who we are and where we are today. Tapas - purification, fire, heat. However you want to create that cleansing piece of it. Isvara Pranidhana is always knowing that there is a higher power that we devote to. Oftentimes that's within us.
Monica Phillips (03:03):
I do love this example. It's in Jamil Zaki's book, The War for Kindness, and he talks about this faith in things we can't see or feel. The faith is believing in what we can't see and can't feel. And what happens if we cut off that faith, and this is the not only higher power within ourselves or outside of ourselves, this is also what we want to become. If we can't believe in something that we can't see or feel what limitations have we put on ourselves.
Tiffany Russo (03:31):
Wow, just last night, I was having a conversation with my partner about the difference between trust and faith and to your point, how do we believe and have the faith in something. If there isn't trust in that process and experience. It's interesting to believe. And I think it comes with time. I think it comes with experience. I think it comes with the practice that we trust in the showing up piece of everything. And it's in the showing up, no matter how it looks, no matter how messy it is, that that doesn't matter, that we at least keep falling forward. Then maybe looking back, we can have the faith and belief that of where we're going.
Monica Phillips (04:17):
I hear all of the eight limbs within the niyamas, this grounding, this awareness, the physical, spiritual, the intellectual, mind, body, soul, heart, like kind of all in this contentment, purity, self-awareness, faith, and discipline. Discipline is the practice. When we start practice - asana practice - most of the time on our backs, usually with our knees bent and it's so calming. So it brings us into a grounding position.
Tiffany Russo (04:48):
This moment that we all arrived together and choose to let what came before us go and then arrive and choose to do something different. Then I think that moment of checking in, slowing down, we're so hurried that if we can tune inwards physically, and then, you know, with the breath - svadhyaya, a little piece of self study, checking in,. How am I doing today? And it's through that opportunity that we can be like, you know what, because it's going to show up whether you've checked in or not, but at least if we're aware enough to observe how we are checking in, then it makes sense. There's like, Oh, it's so random. I drank a bottle of wine last night and I have a headache today. No, it's not random at all. You become a lot more aware of the choices you make. And that is, I think one of another, one of the many gifts we get from the yoga practice, but also that piece of self-study where you pause. Is this going to serve me? Who am I today? Maybe it served me 10 years ago, but it doesn't anymore. And that's okay. And there's the contentment piece of it.
Monica Phillips (06:02):
Willlingness and the recognition to let go of things we used to want, but no longer need.
Tiffany Russo (06:06):
Exactly. And I think asana is a great opportunity every day to check in and observe where we are because - how much walking have we all done during COVID? There was a moment early on where I was like, I think everyone's hamstrings, calves, and Achilles are probably super tight from all the walking we've been doing. Your triangle pose might feel a little different than it did yesterday. And that's okay. And to honor that and explore that, Oh wow. My left hamstring's tighter than my right hamstring. Huh? I wonder that shows up actually more in Warrior 3 as well. So it just becomes getting to know thyself.
Monica Phillips (06:44):
I get the privilege of talking to people all the time, who do yoga and love yoga and experience these major shifts in their self-awareness and self-study through yoga. What about people who aren't going to show up on a mat, or who've never been to a class, have a different way. What can we share about Svadhyaya? Because it's not just in the asana practice. How do we approach that in life every day?
Tiffany Russo (07:12):
I think it's in relationships with others, how we interact with others. For instance, I had a friend that would tell me when I came home from work after a very long day to sit in my car and eat some almonds before I went into the house. And it was that moment of debriefing. How am I showing up? How am I showing up to my partner? How am I showing up to the world? And so you don't need to get on the mat to experience that, but to interact with other human beings to connect with other human beings is another great way to experience our self-study. How are we living when we wake up in the morning? Did we get enough sleep? Should I drink some water? And we use the questions that we ask ourselves and the interest of knowing the self I think can happen when we tie our shoes.
Monica Phillips (08:04):
Really great example. So relevant through COVID too. What's happened is I would sit in my car after a long drive home, because if I walked right in, I'd be, I want to do this and that and not be present for my family. And the energy we bring is incredibly radiant. The energy from our heart, the joy, the sorrow, the anger and frustration, all that - it's contagious. We can see it on the faces of other people. And what's happened now is we don't get to sit in our car cause we're not commuting anywhere. Most of us go from this room to that room. If we're lucky. Some of us are all sitting at the same dining table. We're living these last-minute lives. And what we did at work now is, is home. It's not suitable for home. So seeing it actually, I think the gift that gives us is bringing more kindness into the workplace. It's even more important for anyone who has a workplace job. It's so important to bring that kindness into work. And if you want your family to see it, you need to show it to your work life as well.
Tiffany Russo (09:04):
And I also think to your point being present. So when work does end and you've made the shift to be at home with family or be in the living room with family, you're not attached to getting emails or you're really choosing to be present with those that are in front of us. Being present is another way to not get caught up in the mind chatter and other way of practicing the yoga is to really look and see and connect.
Monica Phillips (09:33):
It's funny that you use that example of walking more because my phone would tell you that I'm walking less this year and that's because I don't take it with me most of the time when I leave the house. And if that has been one of the biggest gifts is choosing to go outside for myself and not because I want to take my work with me. So I have to choose not to take my phone and not take photos because I just want to be present for the experience of walking and noticing. And I think there were times in my life when my son was younger and any kid will do this, you go out for a walk and they notice everything. And I think I missed a lot of those moments because I was so caught up here and all the things I had to do that I wasn't noticing the ladybug on the flower with him. So that has been the biggest gift for me is the self-study. This svadhyaya of how do I be with myself. If I want to give that to my son, I needed to give it to myself, too.
