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Nearly Enlightened
Join Nearly Enlightened's host Giana Giarrusso and discover the body, mind and spirit connection! The Nearly Enlightened Podcast is for the soul-centered seeker who is on the path of personal growth and spiritual development. This podcast takes a light-hearted approach exploring topics rooted in themes of mental, physical and spiritual wellbeing.
Nearly Enlightened
Deepen Your Yoga Practice: Yamas with Dee Doyno
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In this eye-opening episode, Giana Giarrusso is joined by fellow yoga teacher Dee Doyno to explore the Yamas, yoga’s often-overlooked ethical foundation from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. These five powerful principles—Ahimsa, Satya, Asteya, Brahmacharya, and Aparigraha—were written over 2,300 years ago, yet they remain deeply relevant to how we live, love, and show up in today’s world.
Think of the Yamas as yoga’s moral compass—offering a framework for living with more awareness, compassion, and alignment:
- Ahimsa (non-violence): Discover how practicing gentleness with yourself can be just as radical as standing up to harm.
- Satya (truthfulness): Explore the tension between “your truth” and the truth in a culture of curated identities.
- Asteya (non-stealing): Learn how we unconsciously steal time, energy, and joy—and how to stop.
- Brahmacharya (moderation): Reclaim your energy in a world addicted to overstimulation.
- Aparigraha (non-possessiveness): Release expectations, detach from outcomes, and make space for peace.
Through personal stories—like setting boundaries on social media and learning to honor time commitments—Giana and Dee bring these ancient teachings to life in a relatable, often humorous way. They also introduce their upcoming Deepen Your Practice challenge, beginning May 1st, designed to help you apply these teachings in real time within a supportive community.
Whether you're new to yoga philosophy or looking to take your practice off the mat, this episode will inspire you to explore the deeper dimensions of yoga—and of yourself.
Join the challenge before May 2nd by visiting CLICKING HERE
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Welcome to the Nearly Enlightened Podcast, a high vibe toolbox designed to help you connect to your body, mind and spirit. I'm your host, gianna Giarusso, and today I'm here to share tools, conversations and insights to help you on your journey of self-discovery. This podcast is all about exploring what it means to live a conscious, connected and nearly enlightened life, because the truth is, the answers don't lie outside of us, they're already within, and today is the perfect conversation for this podcast. Welcome back, dee. Thank you for having me. So this is a bonus episode if you're listening this week, and this is because Dee and I have a yoga challenge, a deepen your practice challenge that is launching on May 1st. So if you're listening to this, this is just like a little extra inspiration or just a little extra conversation around these topics. If you're not taking the challenge, this is just a way to explore yoga.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:I'm so excited to have you. I'm so excited to start this challenge with you.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Likewise, I'm really excited to see how this all plays out, and I'm really excited. I think you said we have about 40 people signed up, which is really exciting, and let's just, let's dive in.
Speaker 1:So the first day, day one, may 1st, we're getting right into it. We're starting with the Yamas. So the Yamas are one um, one limb, one of yoga. It's the very beginning. It's um. I wanted to talk about all of the limbs of yoga because I feel like in modern practices we really only talk about like one or two limbs breath work, definitely asana, the physical practice, maybe a little bit about meditation, but we just kind of like glimpse over it and really it's just about the breath and the movement. So I really wanted to bring light to these other limbs of yoga that kind of get glanced over in modern practice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's as we continue to say. It's definitely a conversation that you and I have had many times, and so that's the basis of this whole challenge is to kind of, you know, touch on the things that you won't even probably hear about in your asana class and to bring honor to the practice that's over 5,000 years old.
Speaker 1:Yes, and we were talking briefly about that. So these we're not like pulling this out of thin air. This came from the yoga sutras of Patanjali, which are a collection of philosophical texts attributed to the sage Pat and Jolly, and these sutras were written like roughly 2000, 2,300 years ago. So it's probably when the practice stopped being verbally passed down and people started to like write some things down and create texts. So this comes right from one of the oldest texts. And I didn't even start talking about the yoga sutras until my 300 hour and I had done two 200 hours and we didn't talk about it in either one of those 200 hours. So I think it's really interesting because we do have a lot of teachers signed up for this challenge, which is so fun and so amazing.
