Fourth Niyama - Svadhyaya

Have you ever been upset and found yourself reaching for a journal or calling a close friend, just to work through your feelings? Often, your frustration abates without finding a solution to the problem, per se, but instead the inner peace comes from digging deeper into your feelings and discovering something about yourself.

The fourth Niyama, Svadhyaya, means “self study.” It comes from the terms “sva,” meaning “self,” and “adhyaya,” which means “examination” or “inquiry.” To achieve Svadhyaya, we must make a conscious effort to find self-awareness in every activity we perform.


Svadhyaya causes us to be centered and grounded in our experiences, good and bad. To seek self-awareness in the face of challenge is an important part of working toward Svadhyaya. Understandably, this can be difficult – when we are under stress and facing hardship, it can be very challenging to reflect on ourselves to find a deeper meaning among the frustration and chaos. Like mentioned earlier, however, many times a bit of introspection helps us to work through feelings of frustration to move past them. I think of this as trying to find a life lesson or learn more about myself when I am feeling negative emotions.

In order to work toward Svadhyaya, you can keep a journal to keep track of your daily life and write down daily introspection and deeper understanding of yourself. You can also spend time reading books or listening to meditations that help you explore yourself.

As humans, we are so frequently ruled by ego and overreactions. Consider the fact that your perceptions color everything that happens to you. For example, perhaps a guest at Thanksgiving dinner made a comment that a dish you prepared was a little off – too salty, not spicy enough, too dry, too soft. To you, that comment can so easily fly through you and be perceived as a harsh attack on your skills and abilities when in reality, the truth is that you tried a new recipe for the first time and didn't know how it would turn out. By self-reflecting about the truth of the situation instead of the perceptions and associated negative reactions, one who has achieved Svadhyaya might understand that it was a simple comment about one dish – it might even be a comment you agree with!

If you find yourself offended by something someone says to you, reflect and take the opportunity to explore the reasons why this outside force on your life has upset you. I sometimes find myself feeling hurt when someone calls out anything I perceive as a flaw or worry in my own life. It's like having a mosquito bite. Until you notice it, it doesn't bother you very much, but once you notice it the first time, you can't stop scratching it. When someone else notices something I perceive as a flaw about myself, it's like scratching at a bite. Only by examining and reflecting on my fears and perceptions can I fully understand why I feel the way I feel. And usually, this period of introspection helps me move past the temporary pain of an offhand comment and find peace.

Svadhyaya can also help us to identify self-destructive activities in our lives. Perhaps you over-spend or over-eat as a means of coping with a negative force in your life. Rather than reflect on the cause of your upset, you find yourself “self-medicating” with food, buying things, or other “symptom” behaviors – such activities can cause you to cause bodily and financial harm to yourself and can go so far as running up massive debt, gambling, or even abusing drugs or alcohol. By examining the truth behind these self-destructive behaviors, you can address the root cause instead of trying to stop the symptom behaviors without fully understanding what is causing you to act on the impulses.

A similar self-reflection should be performed whenever you are challenged in your yoga practice with new poses. Attempting a pose will not be perfect every time. You will stumble. You will need something to help you balance. You will get a leg cramp. By self-reflecting, you can understand that you are making progress and improving despite your challenges. In fact, your challenges are an opportunity to practice and become better next time.

Remember the previous Niyamas. In this event of a challenging yoga pose, Sauca teaches us to maintain purity of mind as we practice and improve. We cleanse our minds of negative self-talk. Santosa teaches us to be content with the progress that we have achieved, even if we are not perfect. Tapas teaches us to be disciplined in our habits and continue to seek improvement and achieve goals. Adding Svadhyaya to the mix means that we must build on these pillars of self-love and self-awareness to understand that we are doing the best that we can and that meeting a challenge is not a character flaw and not a defeat.