306 ~ISHVARA PRANIDHANA (Surrender) - 8 Limbs of Yoga Niyama 5

Hello Magical Human & welcome back to Madison Mindset the Podcast 🪬

Join me as we continue our Eight Limbs of Yoga journey by exploring Ishvara Pranidhana, the fifth niyama which translates to surrender or devotion to something greater than ourselves. 

episode overview:
• surrender involves letting go of our need to control everything in life
• finding peace requires trusting that life unfolds exactly as it should
• creating daily devotional practices helps cultivate surrender
• reflecting on what we're trying to control can reveal where we need to let go
• The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali - teaches that through surrender, we find complete peace (samadhi)

For deeper mindset coaching and yoga philosophy, join me on Patreon where we explore the practical "how" of these spiritual concepts.

Thank you to my teachers and my teachers teacher 🙏🏼

'I choose to Surrender'

Love,

Madison Mindset x

~

Yoga Sutras:

Yoga Sūtra 2.45

“Samādhi-siddhir Īśvarapraṇidhānāt”

“Through surrender to Īśvara (the Divine), samādhi is attained.”

Yoga Sūtra 1.23

“Īśvara-praṇidhānād vā”

“Or [samādhi is attained] by devotion to the Lord.”

Īśvarapraṇidhāna is composed of three Sanskrit parts:

•Īśvara – the Divine, the Supreme Being, the Higher Self

•Praṇi – to bow down

•Dhāna – to place or dedicate

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to the Fifth Niyama
• 4:15 Understanding Ishvara Pranidhana (Surrender)
• 7:13 Letting Go of Control
• 11:28 Finding Peace Through Surrender
• 16:10 Practical Ways to Practice Surrender
• 21:52 Journaling Prompts and Final Thoughts

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello Magical Human and welcome back to Madison Mindset, the podcast.

Speaker 1: 0:05

In this episode we are continuing on with the Eight Limbs of Yoga journey. I started this a little while ago. There were already nine episodes up about the Eight Limbs of Yoga and I stopped it a little while ago and I'm restarting it now. I just needed a little break and come back. So if you would like to listen to those, they are only audio version available because they came out before I started doing video. So you can check them out on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or wherever else you listen to podcasts, but they're all there. So, yeah, we're going to jump on and do the rest of the eight limbs of yoga journey with video and audio. So you've got the option. The eight limbs of yoga is also known as Ashtanga yoga and it comes from the yoga sutras of Patanjali, which is a very ancient text on yoga. We have already gone through all the yama, which is the first limb. Yama means restraint, the five yama, and we're now completing the five niyama. Niyama means personal observances. Okay, so we are completing the first two limbs of yoga with this episode. The fifth niyama is Ishvara Pranidhana, which means surrender. Let's jump into this episode.

Speaker 1: 1:42

Hello, magical Human, and welcome to Madison Mindset Podcast. My name is Madison. I'm a yoga teacher, a mindset and spirituality coach and a complete earth fairy. I see a world that is peaceful and easy to live in, humans that are awakened and enlightened towards who they are and what life truly is and why we are here. I understand life can be really hard. I've had a huge journey with anxiety myself. I understand what it's like to feel overwhelmed, overworked, stressed and frustrated within this earth. It is this journey that led me to begin my own growth journey. It is only through those struggles that I was able to birth this podcast, so that you can have the tools and techniques and knowledge to help you step forward and be a being of light, a magical earthly being who is grounded, supported, who takes on challenges with love and embraces the lessons that each day brings you are that being. I am here to walk you there. You will find many different kinds of episodes through this podcast. All are created in the moment and with love for you. Find the one you need for this moment and enjoy. Take a moment for yourself, sit down with your journal and tune in.

Speaker 1: 3:30

Welcome, let's begin. I'm sorry, in the show notes of this episode. You're going to find two relevant yoga sutras. You're also going to find the breakdown of this word, ishvara Pranidhana. So if you're curious, jump down there and have a look. We're going to go through this together very quickly, but feel free to dive a little bit deeper by checking that out. Check out the traditional way it is written, the traditional sutra. Okay, this is important. It's important knowledge to keep yoga as traditional as possible, as grounded in the text as possible, so that we can get the true benefit of yoga and achieve the true goal of yoga, which is a still peaceful mind.

Speaker 1: 4:54

Okay, so Ishvara Pranidhana is often translated to simply surrender, or faith or devotion. This is a very strange concept, especially for Westerners. If you have not grown up with the idea of surrendering to something other than yourself or to other people, then you may find it's quite a strange idea. Ishvara Pranidhana invites you to let go of your control, the need to control everything. I can liken this to when you go into a doctor or to go and get a surgery. When you go to do that, you have to surrender, you have to trust. You have no control over what's going to happen in the surgery room, over what the doctor is going to find over the quality of the doctor. They're doctor, they know what they're talking about. You have to surrender to that process. Okay, you may surrender to a tattoo artist or someone who might pierce a part of your body Okay, these are more known ideas. The idea of surrendering to getting a needle or whatever it is. You know those kinds of things we're familiar with. Okay, surrender. Surrender to a dentist, surrender to whatever? Okay, you surrender. Surrendering to a higher idea this is a little bit unknown for most people. Okay, this is where you might place a religion in yoga as well. Okay, yoga itself is not a religion, is a philosophy, but it sits beautifully with all religions, religions.

