Day 6: Reawaken Your Senses

Hi. Welcome to Day 6 of the Yoga Anytime Self-Care Challenge. Today we transition from working with the yamas (ethical practices) into the niyamas (personal observances). The first niyama, and today’s topic, is saucha. Saucha is frequently translated as cleanliness or purity, and that is certainly part of my own personal practice with this niyama. For our work together, I’ll invite you to expand your vision of saucha to include an awareness of your own part in the environment. Saucha is the recognition that we are not separate from nature. Our own processes mirror those of the Earth and every organism living on it.

You’re Part of It All

In his book Raja Yoga, Swami Vivekananda writes, “There is no such thing as my body or your body, except in words. Of the one huge mass of matter, one point is called a moon, another a sun, another a man, another the earth, another a plant, another a mineral. Not one is constant, but everything is changing, matter eternally concreting and disintegrating.” We have a body; we are not only a body. We have a body; we are more than the sum of our body parts. We have a body; it is our home. We have a body; the body is the earth. We are the earth. “All sickness is home sickness.” When we feel at odds with the earth, the body, the self, there is a pervading sense of never being home, of perpetual homesickness. There is a sense of freedom that come from living in harmony with the elements, with nature. The truth of the body is that we have one, but our essence is not limited to the presence or function of any one of the body’s parts. The truth of the body is that it will die no matter what we do. We, in a sense, have been on the path toward death (the ultimate return to the earth) from the day we were born. The practice of ecology is one of trust and truth and preservation. In today’s practices, we will keep our bodies close to the elements, to practice remembering that they are a part of us and we of them. I can’t wait to hear how these practices feel for you. Be sure to keep in touch with your experience by commenting here or on social media. Tag us on Facebook and Instagram and use the hashtag #SelfCareChallenge. Join us for the 10 Day Self-Care Challenge with Kelly Sunrose.