Yoga for friendship
Friendships are just as important as the food we eat or how much exercise we do. Some studies have even shown that friendships can extend your life. But like all things including food and exercise, friendships can be nourishing and nutritious or they can be unhealthy and toxic. Fortunately, yoga can offer many tools to help navigate the path of creating lifelong friendships.
Friendship for svadhyaya
Good friends are like balm for the soul. They act as a mirror, reflecting back our habits, patterns and tendencies. They provide support when we need it, a sounding board to make sense of our thoughts and create a sense of belonging. They challenge us to see different perspectives and teach us how to love unconditionally. But most importantly, they offer us the opportunity to learn more about ourselves and highlight those parts we can work on and grow.
Svadhyaya, or self-study and study of the self, is considered one of the primary yoga practices by Patanjali as one of the niyamas, or observances. The world provides us with so many different experiences, places, people and things so we can better understand ourselves. Self-study is one of the tangible practices for us to discover who and what we really are. By staying awake and being conscious of how we interact in our friendships, we have the opportunity to deepen our yoga practice and get closer to our true nature.