Tiffany Russo (10:34):
The amount of beauty that we find when we can be present with self on a walk, without a phone.
Monica Phillips (10:43):
How about on the mat? Tell me some of the ways that you bring svadhyaya into the room. We've talked about some of them already, but what is that conscious choice that you make in coming in? Another thing you do that I love is you weave in this yoga philosophy with this Jedi mind trick, no one even knows that you're talking about yoga philosophy. And I think people, a lot of people who take your classes have sophisticated yoga studies. So they probably do know or are aware of the simple, accessible language of inviting people. So it allows curiosity, but most often it's just allowing people to practice by Svadhyaya.
Tiffany Russo (11:20):
When I first started teaching and asking my teacher, Annie carpenter, I was like, how do you weave in a Sutra in class? How do you talk about ahymsa and make sure that it has a through line? And she was - in time and in time, it is taking those moments where you're on the mat and it is real life. Are we being too hard on ourselves? Could we actually slow down right here? Do you need a child's pose? Even though I didn't offer one. And I think you just, even our choice of language so that it's not the shapes that we're teaching, but we're giving our students an opportunity to check in. And within the language is the philosophy of words like grounding. Of course, I'm drawing a blank right now, but I think what's the old adage - How we do one thing is how we do everything - It shows up on the mat, again, another piece of self-study. So if we are actually choosing to slow down and not go into habit, we'll learn so much about who we are.
Monica Phillips (12:15):
It's that intention that you invite people to notice, are you doing it this way because you've always done it that way? Even like just slowing down in chaturanga, slowing down and noticing what is the pattern that you have. I'm thinking about proprioception too. And as much as I think I know my body, I always learn more about my body. Where do my hands really need to be for my elbows to be in line with my shoulders. That is self study, this noticing of my body and space. Interoception like the balance that we have in tree pose. Some days it's feels one way and some days it feels another way maybe because we ate something or because we're thinking too much. And so our guts are reacting to our nervous system, this awareness that we have. And we can say, now that I've slowed down, now I can feel it.
Tiffany Russo (13:05):
Because when we go and have it and we go in rote, we fall deeper into our samskara, right. Our patterns, our habit. And so if we can choose to pay attention and be present, i.e. Svadhyaya, that's interesting. My left hand is always a little further forward than my right hand in down dog. Things like that, little moments of paying attention, like your walk without your phone with your son, looking at the ladybug.
Monica Phillips (13:31):
Throughout an Asana practice something really cool happens because people come in in one space mentally, physically, and they end in another space. And then we get to savasana, which is my son's favorite pose. I like it a lot, too. What happens in this practice that allows us to get there because then in Savasana, we access so much more of this svadhyaya. This recognizing what's really within.
Tiffany Russo (14:00):
I think for the practice, a good sequenced yoga Asana practice takes you on a journey of self-exploration in the present moment. And so you're not distracted by the grocery list or conversation you have to have later, et cetera, et cetera. But you're in this moment of moving your body in space with your breath and in a way it's this globally micro experience it globally because your whole being is present. And you're just paying attention to yourself. Some classes take you on this journey where you're, I don't think I can go to the peak of this mountain that you're taking me to. And some days there's like another peak and where are you taking me? I don't know if I can do any more. And then a well-balanced sequenced Yoga class slowly takes you down the mountain. And so by the time you arrive in Savasana, you're physically ready. Your nervous system is ready. So we've gone through a sympathetic experience and we've slowly dropped back down into a parasympathetic experience. And Savasana, I think is the complete expression of that, that moment of peace, a good Savasana. You can feel it when you come out of it little stoned.
Monica Phillips (15:14):
Back in the good old days of practicing in a classroom, you would feel this enormous, calm, this universal ease. I truly believe if the whole world meditated, we would have world peace because everyone would be so easeful. And we would have so much peace within ourselves. We would be peace for others. And that's what happens at the end of a yoga, a really good yoga class. You get to Savasana and there's this inner peace that we've learned. even just one thing about ourselves. If just one person has this experience, that's good enough for me because not everyone can have it every single time. It doesn't mean that they haven't learned something about themselves.
Tiffany Russo (15:51):
And hopefully we take that experience and then we share it in the world. Like we don't hop in our car, blast the music, cut somebody off. We then share that, that sense of peace. And there's the ripple effect.
Monica Phillips (16:02):
What else should we know about Svadhyaya or the niyamas in general?
Tiffany Russo (16:08):
Dive in. Play with them.
Monica Phillips (16:08):
I love that you said that word play. I think that's really important. This isn't supposed to be serious, hard work.
Tiffany Russo (16:14):
Well, we're not in the mountains in the Himalayas here. We're in real today's life dealing with a really big year. And so use them as an exploration and adventure versus a test you have to complete.
Monica Phillips (16:27):
Yeah. Thank you for that great insight on svadhyaya. I'll have all of your links below so people can find you and have the joy of practicing with you like I do.
Tiffany Russo (16:36):
Sounds good.