Join Jennifer Dixon ERYT 500, Authorized Ashtanga Teacher and Certified Personal Trainer and Merritt Maloof Plumb from The Energy Center, a Wholistic Energy Healer for a discussion on the second limb of yoga, the Niyamas, specifically, Saucha or Purity.
In this episode, we explore the first Niyama, Saucha, which means Purity.
Purity happens on the inside and the outside, and can have different meanings for each of us. On the outside, of course, it means taking care of our bodies and keeping it clean. Purity on the inside means burning up the excess, burning up the crap that doesn’t feed us or benefit us with fire. The heat in our body-that which we make naturally and that which we build with a physical yoga (or asana) practice.
Something that may help you understand purity and the importance to meditate on purity is the simple Lotus flower. Lotus flowers grow in muddy water. These beautiful flowers grow in dirty water and actually help to clean the dirty water while creating in themselves a vision of beauty.
Saucha, on the inside and the outside, can provide you with a pure body inside and out, and like the lotus flower, help clean up the world around us, providing a better world for ourselves and those around us in a peaceful, building and wonderful way.
Another part of purity is letting go.
Letting go of past experiences that are not benefiting you like bitterness, and anger. When you are practicing saucha, you disentangle yourself from the ties that hold you down and it allows you to grow into the prettiest flower.
We have used many online resources to help us better understand the Niyamas, but our favorite resource so far has been the book, The Yamas and Niyamas by Deborah Adele. (this is an affiliate link)