The second limb of the 8 Limb Path of Yoga - Niyamas
I previously wrote a separate blog post for each of the five Yamas, but to be honest - it felt like a bit much. So I’m practicing Aparigraha by letting go of my expectations on Brahmacharya by using my energy more wisely in this singular post for the Niyamas.
If you’re an athlete, executive, musician, artist, or perfectionist, you already know what pressure feels like. The pre-game nerves that won’t settle. The unread messages in your inbox that follow you to bed. The recital that goes well, but leaves you feeling hollow. The sense that you’re only as good as your last performance.
Much of the conversation about these experiences focuses on what you should do: push harder, sleep less, think more positively. Yoga offers a different starting point. The eight-limb path of yoga includes the Niyamas, five personal observances that describe how we relate to ourselves from the inside out. Where the Yamas ask how we treat others and the world, the Niyamas ask how we treat ourselves.
As a licensed clinical professional counselor and registered yoga teacher, I use the Niyamas in my yoga-informed psychotherapy practice to address performance anxiety, burnout, and chronic stress. Here is how they show up in therapy.
I also refer to the Yamas Niyamas in my personal life. I practice Saucha with Aparigraha when I clean without grasping onto "spotless,” Santosha with Brahmacharya to find contentment with moderation to prevent complacency, Svadhyaya with Satya to be honest with myself when I reflect on my choices, and so on. I’ll elaborate below with case examples and more personal examples.
1. Saucha (Purity and Clarity)
Saucha refers to cleanliness and clarity, both physical and mental. It invites us to reduce the clutter that keeps our nervous systems activated, including our environments, our schedules, and our thoughts.
For people in high-pressure environments, saucha often means noticing how much stimulation they carry through the day. Constant notifications, unfinished tasks, and rehearsing future conversations all keep the body in a state of alert. How are you supposed to discern what is urgent if everything seems to be urgent?
Therapy example: A touring VJ (visual artist for musical acts) came to therapy describing constant anxiety between shows. Her hotel room, bag, and phone were always in disarray, and her mind cluttered with new ideas amongst the never ending to-do list. We started with small practices of Saucha: a five-minute tidy of their belongings before bed, a phone-free window before sound check, and a brief breathing practice to clear the mental noise whenever she needed it. Over several weeks, she reported that her pre-performance anxiety felt more manageable because her environment and mind had less to compete for her attention.
For me, I practice Saucha by turning off my notifications and separating my personal to-do list from my professional list. The notifications seemed to demand my attention away from whatever I was doing and created clutter in my mind, and putting everything on one list didn’t simplify things - it made it overwhelming. Sure, I try to keep my desk clear and my home clean, but the clutter in my mind is where Saucha becomes impactful for me.
2. Santosha (Contentment)
Santosha is the practice of finding contentment with what is, while still caring about what could be. It is not complacency. It is the ability to receive satisfaction from what you have built, rather than only moving to the next goal.
For perfectionists and high-achievers, santosha can feel uncomfortable. Pausing to appreciate a win can feel like lowering your standards. Yet without it, achievement never feels like enough, and burnout becomes the default.
Therapy example: An executive who had led several successful product launches described feeling “empty” after each milestone. Within hours, she was already fixated on the next target. In therapy, we indirectly explored Santosha by setting aside a few minutes after each success to name what went well and notice how her body felt. She began to recognize that contentment or satisfaction was not something that could only be felt when everything was completely accomplished. It was something she could practice now, and it helped interrupt the cycle of chronic striving that had been fueling her anxiety. She started keeping an ongoing list of “wins” that brought her a moment of calm every time she added to it before jumping into the next project.
I’ll be honest, the list of “wins” was an offering to this client based on my personal experience. I keep a journal of “wins” that I add to every night. Three “wins” from the day, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant. Sometimes, showering makes the list. This is a form of a gratitude practices that has helped me feel content with my day, even when it’s just an average day. I no longer see “average” as bad or insignificant.
3. Tapas (Disciplined Effort)
Tapas is often translated as discipline or heat. It is the commitment to showing up for your practice, your growth, and your healing, even when it is difficult. Tapas is not the same as punishing yourself through relentless effort. When it is rooted in care, it builds resilience rather than depletion. It’s persistence.
Many athletes, artists, and musicians have a strong relationship with Tapas, sometimes to the point of harm. Training through injury, practicing until hands bleed, or pushing past exhaustion can look like dedication from the outside while quietly fueling burnout.
