Dedicating yourself to a practice: Kriya Yoga
We all know that we can only improve our skills in a subject through regular practice. I believe that we actually embody and become the thing that we practice daily. When I spend many hours making art, it is as though my body and brain start to become the art. This is a reason why I am not fond of video games, especially violent video games. If one spends hours a day pretending to shoot people, then that patterning becomes well ingrained into one’s consciousness (and subconsciousness). One’s body and brain connection becomes attuned to whatever it is one practices—whether that is shooting pretend bodies, mastering a new art, or noticing our thought patterns.
We only have so much time each day, so what we choose to spend our hours doing really does impact who and what we are. Having a personal practice of some kind, whether that be an art or creativity, meditation, yoga, etc… creates texture and meaning in our lives.
Yoga outlines a methodology to approaching a practice. The final three niyamas (the personal ethics of yoga), tapas, svadyaya, and isvara pranidhana, work together to guide the yoga practitioner to practice and become a more attuned and aware human being. Together, these final three niyamas are called “Kriya Yoga,” and they are the very essence of what it is to practice yoga. It is said that when one can master these three qualities, one will have mastered yoga.
Tapas—to purify and transform through discipline
Svadyaya—self study, or to self reflect
Isvara Pranidhana—belief in something larger than the ego self; surrender to absolute reality
Tapas builds the resiliency to come to our practice over and over again. Svadyaya enables us to self reflect and examine what is or is not working, and how to adjust our practice and proceed over time. Isvara Pranidhana reminds us to surrender to and let go of our ego’s expectations. Over the next few weeks I will be discussing these last three aspects of the niyamas in more depth. But for today what I want to emphasize is the idea of being very conscious and careful about what we choose to practice daily.
A few years ago I stepped away from all social media use because I wanted to focus my time and energy on building my art and yoga practices. I figured even just 20 minutes a day scrolling through Facebook was building my social media skills, and I would rather build art making skills and meditation. Currently, in addition to my daily art and yoga practices, I try to spend at least 30 minutes every day practicing Italian so that I can finally learn to speak my birth language!
So let’s take a moment and self reflect:
What do you want to grow and cultivate through daily practice?
What are you dedicated to nourishing and nurturing in your life?
How will you spend your time working on those things?
Send me a note and let me know!
