Episode 04 - What are the 8 limbs of yoga and what do they mean for daily living?
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SHOW NOTES
What are the 8 limbs of yoga and what do they mean for daily living?
IN THIS EPISODE:
Tiffany Russo Yoga
Tiffany Russo is a yoga teacher, mentor, trainer/educator, athlete and world traveler (an advocate of real connection….). She believes that connection creates change and the most important connection to cultivate is the one that we have with ourselves. On this episode she talks about the eight limbs of yoga from Patanjali’s yoga sutras. They are:
Yama (attitudes toward our environment)
Niyama (attitudes toward ourselves)
Asana (physical postures)
Pranayama (restraint or expansion of the breath)
Pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses)
Dharana (concentration)
Dhyana (meditation)
Samadhi (complete integration)
We discuss:
How you teach and work in these subtle ways of acknowledging the sutras like truth and perception, linking breath to movement, how we set our intentions and what we notice about ourselves.
How do you recognize the eight limbs as a teacher?
Is the order of the eight limbs important?
How the eight limbs can teach us about traffic and everyday life.
Our journey to consciousness, and more.
Listen, watch, enjoy!
TRANSCRIPTS
Monica Phillips (00:46):
Welcome to yoga philosophy for everyday living. I'm so honored to have my yoga mentor here with us today. Tiffany Russo, you've been so extraordinary in my yoga journey. So thank you for that.
Tiffany Russo (01:34):
Thank you for trusting me through the part of the process.
Monica Phillips (01:36):
It's so hard to put into words, but I'm grateful just the way you show up and see people is extraordinary. And you know, I work as a coach and that my job is to hold space for people and I watch you do it. And I'm like, that's extraordinary. Ultimately it's why I decided to be certified in yoga. And, what I learned from it is - coaching is yoga and how you notice people and like what you see, it's all yoga connection, helping people become more of who they are.
(02:08):
Absolutely.
(02:08):
Tiffany you've been teaching for how long? 20 something years.
Tiffany Russo (02:16):
I don't know if I hit 20 yet. Definitely. It feels like on the 15 side of things.
Monica Phillips (02:23):
Yeah. You're a smartflow yoga teacher and a yoga teacher trainer. Obviously. That's how I get to be with you through YogaWorks and you're my mentor and mentor others. And then you also lead level two, three classes on yoga works and you teach private lessons. So that's how people can find you in the notes below. We're going to talk about the eight limbs of yoga. That's the key part of what I'm covering in this podcast and how to demystify. What is yoga? Is it for me? How do I practice? What are these eight limbs? And the reason I decided to focus on that glimpse is ultimately because it's more than ardachandrasana right, and it's more than down dog. It's not just in the body. I find that more and more people know that. And there's still so much room to learn how that makes a difference for us every day, how we show up in the world,
Tiffany Russo (03:16):
The eight limbs are a guide. If you will, or a guideline and a support system for how we want to live our lives as humans, as individuals, right, as yogis. However, we want to label ourselves. But in labeling ourselves, I think there is a responsibility to show up in the world for ourselves, for our partners on the mat, on the meditation cushion. And I think the eight limbs give us baselines. They're not, Oh, got it. Nailed it. I can move on. Nailed it. I can remove on it's you continue to come back to it. You continue to unravel. You continue to dive deeper in. And of course, everything as is, life is intertwined. So are they eight limbs of yoga, right? Will we ever arrive to somebody maybe we already have in brief moments in Shavasana or in meditation? And again, I don't know if we check all of the boxes when we arrived to the eighth limb, will we unveil the princess in the dragon castle? As I sometimes joke about they're interesting moments to kind of step on and observe.
Monica Phillips (04:40):
I think it's important to note too, that they limbs are Patanjali's guide to yoga. I think most of yoga has adapted that hatha yoga more often refers to six limbs. I've heard different variations of this journey, but ultimately they all kind of encompass the same things, right? The yamas and niyamas, Asana, pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, dhiyana, and samadhi.
(05:02):
Nice job!