Speaker 1: 6:25

Doesn't matter where you want to take this from. It doesn't matter if you want to say I'm going to surrender to this god or that god or this goddess or that goddess or this faith or that faith. It's completely personal and up to you. You get to choose. You might even simply surrender to life, surrender to the universe, surrender to mother nature, surrender to the earth. Whatever words you would like to choose here. It's completely personal and up to you. Me personally, I like to say life, universe, or even the idea of Buddha or sometimes angels, depends. It depends on the mood, it depends on where I'm at.

Speaker 1: 7:06

So this is a really important concept because in life, what do you really have control over? Your reaction, your reaction, other than that, it's very limited. You have very limited control over life, over what's going to happen, over what the other person is going to say, over what your body does over its lifetime. You have very limited control. And the trouble with many of us is that we're trying to control, we're trying to keep things within our control, we're trying to keep things orderly. This is going to happen and that's going to happen, and what it does is bring a lot of misery for us because we get very upset that our efforts have not achieved anything. Because really you cannot control anything. You can't. You have no control, very little control your reaction. You have 100% control. Anything you can't. You have no control, very little control your reaction. You have 100% control over right, what you choose to do with what's happening to you, what's happening around you, how you choose to react. That's all you. But everything else you have such little control.

Speaker 1: 8:18

You can do a little bit, you know, for example, if you would like a healthy body for as long as possible. You can do a little bit by helping the body, making sure you're working out, maybe doing some yoga, some meditation, fueling the body with good foods, high quality foods. You make sure you're hydrating, make sure you're getting outside. You can make sure you're doing all of those things and that will help. That will definitely help and you're definitely you're doing all of those things and that will help. That will definitely help and you're definitely placing, you know, a little bit of a vote for a healthy body.

Speaker 1: 8:46

But at the end of the day, I've known extremely healthy people to have short lives. It happens. Then I've also seen people who are incredibly unhealthy live to a hundred. You know, I've seen this from firsthand in my family and family friends and I've seen it from a distance, looking outward and people telling me stories. So really, there's a lot you don't have any control over. So you can do the best you can. You do the best you can, but at the end of the day, you don't have a lot of control.

Speaker 1: 9:20

So this Ishvara Pranidhana is a really important part of finding inner peace, because until you can let go, until you can trust, until you can just allow life to do what it's going to do to allow each day to unfold as it unfolds. Until you can let go, you will have this grip of control and this anxiety and pain and fear of trying to hold on to the thing you're trying to control. It's exhausting. There's no peace there, there's no joy there. You have to learn how to let it go and trust that whatever's going to happen, it's going to happen for the right reason. It's going to happen just because it's meant to happen.

Speaker 1: 9:59

You have to be able to trust, and this is where having something to put your faith in helps Human beings thrive off having hope. So, whatever it is that you want to put your faith in, whether it's mother nature, whether it's the human body, whether it's self-healing, whether it's a god or a goddess or this being or that being, whoever or whatever you want to put your faith in it might be multiple things, but put your faith in life, in some part of it, in something higher than yourself, the part of life that you can't control. Did you make all the leaves turn brown and fall off the trees after summer? No, you had no control over that. Okay, so there is something that happens in nature. Things just happen.

Speaker 1: 10:44

So you have to trust that whatever's going to happen with you, around you, to you, is going to be the best thing that can happen, even if you don't think it's the best thing, even if you wouldn't have chosen it. You have to choose to have faith and let go and just enjoy your life Because, like I like I like to remind people all the time you will die at the end of your life, and we don't know if that's tomorrow or in 50 years time, but it will happen. So we have to learn how to let it go. We have to learn how to let things be as they are, let the unfolding of life unfold, and enjoy your time while you're here. Then you can find peace, then you can find joy.

Speaker 1: 11:28

So one of the yoga sutras I put down the bottom in the show notes is Sutra 2.45. And the translation of it is through surrender to Ishvara or the divine, samadhi is attained. Samadhi is enlightenment, complete peace, complete freedom from mental suffering. So you can find mental peace and freedom from the fluctuations, the movement of the mind, the anxiety, the fear, the worry, the regret. The movement of the mind, the anxiety, the fear, the worry, the regret, the guilt, the frustration, all of it you can find peace from that when you surrender, when you let go.

Speaker 1: 12:12

And what are we all doing? Gripping on until our knuckles turn white. Gripping on so hard, trying to control, trying to control, trying to control what if you just let go? Holding on is similar to carrying a backpack with a hundred bricks in it. It's so heavy, so hard to take one step in front of the other, so hard to keep moving forward. Letting go is taking that backpack off and letting life worry about the bricks. Let life worry about where those bricks fall. Let life worry about all of it. You just simply put one foot in front of the other. Enjoy, and you'll notice how much lighter your shoulders feel when you take that backpack off, how much lighter your mind is, your heart is. Everything is so much easier when you relax, when you stop trying to control, and this is not easy. This is where our meditation helps. This is where practicing letting go helps.