Speaker 1:Um, yeah, so I know that's unique, maybe to my situation, but yeah, so I went through two 200 hours without discussing the yoga sutras, and I think that's interesting yeah, and I think I think for my 200 hour it was a required reading. Oh, interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think you know it is. Some of these older texts are very difficult to read or to understand, and so I think you know, when it's broken down into ways where we can make it digestible for people who might not know about the eight limbs of yoga is one of our main goals for all this. So we are going to do just that and, as you mentioned, we're going to start the first week. We're going to do the yamas, which are the first, one of the first limbs of the eight limbed path, and it's the yamas are all about. Basically like I mean correct me if I'm wrong but like moral restraints here.
Speaker 1:Yes, ethical principles.
Speaker 2:Yeah, disciplines that govern our behaviors.
Speaker 1:So I think of the first two limbs of yoga, the yamas and the niyamas, kind of as like the 10 commandments. They're like very similar when you get into it and I know we might be coming from different religions, different backgrounds, non-religious, but it's just like moral guidelines and it even takes it one step further, which I think is cool. Yeah, I love that. So week one we're diving into the yamas and day one is Ahimsa, non-violence. And I am really sorry, do not come for me if I am pronouncing any of the sanskrit wrong. I am doing my best. Um, and I do want to give deep honor to the roots and where this actually came from, because appropriation is definitely something that can come up and, um, like, I want to give deep honor to, to this practice and where it actually originated from, which was india. Um, so ahimsa, non-violence. If my sanskrit isn't perfect, I'm sorry, I don't speak italian perfectly either. Sometimes I don't speak English perfectly either. Um, hymns of non-violence, having self-compassion and being gentle with yourself, um.
Speaker 2:This is our very first limb, very first subsection of the first limb of the yamas yes, yeah, and I think this one you know you can go this one always is interesting to me because you can take this as deep or, as you know, as you wanted to. A lot of people will say use this one specifically, because there are a lot of yogi and yoginis, practitioners, who will say you, you know that this is our vegetarian or vegan because of ahimsa. So if you ever hear about that, that's one of the things, but it's also very much so, like you just said, self-compassion and treating yourself with kindness and allowing that to ripple out outwards.
Speaker 1:Yes, and even if you're talking about it in the sense of the physical practice of yoga, sometimes that nonviolence can be being gentle with yourself and not going beyond what your body wants or needs or is calling for, and you're moving through a place of ego like and teach it. And I'm sure a lot of teachers in this challenge can relate, like you see a lot when you're teaching classes and you see where people go beyond Um, and even you yourself in your own practice, like going beyond what is good for your body, like um.
Speaker 2:I always say, and I always, when I'm teaching, I always say, like find your sweet spot and don't push past Like you want to, you want to feel it, but you don't want to be hurting yourself. And that's, you know, can go from physical into mental too.
Speaker 1:Right, and this is a good reminder for me, because I tend to push my classes, my powery classes tend to be very powery, um, and I really I pride myself in pushing people out of their comfort zone, but in a safe way, and um, I think that's where ahimsa really shows up in, in the classroom, in the yoga studio. Um, good point, yeah, and and thinking about taking it off the mat, non-violence, like being non-violent with others and at yourself, and um, you know, I think in my early yogic days, like that probably is why I was also vegetarian, um, because I do so many people love animals and their souls too, so um yeah, I mean, and there's so many.
Speaker 1:there's so much for interpretation, Like I'm almost at a loss for words.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there is, and so that's what I mean. Like you can take it as deep as you want. This challenge is for you to explore with. So, you know, if you want to maybe do like, if that's kind of what you want to explore, you could always say like, okay, you know, like one day a week I'm going to eat complete veg, cool, awesome, like that's. If that's something you don't normally do and you want to explore that, you know you could use the hymns as bring that into your everyday life in that way. If that's what works for you, it could be, you know, waking up and saying three really nice things about yourself to yourself in the mirror. You know you could. There's so many different ways you could go.
Speaker 1:So many different ways. So that is a little bit about day one, ahimsa, and we'll just keep going along. We'll talk. This week We'll talk. So these are going to be little bonus episodes. So this week we'll talk. So these are going to be little bonus episodes. So this week we'll talk about just week. Actually, it's really just the first four or five days, so we're just talking about the Yamas and then we'll record a second podcast for the Niyamas and we'll kind of follow this through the challenge. So this is just like a little extra, just inspiration or information for those that might not know so day two.
