Get To Know Yourself better…
22 August 2022
Natasha Nicholas| Clinic Director
5 min read
How the Yogic Kosha Model can support self awareness , self inquiry and provide insight.
Self-awareness is key to regulation and influences our ability to find a sense of ease and peace. It requires us to journey inward, to introspect and reflect, however, introspection can be a wayward journey. I mean, sometimes do you wonder where to start?
The contemporary human is often so in “the mind” and uncomfortable with the practice of stillness that any attempts in cultivating self-awareness are often disrupted or simply distracted from. In other words, if you have a monkey mind - that’s ok! You are not alone.
Cultures built on practices of mindfulness, contemplation, and self-awareness, offer philosophical frameworks that help individuals understand themselves and provide “maps” to guide introspection, self-care, and self-inquiry.
Yoga philosophy offers the 5 Kosha system as a way to befriend the self and navigate a path within. The five layers are from a Vedic text called Taittiriya Upanishad which describes us as having five layers ( sheaths). A bit like the soul is encased in these layers. Understanding them better allows us to find a sense of ease in our everyday lives.
The first layer- Annamaya Kosha- The Body
Our body is comprised of the food we eat, and how we move and care for it. In understanding this layer, we begin to witness how the quality of our movement and our food intake, influences our physical health, which in turn influences the other layers.
As we begin to “learn” our bodies, we come to know when we need warm, nourishing food to build and heal tissues; when the body needs to modify food intake for energy balance. As we become attuned we learn to use movement to restore or revitalise the self. As you become more attuned with your body, you also begin to feel more grounded and therefore at ease.
The journey towards inner freedom and bliss begins with taking care of your physical body, as Henry Thoreau says, ‘The body is the first instrument of the soul’.
Prompt: What does my body need right now? Nourishing Food? Water? Gentle or Rigorous movement? Rest?
The second layer – Pranamaya Kosha – Energy
In this layer, the focus moves inwards to our energetic system, referred to as Chi in Chinese medicine or Prana in Yoga. The way we feel energetically is often supported and influenced by our breath. The breath has a profound impact on our current state – how we feel, digest, manage our stress, and how we sleep. We can influence this layer with pranayama, therapeutic breathing exercises, or simply by breathing in a natural, healthy way.
Other ways we can influence our energy are to get enough fresh air, and sunlight, spend more time in nature, and barefoot walking on sand or earth to replenish our energy. Notice how you feel before and after these activities and try to include them in your day. When you get an afternoon slump of energy instead of reaching for some chocolate, consider replacing it with a brisk walk around the block and some balancing breaths. What we are craving is an energy shift, which we can achieve with accessible and healthier ways than substances, bad eating, or unhelpful coping choices.
Prompt: Where am I on my energy scale? Hypo-aroused ( low energy), Inside my Window ( stable calm arousal), Hyperaroused ( stressed, anxious).
Prompt: What can I do to balance my energy state?
The third layer – Manomaya Kosha – The Mind
The 'mind' is a busy place, full of lots of software and applications. Like an iPhone with many apps. Full of default operating orders to keep us alive and the body working like a machine, it also has many complex conditions and beliefs that have been installed over many years. These are a combination of downloads from other people and social conditioning as well as installations that our mind believes to be enhancing our survival and defences.
In Sanskrit, these “conditions” are known as samskaras, perceptions of ourselves that hold us fixed in our life. These can make us feel stuck. However, over time, with insight, we can begin to see these limiting patterns and behaviours and begin to feel them in our bodies and unravel them. Using body modalities such as Yoga and Somatic/Sensorimotor exercises together with mindfulness CBT and mindful Socratic questioning, we can begin to break the grip of these samskaras and make way for new updated, and better serving beliefs and perceptions to be formed in the mind.
Prompt: Is there a correlation between my energy state and the story of my mind?
Prompt: Is there a correlation between how my body feels, my energy, my breath, and the story of my mind?
Prompt: How do I know this story is true?
Prompt: How would I feel about myself or what would it mean for me if the story was NOT true?
The fourth layer – Vijnanamaya Kosha – Wisdom
This is the layer of wisdom, inner knowing, intuition, awareness, and insight. Where you cease to be a slave to your powerful thoughts and where you begin to sit in the spaces, witnessing the mind and seeing the senselessness in the suffering your thoughts can cause you.
This is the layer where you begin to cultivate a sense of patience, where you can embrace the idea of "the action of non-action" while you wait for clarity to emerge. It is here you begin to understand that concept of radical acceptance, that you can be imperfect and still be loveable; that you are perfectly imperfect, and that everyone is just doing the best they can.
This layer invites you to cultivate a sense of who you are, your values, and the importance of walking within your integrity. That this is the path home and the golden key to equanimity.
Here you learn to bring the habit of taking a pause, practicing discernment, choosing response over-reactivity, and integrating this wisdom into your practical life using the mind, body, and energy layers.
Prompt: When I choose to believe that everyone is doing the best they can, inner peace is easier to attain.
A Personal Intervention Practice To Play With:
Press Pause. Take 5 rounds of balanced, slow breaths.
Practice Discernment: what are the facts?
Practice Empathy: What are the alternate perspectives?
Practice Awareness of Others: If another person is involved in this situation
The fifth layer – Anandamaya Kosha -Bliss
This state often refers to reaching enlightenment. Let's focus on something more attainable- feeling bliss and equanimity. It’s our most subtle layer and bridges us with our higher Self. Being in your heart is one way of inviting joy and bliss to enter your life. We were born to know this layer of us. Bliss layer, pure happiness, the peace when just experiencing what is.
An Invitation: Go on a treasure hunt for “glimmers”. Open yourself to the awareness of awe, and allow yourself to capture moments of joy and bliss in the everyday. See your world through the eyes of a tourist to your life and the lens of gratitude. Such practices nourish this layer.
The Yogic Koshas, an idea that 5 layers of our progressively subtler bodies compose our whole self, offers us a framework for ways to unbridle ourselves from where we are stuck physically, energetically, mentally, and emotionally, with practice guide and training us to be able to recognise pure bliss when it happens and be able to spend more of our time feeling bliss in everyday, ordinary, extraordinary lives. Using this framework as a map for introspection and intervention, over time can become a life practice, helping us enjoy the true health of wholeness. The koshas can be used as a map to within, for any homeward-bound traveler feeling a little lost.