The Layers of Yourself

I have mentioned in the past that Yoga offers us a structure through which to understand ourselves, a system that can support our own exploration and discovery. In fact, when you first encounter all of the information, it can feel overwhelming to know how they relate and which is relevant in any given moment. I find there are a lot of ways to explore Yoga, but I tend to always come back to the model of the Koshas to ground myself and find direction. Maybe we can think of this as the compass to help navigate the explorations.

The Koshas are the layers or sheaths of our being. They are five interconnect layers of human existence. You can think about these as nesting dolls, each layer sitting just inside of the next. They appear outwardly as one thing, but you can peek inside the first layer and you find additional depth that you didn’t know was there.

The five layers are the Annamaya Kosha, Pranamaya Kosha, Manomaya Kosha, Vijnanamaya Kosha, and the Anandamaya Kosha. The most external layer is the Annamaya Kosha, the physical body. We can think of this a skin, muscle, bone, food, the material world we interact with. The next layer in is the Pranamaya Kosha, the breath body or energy body. This is the part that keeps us alive and moving, tapped into the rhythm of breath and life. The third layer is the Manomaya Kosha, which is the mental body. This is where our thoughts and emotions, story-telling lives. Our fourth layer is Vijnanamaya Kosha, our wisdom and intuition. This is where our higher mind lives, where we can leverage discernment and tap into the deep knowing that we hold within us without the over processing and story-telling that we can get caught up in. And finally at the core is the Anandamaya Kosha, the bliss body. This is where we feel connection to the divine. How you navigate here and what this feels like to you, is wholly personal and I imagine unique to each of us.

Using this structure to help support navigating through life starts with getting a sense of which of these layers are available to you. Start by listing out the five Koshas, then ask yourself how connected you feel to that layer. Do you have easy access to this part? Do you spend much time here? Does it feel foreign or far away? Maybe it’s something you haven’t thought much about. All of this information is useful. There is no judgement, just deepening awareness of where you are at.

The next questions are to understand where your struggles and challenges lay. When you think about the whole of your being or maybe it is a more focused challenge, where does this show up for you? Are you caught up in a fight with a loved one? Does that show up for you as frustration or anger? (Maybe you are holding that struggle in the Manomaya Kosha) Or does that fight show up as an unsettled feeling in your heart of a stomach ache? (Maybe you are holding that struggle in the Annamaya Kosha). Identify where you hold your struggles. Consider the possibility that you are effected in multiple layers.

Finally, ask yourself what layer you feel like you have access to for support. Are you able to move your body or change what you are consuming? Or is your anxiety so debilitating that you feel stuck and you only have access to the Pranamaya Kosha to change your breath. Or maybe it is some educational learning that will help you break through using the mental body (Manomaya Kosha).

Use the Koshas to help you navigate your everyday life and give you more insight into the connection you have with each layer. The awareness you gain in how you hold stress and your practiced responses with support you as you dive deeper into yourself.

If you are interesting in going deeper on the Koshas, I offer a Koshas Immersion. Please add yourself to the waitlist to get notified the next time this is offered.

It’s All Yoga

My friend always says to me “It’s all Yoga” and we have a laugh. Not because it is particularly funny, but because it is true. Yoga is everything and nothing all at once. It is this dichotomy that we find so amusing. It is complex and rich in depth while also the simplest of things. I find in my own life, that Yoga is both the glue that holds my life together and also something that is merely a piece of who I am, that I can tap into when needed.

Let’s start with what Yoga is. Yoga is a sanskrit word that translates in english to mean “to yoke.” To yoke something is to connect one thing to another. In the context of Yoga, it is implied that we are working to connect the “mind, body, and soul” or to be more specific, we are connecting the surface experience of a human life with something deeper or bigger.

The beauty of Yoga is it provides a structure or framework for you to discovery what this means for you. It is not telling you the answer, but rather providing you with the guidance for you to explore for yourself. You are able to take what you need, when you need it. In the simplest of ways, Yoga can be a physical practice that you move your body through or maybe you don’t move your body at all and Yoga can be present there too.