Speaker 1:We're moving into satya and truthfulness, and this is all about truthful, being truthful and authentic, and I think this is a really important conversation to have in today's um worlds, because we hear a lot about like my truth and your truth, and truth is not subjective, and this is a really important conversation to have and to bring to the masses, to have these conversations in yoga classes, about truthfulness and the practice of satya, because I think one of the reframes that we could use in today's society is it's not your truth, that's not my truth.
Speaker 1:There's only one truth and your truth is feelings, it's emotions, it's thoughts, it's um, not always truth. Yeah, so I think that this is where the practice can kind of come off the mat and and we can take it to today's society and and start with ourselves, start being truthful, like, is this the truth or is this how I'm feeling? Is this what's coming up for me? Is this something that's being triggered in me? So I think it's an interesting conversation to have and I'm actually really excited about it and really excited to see everyone's perspectives on Satya.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a really good point. That's kind of spicy, Really spicy. I don't think I need to say very much more to that, Just because I think to even like think about everything that could stem from this. You know, like things that we experience nowadays, like with cancel, culture and all this stuff because of people's feelings and opinions, and you know, you know, living in your truth. You know, living in your truth, no-transcript um, which I you know, but I think that, yeah, it'll be really interesting to see how, how this comes out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I know we both have been through break method and have done the uh, the self-study through break method and I think that's a really good. It kind of is a really good mirror to to kind of see those reflections of like is this my perspective? Is this skewed through my experiences, the lens that I'm looking at things, or is this actually the truth, the truth with a capital T?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, for real. Yeah, Is this my rose colored glasses? Are these the patterns that I've lived my whole life? And that's why I believe this, that this is the truth, my truth, your truth. Yeah, exactly yeah. So you know what that is and how can you maybe just make a tiny little shift in your life? How could you make a tiny little shift in your life to understand this concept or bring it into your everyday life?
Speaker 1:Yes, and that brings us to moving into day three Astea, astea I've heard it pronounced both ways Non-stealing, and this one is an interesting one. And this one is an interesting one again. Like, um, if you're coming from like a christian or catholic background, this is very much like, feels like part of the ten commandments non-stealing. It just feels like something that's common sense and we can think about it in the tangible, physical sense which I think a lot of people tend to go there, like, oh, don't go into a store and steal something, but, um, this goes way beyond um, just like physical things, because we can be non-stealing of time, of energy, or we could be stealing of energy and time, um, and this is a, this is a big one for me. And again, this can get spicy when I teach.
Speaker 1:I teach very regularly. I teach about 10 classes a week. Everyone knows this about me by now but always in those classes it's like the same three people that are always late, always late, always late, always late, always late. And it's fine, like I would rather you get here, get the time, get on your mat, but there comes a point where we can go and we can be honest with ourselves, we can have a good truthful look at ourselves. We can practice Satya. And why are you chronically late? Are you always hitting that bus? Or like you're leaving on time but, like things happen, you get distracted, or are you pushing it to the last minute? Are you always rushing? Do you have bad time management skills? Um, like, what is the story that you're telling yourself? Because now you move into, you are stealing energy from the people who are here on time.
Speaker 1:You're stealing your own energy by not being on time, um, and this is something that we talk about, like later in the yamas and the niyamas, but like having this discipline and for me, like I really feel like yoga is a practice of, of discipline and um, so yeah, non, going back to non-stealing now I'm like really down a rabbit hole.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I think even too, I really like the perspective of like energetically. Sometimes, if I'm like you know, it's very I have a four year old it's very easy for me to feel frustrated on a daily basis and if I am, you know, if I snap or if I, like you know, act a way that I don't want to act, I kind of have to take myself aside and say okay, am I stealing someone's joy? Am I stealing my son's joy here by saying no, or am I stealing? You know what I mean? Like, even even if with a person, if I'm having a difficult conversation with someone, you know, I always am trying to find that space where, yeah, like you were saying, the energy of being kind, you know so, even to practicing Ahimsa here, it's like they all kind of flow together.
Speaker 1:They really do.
