Like many people, I came to yoga for the physical benefits. I wanted to become stronger, more flexible and improve my fitness. What I didn’t realise was that sitting behind the postures was an immense body of philosophy that had been studied and discussed for thousands of years.
One of the most influential texts in yoga is the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, a collection of 196 short teachings designed to help us understand the mind and find greater peace. What often surprises people (and it certainly did me!) is that only two of those 196 sutras directly refer to the physical practice of yoga. The other 194 focus on how we live, how we treat ourselves, how we relate to others, how we handle suffering, and how we find contentment.
The deeper I go into yoga, the more I find myself returning to these teachings. In fact, when I’m facing a challenge in my own life, or supporting a friend through one, yoga philosophy is often the first place I look. There is far more to learn than I could ever hope to master, but there are some lessons that I come back to time and time again.
1. Pramāṇa – right knowledge
One of the central ideas in yoga philosophy is that much of our suffering comes not from reality itself, but from the stories we create about reality.
The Yoga Sutras talk about vrittis — the fluctuations of the mind. The endless stream of thoughts, worries, assumptions, predictions and mental chatter that can carry us away from the present moment. In fact, the very purpose of yoga is often described as learning to quiet these fluctuations. One way we can do that is through Pramāṇa, or right knowledge.
In simple terms, it means asking: “Do I actually know this to be true?”
It’s amazing how much time we spend worrying about things that haven’t happened and may never happen. A recent example for me was my son Louis and his GCSE exams. In the past, I would probably have spent weeks worrying that he wasn’t revising enough, imagining poor grades, wondering what that might mean for his future and trying to solve problems that didn’t yet exist. But when I stopped and asked myself whether I actually knew he wouldn’t get the grades, the answer was no. I didn’t know.
And, as it turned out, he got the grades he needed and everything was fine. Had I spent weeks worrying, I would have suffered twice — once while imagining the outcome, and then again if it had actually happened.
Pramāṇa reminds you to question the source of your worries. Are they based on facts, or are they simply vrittis creating stories and scenarios in your mind?
2. Aparigraha – letting go
Aparigraha is often translated as non-attachment or non-grasping. It’s one of those teachings that can sound a little strange at first because it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t care about things or people, it simply asks us not to place our happiness entirely in them. For example it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking:
“I’ll be happy when I get that job.”
“I’ll be happy when I move house.”
“I’ll be happy when I lose weight.”
“I’ll be happy when I can afford that car.”
The problem is that when our contentment depends on a particular outcome, we hand over a lot of power, it is no longer ours to fully control. If we don’t get the job, we feel like we’ve failed. If someone else gets the promotion, we feel jealous. If life doesn’t unfold exactly as planned, we suffer.
Aparigraha encourages us to work towards the things we want while holding them lightly. We can still care deeply without clinging and we can still have goals without believing our happiness depends on achieving them.
I’ve found this lesson quite helpful because it creates a bit more ease in life. We can still pursue our dreams, but we don’t need them to complete us.
3. Anitya – impermanence
Everything changes in life – every situation, every season, every relationship, every challenge and every joy. When we’re going through something painful, remembering impermanence can bring comfort as it reminds us that things will not always feel this way.
But impermanence also applies to the beautiful moments. The holiday eventually ends, children grow up, friends move away, summer ends, and the people and animals we love grow older. At the moment, this is a teaching I’m leaning on a lot. My dog Bess is 15 now and is now starting to get some health issues. Realistically, we are in the final chapter of her life, whether that’s months or perhaps a year.
It’s easy for my mind to jump ahead and focus on the sadness of losing her but impermanence reminds me that while that day will come, it isn’t here yet. Today she is still here, there are still walks, cuddles, tail wags and moments together. Rather than grieving a future event that hasn’t happened, I try to bring my attention back to the present and enjoy the time we still have. It doesn’t remove the sadness completely, but it does soften it. It calms the vrittis and helps me return to what is actually happening right now.
Here’s a blog I wrote about an amazing holiday last year if you’re interested to learn more about impermanence https://www.yogainthecabin.co.uk/blog/the-joy-and-bittersweet-of-lifes-impermanence
To wrap up…
What I love most about yoga philosophy is that it’s about understanding the mind, navigating life’s challenges and finding a little more peace amongst the inevitable ups and downs. I certainly don’t apply all of these lessons perfectly all the time and live with a vrittis-free mind (I mean there are plenty of times I find myself annoyed at tiny, irrelevant things like why can’t husband/kids put their shoes in the shoe box as opposed to throwing them on the floor, or putting the crackers back in the cupboard with one cracker in!) but with the bigger things in life, I find myself returning again and again to the teachings from yoga philosophy.
Hope these lessons might be helpful to you too 🥰
Michelle x
PS. my favourite ever photo of Bess below
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