SWIHA Blog

Journaling is about creating clarity, prioritizing your energy, and provides an opportunity for positive self-talk. It is also an amazing way to see how much you’ve grown, changes in mindset, and your progress toward your goals.

Through documenting our thoughts and feelings, we advance our self-awareness and self-control. It gives us the ability to analyze how we are currently showing up in the world and provides us the opportunity to feel empowered in our decisions.

Consider these 10 ways below on how to utilize journaling as Svadhyaya, or self-reflection, either through life, or especially during your experience of going through Yoga Teacher Training. Ultimately, your journal is a place to practice vulnerability and honesty, and bring that in to the world to truly live yoga!

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Topics: Gratitude, yoga, Mindfulness, journaling, Yoga Teacher Training, Yoga Sutras, Arizona, YTT, Tempe, Yogi, yoga teacher, Sacred Space, Holistic Education, Ahimsa, Self-Awareness, Gratitude Journal, My Spirit of Yoga, Svadhyaya, Self-Control, Principles of Yoga, Alter, Satya, Self-Reflection

Yoga means union: The union of oneself and the divine source; the union of mind, body and spirit; the union of your internal Self with the self that manifests in the world. Yoga is not intended to be a passive practice of self-mastery, it’s a system for living that provides us with an ethical framework — the Yamas and Niyamas — for how we should treat ourselves, and how we should treat others.

The first pillar in this framework is Ahimsa (nonviolence or non-harming) which is often used to justify veganism as the standard diet for yogis. Stopping here makes ahimsa a one-dimensional practice focused on reducing violence against some beings (animals), while failing to look at the broader picture of reducing our harmful impact within society.

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Topics: yoga, Yoga Sutras, Social Justice, Ahimsa, Yoga Philosophy