Speaker 2:So that you're not stealing someone's joy, time, energy, things I use that on things. Yeah, yes, of course, I feel like that's the most tangible one and obvious one that you can think of and just, yeah, being able to make those small adjustments and maybe get a little bit of a different perspective. There's other ways you can steal from people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, and I think we'll talk about it more in the emails too. So if you want to sign up for that, you have until May 2nd. We're going to close. We're going to close everything down on the night of May 2nd. So if you're listening to this before and you want to jump in there is still time I will link it in the show notes or you can reach out to one of us on Instagram or social media and we'll be happy to share that link with you. And that moves us into day four, which is brahmacharya moderation and finding balance. And this one is um and this one is. There's many ways to interpret this one um, some people I'm gonna just I don't want to butcher it so a lot of people take this as um, like sexual restraint and celibacy. Um, and chastity I've heard it framed that way, which is very interesting um, and I think this one too kind of like flows into like we were just speaking about.
Speaker 2:it also works with your energy and what you're where, where, how, why you're spending your energy and what you're spending it on. I think it also is really easy this one to bring out of the physical and into mental, emotional, more like, more when we're speaking about it morally. Yes.
Speaker 1:Um, I like, I like that how you put that. Um, because it is like an energy check-in for self and and for others think about it.
Speaker 2:Like even just think about it too, like with this challenge, like which we'll get into in the later weeks, like how much energy and time are you spending on this? Like what are you? Come back to the beginning I think we mentioned this in the other podcast like set your intention for this challenge, don't you know? Be social and have fun with it, but are like you know also I want to say it because it's not about deprivation, but like having those discipline, disciplines in space, so that you're finding balance in the practice and in, because I guarantee you, so many of us in this challenge are spending too much time on social media oh my gosh, yes and um.
Speaker 1:Like I I always this is like my thing, like I throw myself into something and I think I told you this like my may, may is absolutely insane. I was like what was I thinking? Like I was feeling all of this, like maybe Gemini energy starting to come in and my birthday month and starting to get excited and just through everything in May, because I'm ready to like gear up. And you were the perfect reminder. You were like, okay, well, let me know what you need, like let me know what I can help you with, and because you need to enjoy this too, and having that balance and moderation and not just like putting the blinders on.
Speaker 1:And I think, like I said, a lot of us are teachers in this challenge, which is interesting, and when you first begin your journey, you're so serious and you take yoga so seriously and you kind of like forget to have fun. So I think that this is a perfect little check in to be like okay, but is this still fun? Because this, if you're doing it right, it should be fun.
Speaker 2:It should bring you joy, it should make you feel lighthearted totally yeah, and so it's like this, as you just said, it's like an energetic check-in and a sacred pause in your life, in your daily life. Just, you know, even setting I, I have timers on my phones for certain apps, like, okay, when the hour's up, it's done. You know there's certain things you can do and, like you were saying, as teachers, as moms, you know, you know, in my world, I have to see, okay, where am I overextending myself? Do have I? Have I given myself any time space? You know and this is something, too, I worked a lot with in break method that you mentioned above in the self-study is am I, are my behaviors reflective of the fact that I haven't taken time to restore and balance my own energy so that I can continue to walk forward in a happy and loving way, or am I overextending myself to everyone around me and then I just act like a complete lunatic?
Speaker 1:you know? Yes, Because when you reach that point where you feel spread thin and like you're, you're overextended like you're. You're overextended like you're just not acting as yourself in your truthfulness, you can't, yeah, you can't.
Speaker 2:There's, no, there's no way for you to do it if you're, you know, as they say, the candle lit on both ends.
Speaker 1:So finding a way that you can nourish yourself, it's like that, the classic filling up your own cup so that you fill over yes, and like I really hope and pray and like you said, we had a couple intentions of like why we were doing this and I hope that it is this is more nourishing than feels like work. Yes, this challenge like I don't want it to feel challenging, I want- it to feel nourishing yes, yes, totally agree with you there totally.
Speaker 1:And that brings us to the last of the yamas, which is a parigraha. Non-possessiveness is again. You can take it to tangible items or it can be more of a it can be a thought, it can be a pattern.
