SVAH-DHYAH-YAH

Sva sounds like “swah”

Dhya is like “dyah” (the “dh” is a soft, aspirated d sound, blending a little with the y)

Ya is just “yah”

All together: SVAH-DHYAH-YAH

Manatra – “I am both the path and the traveler, discovering my true self.”

Topic 1 – The Inner Map

Metaphor: The Traveler’s Backpack of Maps

Picture yourself as a traveler with a backpack full of maps. At first, the maps seem overwhelming—full of winding paths and unclear markers. But as you take time to study them, you realize these are maps of you: your thoughts, reactions, and habits. Svadhyaya is like learning to read these personal maps, making sense of where you’ve been and where you’re headed.

Reflection:

Our practice tonight invites us to look at the patterns we carry. On the mat, ask yourself: What do I avoid? Where do I push? This is your map. By learning to read it with care, you start to travel through life with more awareness and less confusion.

Quotes:

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” – Aristotle

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” – Socrates

“He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened.” – Lao Tzu

“Self-knowledge is the gateway to freedom.” – David Scott

“All journeys begin within.” – Unknown

Topic 2 – The Echo Chamber

Metaphor: The Cave of Echoes

Imagine walking into a cave where every sound you make echoes back. At first, it feels like the cave is talking—but in truth, it’s your own voice returned. Svadhyaya shows us that much of what we think are “outside problems” are echoes of our own inner patterns.

Reflection:

Notice your thoughts during practice. Are you hearing encouragement, or criticism? Are you patient, or demanding? Recognize these echoes. What comes back to you often points to what’s happening inside.

Quotes:

“The mind is everything. What you think, you become.” – Buddha

“Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own unguarded thoughts.” – Buddha

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” – Carl Jung

“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” – Anaïs Nin

“Echoes of the mind shape the landscape of our lives.” – Unknown

Topic 3 – The Habitual Path

Metaphor: The Forest Trail

Think of a trail in a forest that many people have walked over time. It becomes smooth and easy to follow—but that doesn’t mean it leads somewhere new. Our habits are like these trails: familiar and easy, but not always helpful. Svadhyaya encourages us to step off the well-worn path and create new ways of being.

Reflection:

In your poses tonight, try something new. Stay longer in discomfort, or soften when you usually push. Notice how stepping off your usual path creates growth.

Quotes:

“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.” – Lao Tzu

“The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.” – Samuel Johnson

“You are what you repeatedly do.” – Aristotle

“Growth is uncomfortable because you’ve never been here before.” – Unknown

“New paths are made by walking.” – Franz Kafka

Topic 4 – The Clean Slate

Metaphor: The Chalkboard

Imagine your mind as a chalkboard covered in words and scribbles—some useful, some outdated. Svadhyaya is like erasing what no longer serves and making space for new learning. It’s about seeing the stories you tell yourself and choosing which ones to keep.

Reflection:

As you move tonight, notice old beliefs that pop up: “I’m not flexible,” “I can’t do this,” “I’m bad at balance.” Gently erase them and see what happens when you practice with a fresh mind.

Quotes:

“The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.” – Carl Jung

“We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think.” – Buddha

“Let go of who you think you’re supposed to be; embrace who you are.” – Brené Brown

“The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” – Socrates

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few.” – Shunryu Suzuki

Topic 5 – The Book of Life

Metaphor: The Living Journal

Think of your life as a journal that you write in every day. Some pages are joyful, others painful, but each entry teaches you something. But here’s the deeper truth: your journal didn’t begin with your birth, and it doesn’t end with this lifetime. Every experience—every joy, sorrow, lesson, and even things you may not consciously remember—are recorded in the vast repository of your mind. Some call this the Akashic Records, a spiritual archive of all your soul’s journeys.

Svadhyaya is reading your own journal with compassion and curiosity, understanding that every chapter, even from lifetimes past, shapes who you are today. Each insight you gain now is like adding clarity to a much bigger story.

Reflection:

As you settle into your final poses and savasana, reflect on the “pages” you wrote today. What did you uncover? What patterns feel older than this life? Trust that your inner wisdom holds it all. Honor your story—stretching across time—because it’s yours alone to study and grow from.

Quotes:

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” – Rumi

“Every experience leaves its mark upon the soul.” – Helena Blavatsky

“The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.” – Marcus Aurelius

“The Akashic Records are the collective memory of the universe.” – Edgar Cayce

“What we think, we become—not only now, but across lifetimes.” – Unknown

Mantra Choices:

“I study myself with kindness and grow with every breath.”

“Each moment is a mirror; I meet myself with grace.”

“With awareness, I release what no longer serves me.”

“I am both the path and the traveler, discovering my true self.”

Yoga is the experience of constant evolution towards yourself. The ultimate goal of any yoga practice is to attain moksha, meaning liberation or freedom. The 8-limbs of yoga are the stepping stones on that path towards that freedom or liberation.

