What is Yoga? 8 Limbs of Yoga Explained | Yoga by Biola

Transcript

what is going on y'all it is your girl 
Abiola Akanni back with a new YouTube video what is going on Yogi's happy New Year happy 2023 
I hope you all are feeling really good in your   life and body. as we move into 2023 I'm going to 
be focused on sharing more educational videos for   those of you who are yogis looking to deepen 
your practice or those of you who are already   yoga instructors and or space holders looking to 
expand your offerings, so for today we're going   to be discussing the 8 limbs of yoga. now this is 
going to be part of a series that I'm going to be   sharing within my non-performative yoga education 
playlist so you can find these videos there but   I'll start with breaking down, on a basic level, 
the 8 limbs of yoga and then the following videos   will be more about going in depth on each of 
those limbs. now the reason why I wanted to   share more about the 8 limbs is y'all know that 
I'm all about Non-performative Yoga and that's   the exploration of the practice beyond the poses 
so I want to provide this education for those of   you who are looking to learn a little bit more 
beyond the physical postures and mainly because   the physical postures are just 1 of the 8 limbs 
and so if the 8 limbs were a pie Asana or the   physical postures would be a small piece of that 
pie so it's really important to explore the other   aspects of the practice as well so that we can 
have a fully rounded experience with the practice   of yoga and what it offers. now before we get into 
it let's start to explore what exactly are these   damn 8 limbs that we keep hearing about. so the 8 
limbs of yoga are basically ancient principles or   more so guidelines to help us explore liberation 
and tools to help eliminate personal suffering   they were created almost 500,000 years ago by an 
Indian Sage by the name of Patanjali. specifically   they were created in 500 BC, roughly around 
there, and they were part of something called   The Yoga Sutras which are an even beefier version 
of the 8 limbs The Yoga Sutras house very specific   scriptures as to how one can explore yogic 
living through the expansion of consciousness,   understanding the conscious mind and becoming 
more aware of what it means to integrate or   Yoke the mind and body which is what yoga 
actually means. now I have The Yoga Sutras   of Patanjali here and within those Yoga Sutras 
are the 8 limbs of Patanjali. if you're wanting   to learn more about the Yoga Sutras or even 
the 8 limbs this is a good book to start with.   It's by Chip Hartranft, I think that's how he 
you say his name. however I will say that this   is dense in terms of the concepts so this is 
not a read that you run through very quickly,   it's something that you ingest and take in bit by 
bit, piece by piece and really allow the readings   to resonate with you 1 piece at a time because the 
concepts are so expansive. I've had this book for   several years and I've still never read through 
the entire thing. I read through chapters and   let the information and the concepts sit and 
expand in my body before I move on so that's   what I definitely encourage for you as well. 
so let's go ahead and go into the 8 limbs,   once again this is going to be just a basic video 
where I'm listing those 8 limbs, in the following   videos I'll break them down more specifically 1 
by 1. now within the 8 limbs are the Yamas and   the Niyamas and those are the first 2 Limbs and 
within them are a number of terms and concepts.   the Yamas are seen as social ethics, the social 
ethics of yoga or things that we might want to   avoid doing. within the Yamas is the first term 
Ahimsa which means non-violence or non-harm   the second term within the Yamas is Satya which 
means truthfulness the third term within the Yamas   is Asteya which means non-stealing the fourth 
term within the Yamas is Brahmacharya which means   moderation and the fifth term within the 
Yamas is Aparigraha which means non-grasping   non-clinging or non-covetedness. now moving 
on to the Niyamas which are the second limb   and they're also seen as the personal practices 
of yoga. things that we do want to be mindful   of doing more of. the first term within the 
Niyamas is Saucha which is purity or cleanliness   the second term within the Niyamas is Santosha 
which means contentment the third term within   the Niyamas is Tapas which means discipline or 
also heat the fourth term within the Niyamas is   Svadhyaya which means self-study and the fifth 
term within the Niyamas is Ishvara Pranidhana   which means devotion or surrender. now y'all know 
I'm no Sanskrit scholar, so if I'm butchering the   Sanskrit y'all don't come for me, don't come 
for me, okay! moving on now the third limb of   the 8 limbs is Asana that's what we know as 
the physical postures the things that we're   constantly doing with our bodies the physical 
poses that we see all the time on social media   or popularized through Western fitness and 
commercial yoga. the fourth limb of the 8   limbs is Pranayama which is translated as 
life force it's also known as breath work,   the life force within the body which is the 
breath. the fifth limb within the 8 limbs is   Pratyahara which means withdrawal of the senses. 
the sixth limb within the 8 limbs is Dharana which   means single-pointed focus or concentration the 
seventh limb within the 8 limbs is meditation   and and the eighth limb within within the 8 limbs 
is Samadhi. really contacting the Bliss body,   and those are the 8 limbs of yoga that are really 
helping us ultimately integrate the mind and body.   the term yoga means to yoke or unite the mind and 
body, the integration of the mind and body, and   the 8 limbs are the tools or the principles that 
are allowing us to begin to do that once again   Asana or the physical poses is just 1 of the 8 
limbs right and so we really want to look at yoga   as this expansive science and not just correlated 
only to the physical postures because then we're   not really experiencing the full benefits. in the 
next few videos that I do I'll start to break down   each of these terms a little bit more in-depthly 
and discuss how we can specifically begin   to embody them in our physical Asana practice but 
also in the other aspects of the practice so that   we can explore these terms in our life and in 
our body on and off of the mat. before you go,   if you are a yogi and you've been with me here on 
YouTube for some time or if you're a space holder   and you're really committed to exploring the 
practice of yoga beyond the postures, you're ready   to make that commitment of exploring and expanding 
your personal practice and becoming a more mindful   space holder, I encourage you to apply for 
my yoga teacher training for my 200 hour yoga   teacher training iyaKIN! we're currently accepting 
applications for our fourth cohort beginning March   2nd. click the link below to apply and I look 
forward to reading y'all's applications. in the   meantime don't forget to follow your girl 
on the gram @yogabybiola and don't forget   to follow @iya.well on Instagram too I will 
see y'all very soon continue to be well y'all