(05:02):
Thanks! (I've learned something. Yes! (laughter)) So you're also going to talk about the niyamas with us and self-study, but let's talk about just maybe what each of those are. And I love what you said about intertwining, because it is really important to think we recognize each of them. And then we come back to each of them and it's not linear, it's expansive and circular. And we grow in each one. I think when I coach I do this exercise around the wheel of life. The wheel is not always round. Sometimes we're lacking in some areas and we have to look at like, where do we want those areas to expand, to help it become round? And so we come into this yoga journey and maybe we have a really great Asana practice and we can touch our head to our foot, you know, but we have a shallow breath. There are all these different layers. What are you really getting out of it if you're flexible, but not aware.
Tiffany Russo (06:01):
Right. And how do you define flexibility? I love that idea of a wheel, or when you said that I was thinking of a pie, right?
Monica Phillips (06:08):
It sounds pretty good right now.
Tiffany Russo (06:20):
If you talk about the wheel of life or the wheel in the eight limbs. If we're only focusing on the Asana piece, then that's just a little sliver of all of the opportunity to become this whole experience. Why not enjoy the whole pie?
Monica Phillips (06:39):
And if you don't, it's really uneven. As I've learned so much about you, as we said, not flexibility, but stability. How do you get stability? If you have only one part of the wheel, right? It's like the old memes where the people are riding cars on square tires and before they learn how to make them round. So it's really hard to push because you haven't completed the circle.
Tiffany Russo (07:08):
Right. And those cogs in the circle. So I heard, and I could be wrong that sukha, which means sweet, right. As we know, that sweet wheel, that sweet ride. So if we were to have a loose cog in our wheel, it would be Dukkha right. Which is not sweet. So we would have that uneven ride. And so back to the pie, we need balanced wheels.
Monica Phillips (07:40):
Yeah. Steve Martin, co-wrote this book, all these great examples that are maybe not the way they seem. And I think that's, what's relevant. There's this one that he writes about Sisyphus pushing the wheel up the Hill and he shows the example of what we think it is. And he's like, Oh my gosh, it's so hard. I worked forever. It's so rough. And it's what it actually is. He works 35 hour weeks. It's not like this. It's like this. He actually goes home every night comes back. He actually gets paid to do this. I guess it goes on and on. It's hilarious. I was thinking that things aren't always as they seem and these stories we tell ourselves become untrue.
Tiffany Russo (08:23):
And the stories are only colored by the experience that we had prior to this experience. Right? And I think we talked about this the other night in our group, whatever experience we had, whatever memory we have is how we fill in the blanks, how we answer the questions that the mind is trying to decipher. And so maybe in a way Patanjali's eight limbs are another way to keep us on the path towards somebody so that we don't get distracted by memory or perception.
Monica Phillips (09:06):
Right! What if it is the practice? The eight limbs allow us to focus our efforts to gain awareness of our bodies and our breath to draw within to Pratyahara to then reach Samadhi. Because otherwise, if we're just trying to achieve something it's hard and then we don't enjoy this process and we lose clarity on how we get there.
Tiffany Russo (09:37):
Yeah. So you take the first limb of the eight limbs, right? The yamas, and that's our relationship to the outside world. Well, if we were to go in order, if you will observing how we are in relationship with other people, our surroundings, when we go to the grocery store, how we react when someone cuts us off on the freeway, all of these moments of observing when our person is out in the world, how do we relate with others? And that moment of just observing is one of the great pieces of yoga practice is to just notice,
Monica Phillips (10:18):
I was just thinking this, because I was going to ask you about the order, right. And we've kind of already clarified that the order is not linear. And so then the other side of yamas and niyamas, how do I see myself? And you really need both because how we see others is also so often reflected in how we see ourselves. I think of this, like I hardly ever drive anymore. And so it's become easier, but still driving has always been stressful for me. I live in the Bay area. People are not always so kind on the road. They feel like, Oh, I'm hiding in my car. No one can see me. I can do things that I wouldn't normally do at home. No, people do see you. They recognize the stickers on your car. They know who you are. They're gonna pull up behind you in the grocery store lot.
(10:59):
Right. And be like, you totally cut me off. And I think like, I've been that person who's cut someone off. I probably didn't mean it. I don't usually go around driving like, Oh, like, let me get in front of you. Right. But sometimes I'm just in my zone and I don't necessarily see everything. I make mistakes too, as I'm human. And so I think for me, then that helps me go, I've totally been that person who's Oh, I'm supposed to be in the right lane. I'm in the left lane. We need to get across four lanes. And I just go, yeah, go ahead. And you know what, maybe they just want to be in front of me. It just didn't matter. No, but we have so much judgment on the road that I can't let you in front of me. There'll be a car. Like, I don't know. Is it that important? And then I think if someone else is really in a hurry, I don't know why they're in a hurry and it's not really for me to know, but they feel like they need to be somewhere. And I don't, I'm good driving 65. So I'll let them go ahead.
