Yoga’s Lifestyle Changes Will Expand and Release your Full Potential

By Barbara Girijananda Hess

If you do yoga practices you will create noticeable changes in your lifestyle.  These are trackable changes that the sage Patanjali mapped out thousands of years ago. In his 2nd chapter,  sutras 33 through 45, the sage describes how your practices will gradually and naturally change the way you live in the world.

These changes are known as yoga’s lifestyle changes.

You may have chosen, at different points of your life, to make lifestyle changes. Perhaps you decided to start eating healthier, or to quit smoking. You recognized when you needed to make a change for the better.

Yoga does this for you naturally. Your practices open you to the experience of your deeper dimensions. When you experience the deeper dimensions of your own Self, you will begin to notice a natural “cleaning up of your act”. 

Patanjali maps these lifestyle changes using the names Yamas and Niyamas. While they begin to happen naturally as a result of your practices, Patanjali is telling you to practice them intentionally.

Because the Yamas and Niyamas are lifestyle changes, you don’t have to take time out of your daily schedule to do them. You incorporate them as a lifestyle. If you are doing other practices these lifestyle practices will organically start to happen. It is part of the organic process of upliftment. Other yogic texts also outline these lifestyle practices. For the sake of this blog, I will be referencing Patanjali Sutras 33-45.

Yoga says you unleash the full power of your heart and mind when you do these practices.

Yama means to refrain from doing something; Practices on what not to do.  The yamas  are a guide on how you handle the world, and everything and everyone in it.

The Yamas are: non-harming (includes vegetarianism; non-lying (speaking only truth); non-stealing; disentangle yourself from sexually based identities and actions, celibacy; eliminate greed.

Niyama means don’t refrain, which means you actively do something you wouldn’t have thought of. Practices on what to do.  Niyamas are how you, yourself, move through the world.

Th Niyamas are: purity; contentment; practice the hard stuff, tapas; study of the Self and chanting yogic texts; surrender to God.

A yogic lifestyle gives you clarity and focus, so that your Divine Essence shines through your heart and mind and out into the world.  

These practices unleash the full power of your mind and heart. You show and live your full potential as you practice this yogic lifestyle. What is the promise or potential achieved when doing these practices?

Let’s take ahimsa, non-harming, for an example. As you master ahimsa, all others cease to feel hostility in your presence.

There are many examples of great leaders who have changed the world dynamics through ahimsa.

Gandhi characterized his practice of ahimsa as a science, and said: "I have been practicing with scientific precision nonviolence and its possibilities for an unbroken period of over 50 years." India’s independence was largely gained through his practice of ahimsa.

Martin Luther King was well known for his nonviolent practices in the civil war movement. He did not call himself a yogi but he lived his life and led the civil rights movement with a deep dedication to the spirit of ahimsa, or nonviolence.

I remember bowing and sending blessings with deep love and respect to the congregants in Charleston S.C. who had their fellow members shot at a prayer service. The first declaration that came from the leadership was the call for forgiveness. I felt the world pause because of their practice of ahimsa. I believe the movement to remove symbols of separation and judgement was wide sweeping partly as the example they set.

You might say, these are great leaders so of course they could lead a group. I say they are human just like everyone else who became great because of their practice. They released the greater power of their heart and mind through the practice of ahimsa.

None of us start great. We grow into our greatness.

The first of the Niyamas is purity. The promise or potential achieved when practicing purity is that you gain a greater understanding of the nature of the body, mind and senses leading to a constant cheerfulness. You are more ready to experience your own Self, divine essence when practicing purity.

When practicing the Niyamas, you are motivating yourself to do things above and beyond the standards of normal society. Many yoga practices focus on purity whether it be a series of poses or breathing practices. Repeating a mantra or chanting helps to purify your mind. One way I practice purity is in my home setting. For many years I have maintained a cyclical clearing of stuff from my home. I keep my environment de-cluttered and cheerfully give away things I no longer need. I clean regularly and keep my organization simple. I find while doing this practice of cleaning or “purifying” my environment, it naturally draws me to staying conscious of more pure eating and thinking patterns. As cheerfulness bubbles up, I recognize this is coming from my practice of purity and I stay conscious of purity in mind, body and environment. Practicing purity is a lifestyle for me ever evolving and involving.  

These practices and lifestyle changes are available to everyone. It is a lifestyle practice which means you practice it throughout your life as you deepen into your own divinity.  Practicing the yamas and niyamas will expand and release your full potential.