New Term Invitation! Exploring The Five Niyamas, Inner Yogic Principles

Hello everyone,

I hope you are all safe and cosy this weekend as we hunker down for a stormy one! I am writing to you from a very wet and wild Connemara, where the winds are over 120km/hour and the whole house is singing a song of creaks and groans, being battered by the elements. It is pure magic. I've missed this!

This letter is a gentle reminder to everyone that there will be no yoga at Thrive Greystones this Sunday, as we are on a little midterm break :) But we will be back for both Hatha at 5pm and Yin at 6:30pm next Sunday October 12th for a brand new five week yoga term and yoga philosophy theme - and you are invited!

As always, our Hatha classes at 5pm will be focused on breath-work, aligned movement, and strong postures that will hopefully leave you feeling stretched, rejuvenated, and empowered for your week ahead :) 

The Yin class later in the evening at 6:30pm will move at a slower pace and is primarily floor-based with long supported holds for deep tissue stretching and meditation. The focus in the Yin class will be on cultivating a softness and spaciousness in your mind and body via powerful yogic breathing and evidence-based techniques for fascial release and restoration, improving mobility, physical tension, stress, and overall well being :) Both classes are all level friendly and you will be practicing with the loveliest bunch of people each week :) Let me know if you would like me to save you a space!

Now, to introduce our new yoga philosophy theme for the term :) As I am here in Ballyconneely for a little holiday - a tiny village on the Connemara peninsula with the giant sea roaring on all sides - I can't help but ponder the niyamas. The niyamas are five internal duties, personal codes, that if understood and practiced can help lead one towards a happier, more fulfilled, and more peaceful life. The first niyama, saucha, which is an instruction to practice cleanliness in your mind and body - is one that I really felt today. Storms can do that to you. They help shift things up, clear out the cobwebs, give new perspectives. I left Greystones late yesterday evening and drove through the night with my shoulders up to my ears, stressed about various work-related things only just left behind as we rushed to get down here before the storm broke. We arrived to an empty, ice-cold house at half past one in the morning, and slept to the sound of it all brewing outside. Worried and exhausted…

I spent this morning out in this fantastic storm, on the high sand dunes, arms wide open, admiring waves bigger than houses, protecting my eyes from whipping sand, running down soft slopes with the wind at my back, shrieking with delight into the great noise of it all, seeing if I can jump high enough to be thrown backwards by the gale. The wind swept through me and wiped my heart clean. All worries forgotten. It's been a longtime since I've felt so cleansed. Hmmm. Saucha. It makes me miss the wildness of the West!

Now, more about these niyamas. If you took part in the last yoga term's philosophy theme and read a bit about the yamas, the sister of the niyamas, you might remember that an ancient sage named Patanjali was said to have written something called the 'eight limbs of yoga' in India a couple thousand years ago, in this sort of a tree for understanding the true process and journey of a yogi. The yamas were the first limb of this yoga - a list of five behavioural guidelines and principles to master before even stepping foot on the yoga mat for asana or meditation practice. If you missed this and are curious about the yamas, you can read through a few of my previous letters here on the blog to learn more about them :) But for this term we are going one step further, to explore Patangali's second limb of yoga - the niyamas. Where the yamas are a set of principles that are meant to guide external behaviours in the world, the niyamas are a set of internal duties and responsibilities that we can practice and observe in ourselves; inner disciplines and wisdom, if you will, that may ultimately help us to find more peace and joy in this life. 

These are the five niyamas: saucha (cleanliness in mind and body), santosha (contentment), tapas (discipline), svadhyaya (self-study and awareness), and isvara pranidhana (surrender to what you cannot control). Each week I will delve into one of these niyama via this letter and unpack what it means, how we might understand it in our modern lives, and how we might apply it to our physical yoga practice in a positive and supportive way. The yoga classes themselves will be inspired by and designed around each niyama, but will remain primarily physically focused - this way we can weave the philosophy and wisdom into the term accessibly and by embodying it, rather than intellectualising it. I recently heard someone say that knowledge without embodiment can never be wisdom. It needs to dance into our bones for it to work. In other words, we need to feel knowledge, to move with it, so that we can understand it and practice it.

Thank you so much for being here! I can't wait to practice with you next week on October 12th for the new five week term. There are still term spaces available for both Hatha and Yin classes, if you're looking to commit to something powerful and transformative this Autumn :) Of course there will be Sunday drop-ins available also, so feel free to get in touch with whatever suits :) 

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.

Le grá,

Macha