Exploring Wholeness With The Yoga Koshas
The yoga koshas, what they are and why they're a helpful framework for self-study, healing and integration.
Yoga notoriously improves people’s lives. Speak to almost any yoga practitioner and beneath their physical practice is a life-changing shift that led them on a path to deeper self-knowledge and a richer experience of life.
But why? Why is yoga so transformative? Yoga is far from just a physical practice, it is a way of life which ultimately, if I may speak simply, improves connection to yourself and the world around you. This sense of connection is deeply healing and insightful.
Suddenly the universe starts speaking back to you and guiding you on a path to fulfilment and wellness. Gradually you begin to hear its messages and take aligned action.
Today I will explain just one of the frameworks of yoga which helps us integrate our experience on the earth and explore wholeness in ourselves. Today we discuss the yoga koshas.
This philosophical framework is the basis for our upcoming retreat, 12th-17th June, where we incorporate practices for healing and alignment. We provide you with tools to take home and utilise through the ups and downs of life. This retreat will be deep, inspiring and uplifting, leaving you feeling a profound sense of self and lighter as you step into the second half of the year with purpose. If this resonates then check out more information here https://www.triyogi.co.uk/aligned-spirit-yoga-retreat
The Koshas
The koshas were originally observed in the Taittiriya Upanishad, an ancient yoga text. They describe five sheaths, or layers, that comprise your individual existence as a being. Each sheath constitutes a different quality and essence - starting from gross to subtle, physical to expansive.
The koshas are applied as a way to travel through the barriers of being to access your true self - the bliss body - an inner state of contentment and natural resonance of life that exists beneath the outer layers. These layers can cause suffering and prevent a connection to your true self if out of balance.
The koshas are one of many models to guide you on a journey of deeper knowing, profound connection to self, and ultimately, to an inner state of peace and contentment.
I’m not saying we should all pursue enlightenment (unless that’s something you’re mad about 😊). But by taking intentional care of each sheath, you can access the bliss body more regularly as you walk your path through life, and the steps you take will be mindful, aligned, healthy and vital.
The koshas set out a framework that allows an individual to address imbalances at each level:
💫 the physical body
💫 the energy body
💫the mental body
💫the wisdom body
💫 the bliss body
The process of addressing each sheath invites you to consider the whole, experiencing an integration of parts as you move toward a centred and unified sense of self.
Each layer can be seen as an opportunity for learning and exploration - through confronting each aspect of the self you ultimately transcend to a higher frequency.
Although it’s helpful to address the sheaths independently for clarity, the koshas are interwoven, reflecting the enmeshed nature of being. There is no separation, everything functions in relation to everything else; a physical ailment can make you feel sluggish, which affects the energy body, or can cause a low mood affecting the mental body, and so on. Body, mind and spirit are intrinsically interwoven.
Fine-tuning your relationship to each sheath, and consciously working toward balance helps bring the whole system into alignment and ultimately moves you toward a connection to your true self where contentment pervades. Despite the challenges that life presents, you live a life of ease, peace and fulfilment from within.
Learn more about how integration is proven to support healing and fulfilment here
Here’s a description of each of the five koshas to help you digest this philosophy.
Annamaya Kosha - The Physical Sheath
Anamaya Kosha represents the outer, physical body. It relates to your muscles, skin, blood and bones - your physical composition. Central to this sheath is the food and drink you ingest, it has been referred to as ‘a material body built from the food we eat’.
A healthy, balanced diet along with exercise and movement are key to harmony in this kosha. In the first instance, you may be attracted to yoga for the effects it has on your annamaya kosha, your physical body - bringing mobility, tone, strength, and flexibility.
However, you soon realise that paying loving attention to the physical body affects other aspects of the self. You have more energy, your mind is more peaceful and less negative.
The koshas don’t function in separation from each other, they are intrinsically connected and enmeshed.
Important to add that balance is at the heart of this journey into self, maintaining a sense of equilibrium is part of the lessons learnt along the way. For example, over-exercising can cause physical injury or burnout; obsessing about food can cause anxiety which negatively affects the nervous system.
Paying attention to the physical body is a wonderful guide into deeper layers of the self.
Pranamaya Kosha - The Energy or Breath Sheath
Prana, chi, mana, life force, vital energy - there are many different names across the world for this layer of self. Pranamaya kosha can be referred to as the breath flowing through the body. A body without prana is lifeless.
Some describe the physical body as a vessel wrapped around the prana which flows in, around, and through. In yogic philosophy, prana travels through the body via energy channels known as nadis. There are 72 thousand nadis webbed throughout the body, at certain points the nadis cross creating condensed areas of energy known more commonly as chakras. Prana flows not only in the body but also expands out of the body into the field around you, comprising your aura.
Pranamaya kosha is the bridge between body and mind. Density, sluggishness, fatigue, anxiety, shortness of breath and poor coordination can be signals that this kosha is unbalanced. Inviting awareness of breath, taking even inhales and exhales, slowing the breath down and breathing through the diaphragm help nourish this sheath. Breathwork practices and movement with breath can enliven the body and relax tension.
The breath is a vehicle to calm the fluctuations of the mind and harbour a connection between body and mind.
This layer is nourished by breath and light which is why breathwork and light meditations are very powerful.