Speaker 1:I think about this like as somebody who has had bouts of anxiety, letting go of the outcome, like even this, like I like creating this challenge like it could have brought up a lot of anxiety for me, and sometimes I still get. I'm like nervous, excited for it because you don't know what people are going to think. And now, like a decent amount of people are signed up, so it's like okay, now you have 40 people's opinions that are going to be coming at you, so that can induce anxiety. But like letting go of the outcome and again, like bringing it back to my roots, it's like let go and let God, like you have to, kind of you put the work in and you let the rest. Kind of let the chips fall where they may, as they say.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, letting go of expectations. And I know, for me, the person I am, um, and especially you know tapping and I like to tap into my human design a lot, and for me, specifically, if I, if I, attach any expectation to specific outcomes, it creates chaos in my life. So the fact that, even just kind of going along with what you were just saying about, you know, this challenge for both you and I, I exactly did just that. I threw my hands up and I was like we're going to just do that, do this, and we're going to figure it out as we go and we're going to have fun with it. I think that that's the thing and that's where the flow comes in. And I'm pleasantly surprised with the turnout that we have. And you know, I think that that's where, that's where the fun does come in is when you're doing things in a way that feels, you know, with intention, that feels good for you and let the pressure off. Let's let the pressure go. There's no one, you know we're the only ones putting pressure on ourselves.
Speaker 1:Yes, Someone, one of my, one of my teachers, like when I first started yoga, used to say like when you worry about something, you just like, you double your suffering.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you feed that instead of, you know, just letting it happen, right, yeah. So even so, you could take this again. You could take it as you know, cleaning out your mind or your heart, or you could think about this, about cleaning out your closet. I know, in the northern northern hemisphere it's spring, spring time, spring. Do some spring cleaning, see what you can donate, see, you know. So there's there's. The fun thing about this challenge is, again, you know, you can take it physically what do you need right now?
Speaker 2:exactly and as the days go by, you know, know, you can just figure out okay, no, I need to do this today, or I need, I'm going to focus on my you know the physical state and you know, with this one, I think this will fit really good with my emotions and everything. So there's so many, there's a big pendulum here that you can swing to and from and apply it to your own life.
Speaker 1:Yes, and that's why I'm so excited about this challenge and I'm so excited to hear other perspectives, because that's part of the challenge too, and when you get your prompts.
Speaker 1:So if you're not in the challenge, or if you are in the challenge and want inspiration from others, click that hashtag deep in your practice, because everything um everyone's hosts will be there and I'm excited to see the different perspectives, because this is a 5 000 year old practice and a 5 000 year old science that's been passed down verbally for thousands of years and um like I think that is why this has lasted for so long because these principles work, and also the teachers that have passed it down what their perspectives have been exactly, yeah, and that's why, too, there's so many different um styles of yoga nowadays too, because it's it's been passed down for thousands and thousands of years.
Speaker 2:But I think, especially in the West, it's important for us to honor where this practice is coming from, and this is a really beautiful way, I think, um to do that and to begin or to just remind yourself, if you are a teacher and you've been practicing for years, doing this and going through it, just to kind of like, you know, energetically, cleanse yourself and bring that and ask yourself how can I bring this actually into one of my classes?
Speaker 2:Or how can I bring this and, you know, carry it in or or motivate and inspire my students to learn a little bit more, because I think that that's where the ripple effect happens. So it is really interesting. We have so many teachers in here and I'm excited and I did want to mention, you know, if you're not doing it on Instagram and you're still going to participate and receive these emails and you hear this podcast. You know, send us an email If there's something you're really interested in or know you have feedback, like, I would love to hear if you know if you're going through this, like how it's going for you. Send send us an email and let us know how it's going for you, because I think that that's important too yes, we're all.
Speaker 1:We're both very accessible via social media um email, so we'll be checking daily as well. So if you need us, reach out.
Speaker 2:Yep, you'll have support from us. And then the other thing, too, is like it's as a social media challenge, like be social. Gianna and I met online. Yes, so it's. You know, these are ways where you can find soul sisters or soul tribes, so don't be afraid to connect with other people who are in this challenge.
Speaker 1:Maybe we'll have to do some bonus points for like, for like commenting or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that I think as we start flowing, we'll be able to add a little bit more on that and maybe go through weekly and have some tallies or something, I don't know. So people can get get more excited and motivated.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you all for being here and look out for these bonus episodes um coming through the month of May through our deepen your practice challenge. Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode of the nearly enlightened podcast. If this conversation resonated with you, I would love it. If you shared it, leave a review or reach out and let me know your thoughts. And if you're looking for more ways to deepen your connection to body, mind and spirit, check out the meditate to elevate guided meditation portal or visit nearly enlightenedcom for more resources. Until next time, stay curious, stay connected and remember the answers already lie within.