Self-study opens up possibility
Your teacher can open the door, but you must enter by yourself. -Chinese Proverb
Svadhyaya is a sanskrit word that means “self-study.” In the eight-limbed path, it is one of yoga’s five Niyamas and it is fundamental in yogic philosophies.
Svadhyaya takes real effort in order to gain greater insight into our own true nature. For most of us, this is a paradigm shift, as we grow up spending nearly all of our time studying everyone else. We are more concerned about what others think about us, instead of focusing on our own opinion.
Poses on the mat give us direct feedback and we realize insights into ourselves. To “realize” means to “make real.” Therefore, Svadhyaya is the practice of realizing that our life is really real. While yoga is a practice, it is not a dress rehearsal. This realization of full awareness influences the way we live.
Here are four benefits we experience in Svadhyaya yoga (self-study):
1) Time in quiet contemplation allows us to reflect on all that we’ve learned up to this point in our lives. Self-study is the observance that every event in our lives has offered its lessons. Soon, we begin to see the habits and events that have shaped us. We are then free from being prisoners of our past, and are able to design our future!
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