YAMA & NIYAMA FOR MENOPAUSE

Yoga has so many different forms.

It has become so complex, glamourous and almost fashionable in the modern world. Yoga has only one goal (higher stage of being) but with all the different paths to that one goal sometimes it is possible to lose sight of what that goal is.

The most common visual that comes to mind when we hear the word "yoga" is a physical practice. Someone in "asana" aka a posture. However there are so many other more powerful aspects of yoga that help us in understanding ourselves and moving us towards a higher life.

As someone going through peri-menopause and menopause, we are coerced into looking at ourselves and understanding what is going on in our body and mind. It is a great opportunity and a time in our life that we can to get to know ourselves intimately and give ourselves the opportunity to reach our true potential.

How can yoga help us do this?

Apart from the physical practice part of yoga, we have to understand the philosophy that yoga is based on. One of the best scriptures on the philosophy of yoga are The Yoga Sutras.

A Sutra in its literal sense is a thread. The 196 Yoga Suras are beautifully crafted beads of wisdom that the great Sage Patanjali scripted a long time ago, around the same time or just after the time of Buddha. The Sutras might be called verses but that would be taking away from the creativity, elegance and poetry of the craftsman who invites the reader in a continuous flow of thought to believe and see beyond the senses and beyond the mind.

The Yoga Sutra scriptures, are 4 chapters, that are the most precise and scientific text on yoga to attain Samadhi : a state of ecstatic existence or Self Realisation.

Now, you might be thinking, Self Realisation?? this is all getting too over the top. While Self Realisation might not be something that most of us even begin to understand, what the Sutras also provide is an 8 step path to harmonise the mind and start to become one with ourselves. Now that sounds rather doable does it not? may even be something we desire, deep down inside our hearts?

The 8 limbs of Yoga as these are commonly known as are:

Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyan and Samadhi.

Understanding these 8 steps or limbs gives us an appreciation of the vastness of the subject and science that is yoga. The physical part of the practice is just a small aspect of the whole. Just doing the practice on the mat (which is also amazing of course) is not enough, we have to look at our life as a whole. Same as we do when we are going through peri-menopause and menopause.

In its simplest form, the 8 limbs mean:

Yama: Social Codes of conduct

Niyama: Personal codes of conduct

Asana: Physical yoga practice

Pranayam: Breath awareness and expansion

Pratyahar: Sense withdrawal

Dharana: One Pointedness

Dhyan: Meditation

Samadhi: Higher state of consciousness

In this blog, I want to explore the first two: the Yamas and Niyamas because they are easy to understand. They are guidelines that allow us to reflect on our lifestyle and give us an insight into the life we are living. You will for sure recognise some of these common codes of conduct that we already have in our society no matter where in the world we live.

This is my take on how the Yamas and Niyamas can help us as we go through peri-meno and menopause.

YAMAS

Social codes that we need to follow to live in society harmoniously (with ourselves and with others).

Ahimsa - Non Violence

The first Yama is non-violence. Ahimsa is not in the Gandhian style of non-violence of showing the other cheek. Its about having absolutely no negativity in ourselves towards anything. Easier said than done? But imagine if that were possible. How much more peace there would be, within ourselves and in the world.

How can we bring about non-violence and remove negativity within ourselves, especially as we go through the rages of hormonal changes. Yoga teaches us to watch our thoughts, emotions and feelings. Not to suppress but to detach and observe. As we watch patterns of what triggers us we train our brain to stop reacting and manage responses.

Satya - Truthfulness

As we get older, we being to understand the true nature of ourselves and the people around us. We move away from playing games, wearing veils of deceit, masks of personalities and being true to ourselves. Or do we? This Yama of truthfulness can help us to reflect on this so that we whole heartedly accept who we are growing into. Traits, personality, wrinkles, sags and all. Do we truly accept and love who we are becoming? By doing so, we become happy and content within ourselves and our relationships improve. By accepting who we are, we also inspire people around us especially the youth in our lives.

Asteya - Non Stealing

I'm really hoping here that you as a reader do not have any Kleptomania tendencies. But stealing can happen in so many subtle ways. In our context of peri-meno and menopause, non-stealing comes in the form of what you are taking away from your loved ones. As we go through this major change in our lives, we can become quite different people to what we used to be. Sometimes our loving caring attitude towards the people around us can change as we become irritable and snappy. The common symptoms of insomnia and exhaustion take control on deciding whether we are fully present for our family and loved ones. But we need to take matters back into our own hands. We have to put self care and our health at the top of our priority list. We have to keep our cup filled up so that we don't steal away the attention, service and care our loved ones deserve from us.