Therapy example: A former collegiate-level athlete came to therapy after acknowledging his baseline included anxiety and poor sleep. He saw discipline as the only path to success, and rest as weakness, whether we were talking about their gym workouts or their work ethic in the office. We worked to redefine Tapas as consistent, sustainable effort rather than constant force. We expanded the definition of “consistent” to mean “regular” rather than “rigid.” He began building recovery into his training, practiced breath work before big presentations at work, and learned to distinguish between productive discomfort and the warning signs of overtraining (he wasn’t competing anymore and was having a hard time letting go of his former collegiate-level training). His performance anxiety and chronic stress decreased once he trusted that rest was part of the work.
I struggled with Tapas in my personal fitness journey after graduating college. Retiring as a life-long competitive athlete and becoming an exerciser for the sake of health and wellness was a real challenge for me. Without a coach directing me or a team depending on me, every trip to the gym seemed pointless for a bit. So I stopped going for a while. And that made it really hard to stay consistent when I decided I was ready to get back at it. Even now, I negotiate and argue with myself every morning to remind myself that yes, I do want to go to the gym and yes, it really is worth it.
4. Svadhyaya (Self-Study)
Svadhyaya means self-study or self-reflection. It invites us to examine our patterns, beliefs, and reactions with curiosity. The key word is curiosity. Svadhyaya is not self-criticism wearing a different outfit.
Perfectionists often practice self-study, but as a form of self-attack. They analyze every mistake, search for evidence that they are not good enough, and then use that evidence to justify more pressure. Svadhyaya asks us to look at the same patterns with a different question: “What is this part of me trying to protect?”
Therapy example: A choreographer who struggled with creative block described their harsh inner critic that appeared the moment he began a new piece. His therapy work included Svadhyaya in the form of gentle inquiry: When did this critic first appear? What was it protecting him from? How was it trying to keep him safe? Over time, he began to hear the critic as a frightened voice rather than a verdict on his talent. His anxiety around creative work softened, and he was able to make art again without bracing for judgment at every step.
I contemplate Svadhyaya when I find myself feeling irritable or franticly stressed. I try to ask myself, “What am I really feeling underneath this frustration/stress? What does that emotiol actually need right now? What am I really looking for or asking for?” This compassionate approach helps me slow down and really reflect on how I’m feeling and how I can move through things differently (really, more peacefully).
5. Ishvara Pranidhana (Surrender)
Ishvara pranidhana is often translated as surrender or devotion to something greater than oneself. For many people, this language may not fit, and that is okay. In a therapy context, it can be understood as releasing the belief that everything depends on your own control, and trusting the process of growth.
For professionals in high-pressure enviornments, this practice can be one of the most difficult concepts to consider. Control often feels like the only thing keeping anxiety at bay. Yet constant control is exhausting, and it leaves little room for rest, collaboration, or trust.
Therapy example: An attorney came to therapy describing a belief that if she did not personally oversee every detail, something would fall apart. She described feeling responsible for everyone’s outcomes and difficulty sleeping or calming down after work. In sessions, we explored what it would mean to share responsibility and trust her colleagues and her own capacity (which included limitations because she’s only human). Gradually, she began to experience surrender not as giving up, but as a way of conserving energy for the work that truly mattered.
Surrender is a choice. Our choices are how we demonstrate control. In a cyclical way, choosing to let go of control is a rare form of control that we actually hold. One of my favorite phrases is, “It will work out, some way even if we don’t know which way and somehow even if we don’t know how yet.”
How the Niyamas Support Recovery
The Niyamas do not ask you to become someone else. They invite you to build a more sustainable relationship with yourself. When clients begin to practice tidiness, contentment, disciplined care, self-study, and surrender, they often notice that performance anxiety softens, burnout begins to lift, and pressure no longer dictates every decision.
In yoga-informed psychotherapy, these practices are paired with evidence-based approaches such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and internal family systems (IFS). Together, they address both thought patterns and the nervous system’s stress response.
Whether you are a musician preparing for a performance, an executive navigating a demanding role, an athlete returning from injury, an artist searching for creative flow, or a perfectionist tired of never feeling enough, the Niyamas offer a grounded place to begin.
Want to learn more about how yoga-informed psychotherapy works? Explore my approach at takecarepsych.com/yoga.
Ready to talk about what you’re carrying? You can reach out to schedule a consultation at takecarepsych.com/get-started.I