Svadhyaya: The Practice of Self-Study

There's a moment in almost every class when I ask people to notice something — their breath, a sensation in their body, a thought that keeps circling back. It's such a simple instruction. But svadhyaya, the practice underneath it, is anything but simple.

Svadhyaya is usually translated as "self-study," but I think of it more as self-observation without flinching. Not analyzing yourself into a corner. Not journaling your way to a tidy conclusion. Just noticing what's actually there.

This week's practice is built around that kind of noticing. We'll use breath and stillness as a mirror — not to fix what we see, just to see it clearly. Some of what surfaces might be comfortable. Some of it won't be. Both are useful information.

Props are part of this, the way they always are in this practice: a bolster under the knees, a blanket for support, whatever helps your body settle enough that your attention can go somewhere quieter. You're not modifying the practice to make it easier. You're setting it up so self-study is actually possible.

I'll be honest — this is one of the niyamas I find hardest to sit with. Watching yourself clearly, without editing what you see, takes a kind of courage that doesn't get talked about much in wellness spaces. But it's also where a lot of the real work happens.

Eckhart Tolle put it this way: "To know yourself as the Being underneath the thinker, the stillness underneath the mental noise, the love and joy underneath the pain, is freedom, salvation, enlightenment."

I hope you'll find something worth noticing this week.

Rooted in practice. Rooted in purpose.