Tiffany Russo (11:48):
Our distraction of getting caught up in who they are and where they are and why they are, is completely pulling us off of the present moment. Right. Right. So now we've just gone and created a story that doesn't even exist in today.
Monica Phillips (12:01):
I've heard this from people. Why does that person have to, I don't know, how do you know what they have to do or not? We don't know. And we don't know what they've experienced in their lives. And it doesn't even matter if we know or don't know, maybe they've just been completely blessed and they still feel like they need to pull in front of us doesn't matter. Right. And instead of fighting that allow it,
Tiffany Russo (12:26):
I love what you said about, well, sometimes I've been the one that's cut someone off, right? So it's not like the niyamas, if you will, are this way of pointing your finger and judging at somebody, it's just observing our reactions and then we can turn it around and observe our own reactions to our own self. And it's not about judgment. I love that. You said that it's not about trying to be perfect because like you said, we're all gonna make mistakes and then laughing and observing the mistake and being like, it's okay. We're still here. No one's hurt. I think the courtesy wave, when you're driving goes a very long way, if you accidentally cut somebody off, you give the courtesy wave and they should teach it in driving school.
Monica Phillips (13:17):
For a long time. I thought, wouldn't it be great to have some kind of lettering or announcement thing that other cars can see? Like, Hey, I actually don't live here and I really am not trying to be a jerk, but I didn't know I was supposed to be in the second from the right lane when I turned left. Cause we don't get that privilege of communicating the same way we were in our cars.
Tiffany Russo (13:35):
But people driving in cars is not about connection.
Monica Phillips (13:38):
No, no. You have this way of teaching that I absolutely love. And you did it recently in the class and I love how you have this language that is very welcoming and allowing to notice. So we're talking about, can you, with our legs on the ground, can you flex your toes and bring your hamstring to the floor first? Like I can't do it yet. I don't know, by the way, I don't know if it's possible for anyone, it's not possible in my body yet. But what I love about that is this power of noticing and this power of letting go of the outcome. I think this is kind of how I see the eight limbs. We're trying to get to some enlightenment, to a state of awareness really. And what if we just noticed our hamstring?
Tiffany Russo (14:31):
Well, if noticing the hamstrings versus the outcome, we're actually in this moment versus the goal or the outcome, right? I give a lot of credit to my teacher, Annie Carpenter, who is the creator of the smartflow methodology. And it is all about the curiosity. It is all about the inquiry. So it's not this sharp definitive answer, but what happens if can we, and also, and a lot of that is Sutra 1:12, which is abhyasa and vairagya right? Abhyasa is the practice piece and vairagya, which you talked about, is the letting go piece, right? Or someone else in our group talked about non-attachment, right?
Monica Phillips (15:19):
Exactly. Non-attachment is not detachment. It's very different. And it's powerful to think of the difference because non-attachment is noticing and allowing detachment is not disengaged, actually engaged. Tell me, how do you see the limits for you personally?
Tiffany Russo (15:40):
I'm not sure it's something that I look at every day and go, okay, put on your sweatshirt and make sure that we hit all of the pieces. But the more that we're in this practice, the more that we make it a lifestyle, the more it becomes a part of who we are off the mat, off the cushion. And also while we're practicing right, the observance piece of it. But I think, you know, in relationship with others, I use the grocery store as a perfect example because it's one we're in close quarters with strangers in their world. They're in our world and someone's cart is running into yours and you're dealing with the essential workers and they've had a long day. And I just think kindness goes so far, right? We said earlier, being aware of everyone else and not needing to know their story, but knowing that they have a story just like we do.