Bhrahmacharya - Non Lust

This might seem a bit paradoxical when we are going through peri-menopause and menopause as one of the common symptoms is losing interest in sex. We can laugh about the fact that this might be one of those codes that we can quite easily ace without having to do anything. But, Bhramacharya for a householder is not just about sex and how much or how little. It means not being totally obsessed by the idea and thought of sex and lust. It also means having a healthy relationship towards sex and implies that we fulfil our roles as partners and lovers in a relationship. So in this regard, I would say, are we working towards finding solutions and having a loving relationship with our partners so that we are not tormented by the idea of not being able to or wanting to have a normal sex life.

Aparigraha - Non Hoarding

In todays world everything seems to be materialistic. We want the best of everything for ourselves and our loved ones. And that is not be wrong, especially as we are working hard to achieve a certain standard of living. By the time we get to the age of perimenopause we have accumulated quite a lot of our favourite things. It is okay to enjoy them and other luxuries in life. It is only when we have enjoyed luxuries, fulfilled our desires and pleasures that we start seeking happiness and fulfilment that goes beyond these material things. Another thing that we have hoarded up by the time we get into our 40s and 50s are habits and routines. Can we find a level of detachment from the things we possess? Are we un-settled if we cannot do our perfected morning routine or can we let things pass?

The Yamas are there to help us reflect on where we are in our life. Our relationships with others and what we can do, small acts of introspection, small changes to improve our experiences and connections with others.

NIYAMAS

Codes for our personal use that help us thrive, understand ourselves and to harmonise our inner feelings.

Soucha - Cleanliness

Cleanliness can come in various forms. My dad would always remind us of the quote "inner cleanliness comes first". He was referring to our bowel movement when we were little. Of course that is important and purity of our internal physical system and gut health becomes a very critical factor in how severe our menopause symptoms are. Another way to look at cleanliness is to think about decluttering. Decluttering the house, our life, our relationships and most importantly decluttering our mind and thoughts. As we go through menopause we can go through bouts of feeling quite bitter about life in general. This bitterness can seep in to us if we don't keep it in check. We have to drop trivialities, choose our battles, focus on the important stuff. Another way to declutter the mind from negativity is by bringing gratitude into our thoughts as often as we can.

Santosha - Contentment

Oscar Wilde said "True contentment is not having everything but in being satisfied in everything you have". Yoga teaches us that dissatisfaction is one of the biggest causes of making the mind ill and depressed. It causes us to pretend and live in false identities. Being unhappy with who we are can unknowingly put veils and complexes on us that eventually bring us even further unhappiness. Learning to be content with what we have and who we are brings us peace of mind and happiness that is exceptional. Being content with who we are allows us to step into our true potential and power.

Tapa - Austerity

Adopting an austerity as we go through menopause brings us clarity. It gives us the internal strength and the discipline we need to get through. Tapa brings about a sense of achievement and gives us purpose and drive. Choosing the right Tapa that will benefit us during menopause and also impact the severity of the symptoms is important. An austerity can be getting up before everyone else in the household and spending some time doing yoga and meditating. Though this seems more like a luxury, it can be really difficult to do especially when the night has been a bad one with hot flashes and insomnia. A few other examples that can strengthen the mind and also bring us benefits to cope with menopause are:

Giving up alcohol

Having cold showers

Intermittent fasting

Giving up meat

Choose what you think you can achieve and take it slowly.

Svadhyaya - Self study

Self study in the yoga sutra is awareness and study of self to get a deeper connection to the your true self. It can mean studying scriptures to increasing knowledge. This self study can be a game changer in how we experience peri and menopause. Journaling your menopause journey, thoughts, diets and symptoms help us see patterns. It gives us a deeper understanding of what our body is going through. Spending time researching and learning about the changes in our body, menstrual cycle and brain gives us a sense of empowerment because we can find solutions and do something about it. It is an act of self respect.

Ishwar Pranidhan - Surrender to a higher entity.

The simplest explanation I can provide for how Patanjali describes "Ishwar" (which means God in Sanskrit) is a special soul, untouched by samskaras (mental impressions based on past lives & actions), afflictions and death. This special soul resides within each of us. Accepting even just the concept and idea that we can access and shine bright from our special self is surrender enough. For us to understand and contemplate that there is something greater than us, requires us to keep our ego in check. It requires us to believe and open our hearts and minds. This believing, can affect the way we live. It can make us introspective, tuning inwards. It brings a sense of calm and a meaning to the life we are living.

The Yamas and Niyamas are a great checklist for us to review our lifestyle on a regular basis. It gives us a chance to introduce small changes in the areas under our control. It also makes us mindful of each of our actions. We begin to weave gratitude into our life and cultivate an aware state of being.

We can do as much of the asana practice as we want to, and that is great. But the Yamas and Niyamas bring ethics into our life and lay the foundation for our practice. This is the real yoga off the mat that give us a lens into to our true selves and provide the solid grounding for us to reach our true potential. .

with gratitude,

Purnima

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