Within yoga philosophy, you'll find the Eight Limbs of Yoga.  These precepts are helpful guides, offering us a kind of map to become the best versions of ourselves.

Earlier in this series, I wrote about the first Limb of Yoga called the Yamas.  Those included Ahimsa (nonviolence), Satya (truthfulness), Asteya (nonstealing), Brahmacharya (celibacy, moderation), and Aparigraha (nonhoarding).

The Niyamas, which is the second Limb, are principles that focus more on spiritual growth.  They're like the internal Yamas, bringing our awareness to our body and our surroundings.  It's all about treating ourselves kindly and making changes to our lives so that we can live the happiest life possible.

In his book "Meditations From The Mat", Rolf Gates says, "The Yamas are the fundamental renunciation of a life based on fear.  They are the change.  The Niyamas are the fundamental practices that sustain a life based on love. They sustain the change."  

The Niyamas include Saucha (purity, cleanliness), Santosha (contentment), Tapas (zeal in practicing positive change), Svadhyaya (self-study), and Ishvara Pranidhana (devotion to something bigger than yourself).  Over the next few weeks we'll dive deeper into the Niyamas.  But today we'll begin at the beginning, with our friend Saucha.

As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world as in being able to remake ourselves. 

~Mahatma Gandhi

The principle of Saucha is all about cultivating purity on the physical, emotional, and mental levels.  Sounds pretty straightforward, right?  I just totally laughed at myself because, while keeping my house on the cleaner side, showering daily, and eating pretty well aren't too much of a challenge for me, mental cleanliness is definitely a place I will be putting more attention on.  But more about that later.

Let's start with our physical selves.

Obviously, we need to be mindful of what we're allowing into our bodies.  This includes things like the foods we eat, the beverages we drink, and the products we put on our skin and in our hair.  While this can include doing a cleanse, it's definitely more than that.  We're aiming to remove toxins on all the levels.  

To practice Saucha on the physical level, begin by eating foods that help your body run optimally.  Cut out fast food, stop drinking so much soda and/or booze, drink more water, and choose organic when you can.

Hygiene practices such as bathing each day are another way to bring this aspect into your life, as is getting in some movement each day + having pranayama (breathing) and meditation practices.  Because, ultimately, if we want to be truly happy, we need to clean up our thoughts as well as our physical bodies and external environments.  Practicing Saucha can help us get there.

This leads me to what's going on inside our heads.  When it comes to our mental state, this includes thoughts or experiences that we haven't fully processed.  When we apply Saucha to this area, we're putting a spotlight on the information we mentally digest as well as cleaning up the crud that's already inside of us on the mental level.  

Ways we can cleanse our mental states is to meditate daily, to pay attention to things we allow to come into our minds (think: political misinformation and toxic relationships), and then use self-reflection practices like journaling and counseling to further help.

Keeping your home, workspace, and car clean also has a huge impact on your physical, mental, and emotional states.  By tying in Saucha to our external purification practices of tidying up our environments, we're bringing a level of peace into our lives.  And see how it ties in with the Yama of Aparigraha (nonhoarding)?  

The practice of Saucha can lead us into more Sattvic mental, physical, and emotional states. #goals

To once again quote Rolf Gates, "Our body is the home of our spirit.  It is the means by which we enact our beliefs.  Therefore, the maintenance of the body is a spiritual duty, an act of love not only toward ourselves but toward all humanity."