(16:39):
And maybe one day it's like really just about checking in with the self, right? Like as I shared with you before we started recording, my practice today was very off balance and then I dropped myself into child's pose and even just dropping into child's pose without child's pose being called has power and strength in that. And taking a moment to just honor what is coming up and being okay with that. And in the yoga sutras that we talk about, Asana only has three of the 197 sutras. So if our pie is really, really uneven, then we're not getting the whole wheel of life. I think the practice of asana at least in the Western side of the world gets us into our body, right? It gets us feeling, gets us connecting to the sensations. And I think it's from that place, then we can sit down and get still and get quiet. And then in that place of quiet, the senses start to fall away. So we use the senses to connect and then as we dive deeper, can we actually start to release the senses? And it's not that we're detaching if you will, but rather - I hear, but I'm not attached. I can touch and sense, but I'm not distracted, but it starts to get subtler and subtler. Oh I get chills. And then we just get deeper and deeper into this kind of single focus, contemplative, calm. And then we're levitating.
Monica Phillips (18:13):
Sounds amazing. I like this expression. We show up to our practice with the body we have in that moment, not what we had yesterday, not what we're going to have tomorrow. And you had asked us in our mentor group, what is the pose that you miss, that you used to be able to do that you can't do anymore? I think it's so great. Like noticing even injuries that I've had and how I can now understand pain better for someone else, because I've felt it and I've acknowledged it. And when I teach someone who can't do a pose, but they want to that helping them get to non-attachment of that pose. So wanting it, but then letting go of it, freeing it, the power to take a child's pose. When that hasn't been called to say, I'm honoring my body. That's a self-study, which we're going to talk about together next, but that honor noticing what do I need in this moment?
Tiffany Russo (19:03):
The accepting piece of that. It changes every day and that these poses, these Asana opposes aren't ours, but yet we borrow them for who knows how long and some poses we borrow a little bit longer than other poses. And sometimes the poses actually change before we were actually ready for them to change. Or is it poses are always the same, but we're changing because we are.
Monica Phillips (19:28):
Even the North American continent has shifted almost four feet since the time I was born. Yeah. See it or feel it.
(19:35):
Where are we going?
(19:37):
I think we're moving away from the European continent. We used to be connected, that Pangea is moving apart.
Tiffany Russo (19:46):
Wild. And then when is it going to be like when our children are older.
Monica Phillips (19:50):
This just struck me before inauguration, because it was pointed out that inauguration day was a palindrome. It was January 20, 2021, which is the same forwards and backwards. It was talking about all of the different palindromes and that it's happening several days in January 21, because it's 121 backwards. And then it also will happen in a thousand years. It was honestly the first time I've thought, what will people be like in 1000 years? Because I usually think, okay, in 20 years, what will your life be like when your grandkids get older in a thousand years, there's nothing here that we will know. And I actually had this really beautiful vision. People won't even be consumed by color of skin because there will be so many different colors of skin that actually will just fade away. And relevance will be so much more than that.
(20:49):
I think this conscious awareness will grow. We will not have the same national boundaries we have now. We'll have a more global universe of people. We'll have technology where languages will even matter because even if we don't speak, it will connect together. It's going to be so much more sophisticated. It could be if we allow it. I think sometimes we get afraid of change. We hold onto what we have because we don't want it to be something more. And we block this expansion of this universal conscious awareness that the universe wants to allow, but we, people are like, I'm afraid or I'm jealous or I'm angry, or I'm fearful. And I want to just hold onto this one little thing and we don't let ourselves let go. I think that's what I have discovered through yoga is this power of letting go.
Tiffany Russo (21:43):
It reminds me of the kleshas, the attachment to pleasure or the things that we want to push away. And I think we, your story reminds me of, if we had a bad experience, we definitely don't want to do it again. If we love something so dearly, we only want to do it again. And so this idea of change is unfamiliar to our past experiences from it. And so that's scary in itself.
Monica Phillips (22:10):
So how do the eight limbs help us move beyond that fear?
Tiffany Russo (22:15):
I think, I mean, they're a practice. It's an opportunity to be present versus getting pulled off by the mind chatter. It's slowly diving deeper and deeper into the more subtle layers and the curiosity and the interest of exploring so much more, getting deeper diving in. If we don't dive, if we don't stay curious, then we are just going to get caught up in the fear of the unknown, but to be aware with our eyes open and our breath calm in this moment, it's new and it's exciting and it's colorful.
Monica Phillips (22:54):
Yeah. That is how, and that was just an intro to the eight limbs. So I'm so glad you came to share this with us to explore how yoga is so much more. We're gonna come back with more on Niyamas.