Manomaya Kosha - The Mind Sheath
This sheath is concerned with how we interpret the stimuli that we receive, both intellectually and emotionally. Anamaya and pranamaya koshas surround sensory input such as touch, sight, smell, taste and sound. Manomaya kosha is responsible for organising and compartmentalising our reactions and responses to these stimuli.
Whilst the first two koshas are constantly activated, this kosha rejuvenates during sleep, allowing time for the more subconscious background processes to catch up and integrate. I think we can all agree that when we don’t get enough sleep it’s harder to think clearly and make aligned decisions.
Manomaya kosha can easily fall into destructive patterns by going over the same situations and scenarios. This can lead you away from your light or stop you from progressing so it’s important to work with balance in this sheath.
The mind will keep travelling down the same negative neuropathways if you let it, inhibiting your ability to really evolve and grow. The more you ignore this sheath and let the autopilot drive, the more ingrained these patterns become, making it difficult to emerge and change the story.
Research suggests that the human mind naturally leans to a negative bias as a survival strategy in prehistoric humans - it is adaptive to expect the worst when surrounded by predators. These days lions and prey animals are not an issue to people so this negative bias may be seen as unhelpful to modern existence.
Mantra and affirmation are integral tools for maintaining health in this sheath. These provide a focus away from the dramas of the mind and allow us to create new, more positive neuropathways.
Vijnanamaya Kosha - The Wisdom Sheath
This sheath relates to awareness. It is the observer, the layer of ourselves that is able to step out of a situation and witness your actions and behaviours without being entangled in them.
Vijnanamaya kosha differs from manomaya kosha in that it is concerned with perspective. Manomaya kosha is where you build discipline in the activity of your thought patterns and learn to stop the mind from throwing you off-centre.
Vijnanamaya kosha is where you develop insight and the ability to create distance from your thoughts, in this way you view life from a more balanced and broad perspective.
This kosha can be thought of as a fly on the wall, allowing you to recognise when you’re out of balance with non-attachment and non-judgement. When you’re emotional or having difficulty, it helps to detach and ride the wave, knowing that it will pass, without getting too caught up in the outcomes.
A nurtured vijnanamaya kosha allows wisdom, rationality, analysis and balanced judgement.
Tuning in with your intuition demonstrates health in vijnanamaya kosha. You allow yourself to trust your intuition and your path.
Anandamaya Kosha - The Bliss Sheath
The most subtle and expansive of the five sheaths, anandamaya kosha relates to the bliss state that sits at the core of existence. The state of being which pervades all illusions and is the energy of life and love. It is the experience of the true self. It is pure unity, beyond emotional, physical or mental distraction.
Have you ever been walking down the road and a wave of peace and bliss washes over you and everything feels right in the world? Or perhaps it’s during seated meditation or savasana, the final resting pose of a yoga class. A feeling of resonance pervades within you. A momentary pause from the noise of the mind as you lightly pulse and vibrate, a feeling of being in a body, drifting beyond embodiment into a deeper, lighter more subtle layer. Maybe this only occurs for a second in time but it reminds you that this state is accessible - the feeling that it’s good to be alive.
Meditation, mantra, prayer and paying loving attention to all the other sheaths allow us to access this bliss state more frequently.
Nurturing each layer ensures every part of the self is tended to and integrated.
Yoga provides a structure to help us balance all sheaths. It promotes awareness and care of the body, prompting you to look at your diet and what you ingest. It inspires movement linked with breathwork and other breathwork practices to encourage a free flow of energy. It teaches you to focus the mind through meditation, mantra, and mindfulness, allowing a healthy distance from the fluctuations of the mind. It celebrates loving kindness and acting compassionately with yourself and with others. It offers a platform to integrate in body, mind and spirit and to experience the bliss of beingness.
Every time you get on the mat is a microcosm example of how you can live off the mat.
To learn more about how integration is central to healing and maintaining mental health and wellbeing head here.
Aligned Spirit Movement & Healing Retreat
If you’d like to learn more about the koshas, join us on retreat in June where we’ll examine each sheath and provide practices and tools that nurture each level of your being. The retreat is designed as a journey back into alignment, a journey back to yourself, and a way to get to know yourself on a deeper level. We provide space for integration, rest and reflection. This retreat is for anyone who feels called by it, and especially if:
You are interested in yoga, self-care and working on yourself to get to where you are today. But you’re busy, you’re tired and somehow there are never enough hours in the day, or there’s a feeling of disconnect, discontentment, lack or longing. You have an interest in your body-mind connection. You want to invite more love and peace into your life. More contentment. You’d like to feel more aligned between your heart and your head, to regain control over your health and wellbeing, to feel that you're working toward your potential in a constructive way, that you’re on your path and honouring your body-mind-spirit along the way. You want to learn to listen to the signs, to learn to understand yourself, to heal what needs to be healed, and build resilience.
You’re ready to do the work.
This retreat is part of that journey.
You may have been feeling...
🌙Disconnected
🌙Tired and depleted
🌙Disassociated
🌙Pain/discomfort
🌙Unempowered
🌙Discontent
🌙Feeling lost
🌙Something doesn’t feel right
🌙Feeling a lack of control following the events of the last few years
✨ The Intention ✨
To invite mind and body into alignment. To regain trust in yourself and your path. To heal, grow and glow.
To learn more or join the retreat just tap here