As you dig deeper into the practice and teachings that are Yoga, you might find the depth of what is there for you. To hold you as you dive deeper into the make up of what and who you are. It can feel complex with the sanskrit and the layers of voices guiding you along the way. However, as you make your way through the complexity and out the other side, there is a rediscovery of the simplicity of it all. A realization that everything we do is part of the process. It truly is all Yoga.

One of my favorite parts of the Yoga Sutras by Patanjali (one of the cornerstone books of modern Yoga) is the very first line.

“Atha Yoga Anushasanam” yoga sutra 1.1 which translates to “Now, the instruction or study of Yoga begins.” On face value it would seem that Patanjali is welcoming his students to class or school. However, in sanskrit there is more connotation held within each word than we can capture in english. When we look at the word “Atha” we find that this word holds the feeling of, “Now, all of the work you have done in this life time and past life times comes together to create this auspicious moment.” And, each moment is exactly that. A moment that builds on the past moments and is uniquely auspicious for you to take the next step.

With the first word of the Yoga Sutras Patanjali sets up the idea that “it is all Yoga.” Because no matter what you have done, whether you feel like it is Yoga or not, it has been the preparation for you to become who you are in this moment to now learn and know that it is all Yoga.

The Wild Freedom of the Year of the Fire Horse

If you have been around me lately, you have undoubtedly heard me wax poetic about the lunar new year and our transition into the year of the Fire Horse. I’m sure my husband could do with a little less of me on this topic. But I have been so excited, absolutely lit up by what we are going through as individuals.

We have been in a year of the Wood Snake. Meaning that we have been doing the hard work of growth, of shedding layers and the things that no longer serve us. The wood aspect of the year shows up for me as this deep foundational growth of our roots. The things that are going to support us going foward in a way that will be safe and grounded. The snake is the beauty of seeing what is ending while also opening us up for what is to come in the rebirth.

On February 17th, we usher in the year of the Fire Horse. It is an energy that is rapid and action packed. Imagine a wild horse running free through the plains in pure joy. It is not running from something, nor is it running to a destination. It is simply feeling the joy that comes from using it’s body for what it was meant to do. For me, this year is about finding a new level of depth, of authenticity, of knowing who I am and showing up as simply that. Not running from something or to anywhere in particular. Just showing up as the best version of me that I can be in this moment and knowing that it more than enough. There is a deep freedom in letting go of becoming something or anything other than you are in this moment.

That strength that the horse possesses, is a deep self-knowing. It is strong enough to run free, while also able to hold it’s own to heal others. It can carry our burdens (literally carrying us on their backs) and regulate our nervous systems (think horse therapy). It is strong enough that it can be all of these things in one single body, choosing when to show up as what version of itself. There is no limit to what it can be, holding all possibilities at once and highlighting or expressing itself as it pleases.

As excited as I am about the transformations that are happening at a personal level, I also hold the heartbreak about what is happening at the collective level. Tapping into the personal evolution that is happening helps me to view our world and local events through this same lense. This past year, the snake brought in death and destruction of our structures and beliefs. While much of what is happening right now is not how any of us envisioned change to happen, whether we like it or not, change is happening in this unimaginable way. We have moved out of the foundational beliefs that we once held and a world order in emerging that many of us never thought and hoped wouldn’t be possible. Yet in this dismantling of many of the tenets that were the foundation of our country, it has spurred us all to take a deeper look at our beliefs and morals. What do we find acceptable? How far will we let the violence and oppression get before we take a stand? What does taking a stand even look like in today’s world?

These questions that we are being forced to ask ourselves and face are the questions that are feeding the growth. The wood elements comes in regrowing our roots, re-evaluating what our foundation truly is. This growth is not flashy. Roots grow underground, unseen to the eye. We, as a collective and society, are growing and changing in ways that we cannot see now. That may not be obvious. But what comes from that growth and change in our foundation is going to be something big. A tectonic shift in how we engage with each other and hopefully a new found respect for all people. A dismantling of many of the horrible things our country was originally built on and a rebuilding with equity and compassion.

So while I hold the heartbreak, I also hold hope for our future. That the year of the fire horse will help usher our collective into something new. That it supports us as individuals to take bold action. To know where, what, and how to change our world for the better.