Hopefully by now you understand what, why and how a Sadhana works from my previous articles — What is a Sadhana Practice & Guide to Starting a Sadhana Practice.

In this article, I am going to highlight my personal practice and takeaways if you are still on the fence, or need clarity.

Discovering my Goals

As I mentioned previously, the first step in this journey is understanding your goals. After taking some time to reflect & journal I narrowed down mine to the following:

To build “Tapas” — Sanskrit for “self-discipline”
Answers questions — Who am I? & What is my purpose here?
Connect mind, body & soul
Create stillness and focus in the mind
Embody teachings from the yoga texts

Defining Structure of Routine

Initially I started out with the aim to incorporate pranayama, mantra, meditation, & asana. After playing around, I landed on the following:

Asana with focus on the Chakras: 10 minutes
Pranayama, Nadi Shodhana: 5–10 minutes
Meditation with Drishti on 3rd eye: 10–20 minutes

With iteration I was able to nail down the above routine in a way that worked best for me.

In terms of the order for my practice, I typically practiced Asana first to get energy flowing, pranayama second to help expand that energy & meditation last when I felt grounded (and awake). However on days when I woke up cuddling with my snooze button…

the idea of jumping out of bed to do Asana at 6 AM seemed very unlikely. I would start with pranayama, followed by asana, then ease into meditation on these days.

Technique 1: Pranayama

Pranayama, breathing exercises, has recently gained popularity in the West due to its mental and physical benefits. I have seen these techniques practiced extensively at a young age when visiting my beautiful grandmother in Chandigarh — a city in India. Even at her age of 90, during a pandemic, she has kept one of the and sharpest minds I have ever seen.

What does this look like? You can check out the linked Nadi Shodhana Pranayama from Banyan Botanicals for instructions on this technique!

In Yoga Sutra 2.52, Patanjali writes:

Tata kshiyate prakasha avaranam

An interpretation of this is as a result (of pranayama), the covering that blocks our own inner light is reduced. Through the practice of pranayama, you can reduce all of the mental noise — the agitation, distractions, and self-doubt — that prevents you from connecting with your own inner light, your true Self.

Aligning with my goals of creating stillness, I decided to incorporate Nadi Shodhana, a technique associated with calming the nervous system.

Technique 2: Asana with Bija Mantra

What is she talking about? I know this one might be out of the typical thing in a yoga class so bear with me. I used this technique to align to my goal of connecting my mind, body & soul.

The 3 parts of this technique I incorporated was:

Part 1: Do Asana (poses)

Part 2: While visualizing a colored disk/lotus flower (chakra) at a specific point in the body

Part 3: Then activate Mantra syllables (repeating sounds/words)

What can this look like? Doing Sukhasana (Easy Pose) while visualizing a red spinning wheel (muladhara chakra) at the base of the spine. As you do this, activate the mantra syllables by chanting “Lam”. I pulled this technique & knowledge from writings by Christopher Wallis.

Visualize the red muladhara chakra at the base of the spine in Sukhasana (Easy Pose) https://www.kelleemaize.com/post/a-beginners-guide-to-balancing-chakras

Technique 3: Meditation

While I have personally used all sorts of guided meditation techniques, I wanted to develop the ability to still the fluctuations of my mind by focusing on one point. This was definitely not easy, and it is something I am still working on.

To understand how to practice this technique, I sought the wisdom from Paramahansa Yogananda:

With the eyelids half closed (or completely closed, if this is more comfortable to you), look upward, focusing the gaze and the attention as though looking out through a point between the eyebrows. (A person deep in concentration often “knits” his brows at this spot.) Do not cross the eyes or strain them; the upward gaze comes naturally when one is relaxed and calmly concentrated (2).

What did I get out of this?

A forever Sadhana. — I started this journey thinking I would try this out for 40 days. However, with the impact it has had in my life, I have passed 40 days and am no longer counting. This practice will be lifelong for me.
Built “Tapas” — self-discipline (not small plates). Waking up early and getting out of bed required self-discipline. This, paired with a level of clarity from meditation, gave me the inspiration to remove and limit mindless distractions from my life such as social media.
I answered questions about my purpose. I was a bit skeptical that any practice could help me find my purpose. One day however, while I was meditating, I became overcome with a sense of purpose that was invited in. A strong sense of purpose echoed in my mind telling me:

I, like many others, am here to spread the true meaning and practice of yoga as discovered and passed down by my Indian ancestors.

Yoga has sadly become watered down, leaving only 1 (asana) out of 8 elements for the common practitioner. However, this practice is much more than one could ever imagine. Discovering my purpose inspired me to start a blog and play my part in passing down a practice so many before have sacrificed to spread.

I embodied The Eightfold Path of the Yoga Sutras. For a while now I have studied the Yoga Sutras, which tells us that Samadhi — a state of consciousness where individual awareness dissolves into the great — is the final stage of the eightfold path of yoga. I never understood this till I started my practice. The bliss you get when completely immersed in meditation is unreal, and this feeling of oneness is truly the goal of yoga.

The beauty of a Sadhana is that it is there to support you for as long as you support it. I will continue working to create stillness in my mind and hope that this has helped you feel inspired to start your own journey.

[1]: Christopher Wallis. February 5.2016. The Real Story on The Chakras https://hareesh.org/blog/2016/2/5/the-real-story-on-the-chakras

[2]: Self-Relization Fellowship. 2020. A Beginner’s Meditation https://www.yogananda-srf.org/tmp/meditation.aspx?id=1720

Reflections on my Sadhana Practice