The Niyamas – Svadhyaya (SVAD-YA-YA) or self-study

The term Svadhyaya literally means ‘one’s own reading’ or ‘self-study’. It is the fourth Niyama of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras and has the potential to deepen our yoga practice way beyond the mat.

Svadhyaya on the mat

Studying our habits on the yoga mat can go a long way towards recognizing our habits off the mat too. The way in which we practice yoga is actually very reflective of the way we practice life…. and a person’s physical yoga practice often reveals a lot more about them than they may think.

When we’re on the “magic carpet” mat, there’s nowhere else to hide. The daily distractions of phones, chores, emails, and TV are no longer there to take our minds away from ourselves. We actually have to pay attention…. This can be a little intimidating at first, and a yoga practice can sometimes reveal more about where our problems are rather than how perfect we are – which as we know, is very good for destroying the ego.

Watch your thoughts, they become words; watch your words, they become actions; watch your actions, they become habits; watch your habits, they become character; watch your character, for it becomes your destiny. – Author Unknown

“The pathway to an abundant life is to have a mind open to everything and attached to nothing. For many, the portal to our potential is shackled and padlocked by heavy chains of FEAR. As humans, anything we first encounter, posing a threat is feared until it is understood. To open the lock and remove the bondage of fear, we must use the key of knowledge and wisdom. We always must always maintain a mind capable of change. When our information changes and as more scientific data comes in, we must be willing to alter our conclusions.” – David Scott

“So you built the cage, piece by piece, day by day, year after year. You hardly noticed the days you finally entered; closed and locked the door. Now you feel so stuck, isolated and hopeless. You want someone to come rescue you from this prison, but only you have the key. You alone, have always had the key. You just gave your power to others, when it was within you the whole time. Turn the lock and set yourself free.” – David Scott

If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you’re misinformed.” – Mark Twain.

“Leaning to unlearn is the highest form of learning.”

“Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow.” – Anthony J. D’Angelo

“Being a student is easy. Learning requires actual work.”

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.” – Henry Ford

“The measure of intelligence is the ability to change. Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” – Albert Einstein

“Change is the end result of all true learning.” – Leo Buscaglia

“The mind that opens to a new idea never returns to its original size.” Albert Einstein

“Once learned, the wisdom of knowledge cannot be taken from you by thieves or rust away like metal.”

Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” – Benjamin Franklin

“Stop seeking others’ voices for your choices; instead, listen to your inner voice. Those who truly know, often speak little, while those who speak most may know the least.” – David Scott

We always resist when we feel we are being pressured or sold: Sir Winston Churchill said, “I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.”

“Minds are like parachutes — they only function when open.” — Thomas Dewar

“It’s amazing what ordinary people can do if they set out without preconceived notions.” — Charles F. Kettering

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“Science at its best is an open-minded method of inquiry, not a belief system.” – Rupert Sheldrake

“If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.” – Francis Bacon

“At the heart of science is an essential tension between two seemingly contradictory attitudes–an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive they may be, and the most ruthless skeptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new.” – Carl Sagan

General Yoga Quotes

“Where there is anger, there is always pain underneath.” ~Eckhart Tolle

“Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” –Joshua J. Marines

Suffering is not holding you, you are holding suffering. – Buddha

“Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking more than you need.” — Khalil Gibran

“You will know you are rich, when you find yourself content and happy with whatever you have.”

“Some people try to be tall by cutting off the heads of others.”— Paramahansa Yogananda

“In lifting others we rise ourselves.” – David Scott

“There are two things in life you will never have to chase – True Friends and True Love.”

When you show deep empathy toward others, their defensive energy goes down, and positive energy replaces it. That’s when you can get more creative in solving problems. – Stephen Covey

“Worry doesn’t help tomorrow’s troubles, but does ruin today’s happiness.”

Worry often gives small things a big shadow.

“Forgive others, not because they deserve forgiveness, but because you deserve peace”

“We don’t have to agree on anything to be kind to one another.”

“Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.”

“Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.” Oscar Wilde

“Those who judge others will never understand and those who understand others will never judge.”

The first to apologize is the bravest. The first to forgive is the strongest. The first to forget is the happiest.

“Maturity is learning to walk away from people and situations that threaten your peace of mind, self-respect, values, morals and self-worth.”

“I have been a seeker and I still am, but I stopped asking the books and the stars. I started listening to the teaching of my Soul.” – Rumi

“In the end only three things will matter: how much I loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you.”

“If I have harmed anyone in any way either knowingly or unknowingly through my own confusions, I ask their forgiveness. If anyone has harmed me in any way either knowingly or unknowingly through their own confusions, I forgive them. And if there is a situation I am not yet ready to forgive, I forgive myself for that. For all the ways that I harm myself, negate, doubt, belittle myself, judge or be unkind to myself through my own confusions, I forgive myself.”

“I’ve been looking for a long, long time, for this thing called love, I’ve ridden comets across the sky, and I’ve looked below and above. Then one day I looked inside myself, and this is what I found, a golden sun residing there, beaming forth God’s light and sound.” – Rumi