Speaker 1: 13:12

Shavasana the end of yoga. We do a shavasana. You lie down in corpse pose. We literally practice letting go of the body Corpse pose. We're practicing dying right. We're lying down and we're letting go of the body Corpse pose. We're practicing dying right. We're lying down and we're letting go of our body weight completely as best we can.

Speaker 1: 13:27

Shavasana is the hardest yoga pose to master and if you see a picture of it online, if you've ever done it it looks like the easiest. It's actually very challenging. It's so challenging that many people who have deep suffering will leave in a yoga class when we get to Shavasana. It's so hard they will leave. That puts it in perspective, right? Shavasana is about letting go. It teaches you to let go and it's incredibly hard because just before you let go, you try and grip on, you try and hold on letting go. It's like taking that jump off a cliff, right? Trusting that you'll land in on a soft cushion. Trusting you'll land in deep water, trusting that you'll be okay, but you don't know. Okay. So you have to have faith in something Trust that life is unfolding as it needs to.

Speaker 1: 14:20

This practice is important. You can literally find it. It is said here in this sutra 2.45, right, you will find peace if you surrender fully, wholeheartedly, with all of yourself. The other sutra I placed in the show notes is sutra 1.23, and it says two, three. And it says or Samadhi is attained as in, peace is achieved by devotion to the Lord.

Speaker 1: 14:49

Now this I often will translate to instead of devotion to the Lord, it could be devotion to nature, devotion to life, devotion to the universe, devotion to whatever your body, to life. Devotion to the universe, devotion to whatever your body, devotion, true devotion to it. What is devotion? What is devotion? What is devotion to your loved one, to a partner, to a child? True devotion? Devotion is often explained by love, loyalty, faith, even observing, so literally devoted to your partner, devoted to your child, devoted to life.

Speaker 1: 15:35

Understand the nature of life. Life is not meant to last forever. Your body is temporary, it's all temporary. Every leaf on every tree will have its time, everything is temporary. We see it in nature all the time, represented through the weather, through the seasons, through the growing, through the death, through the birth, through the rebirth. We see it all the time and you're part of that cycle.

Speaker 1: 15:58

And it's incredibly hard for us to take that. Because how bad do we try and control things? How bad we try and control our age by getting Botox and surgeries and fancy makeup and spending a whole heap of money on stopping the aging process. Do you get anywhere? Not really. You still end up the same place as everyone else, just with a few less dollars in the bank.

Speaker 1: 16:20

Right, we try and control our body. We try and control our hair. Right, hair starts going great. Oh, straight to the hairdresser, fix it, fix it. We try our very best to control. You'll do your hair in the morning. Put on your perfect makeup, cover up every single blemish on your face, cover up all your imperfections. Imperfections, right, quote, right. You'll do everything. You'll put the perfect clothes on. You'll change the shape of your entire body to try and maintain some kind of perfection, some kind of control in this life.

Speaker 1: 16:51

And how do you go? You don't even get to the end of 12 hours. When you leave your bathroom in the morning, when you return to it in the evening, how do you smell? How's the makeup holding up? How's the clothes? You got lunch on them. Your hair's all coming out everywhere. It's all frizzy. You smell. Your clothes have got stains on them. You're sore. Seriously, look what is happening around you. Do you have any control? No, you don't. You don't have any control and it's completely okay. You've got to find a way to be okay with it, because it is how it is and there's nothing we can do about it. We can do about it.

Speaker 1: 17:45

Your only option is to trust, is to let go, and then you'll find some joy in the journey, then you'll find some happiness along the way, some peace. But if you're out there trying to control everything, trying to fix everything, trying to make it all perfect, you're going to have a really hard time, and you probably already are. You've got to let go hard time, and you probably already are. You've got to let go. You've got to let go relax, change your attitude towards life. Think about dedicating your actions, words and thoughts to surrender, to surrender. Let no action try and control anything. Let no word try and control anyone or anything. Let no thought try and be one that's trying to control. Dedicate them all to surrender. Make actions, speak and think in ways that trust Trust your partner, trust your body, trust life, trust it all and do your best. That way you will take action in selflessness, you will take action with faith and gratitude and you'll make better choices. Okay, so this is what we're looking at here is practicing this full letting go process. It's full letting go.

Speaker 1: 18:57

The biggest practice here I want to offer you is meditation, which comes up pretty much every single time. We talk about yoga, philosophy, anything to do with the mind. Meditation very important. Learn to sit in meditation. Sit in a comfortable seat, stay still and keep your eyes closed for the duration of the meditation. For the duration Okay.

Speaker 1: 19:20

On Friday so five days from when this episode comes out we're doing a surrender meditation. It will be on Spotify and Apple. It's just the audio version, so go and check that out. Check out the meditation and do it with me. I'm going to teach you, but the priority is to be still. Whatever happens happens. If you get an itch on your head, leave it. If you get a sore knee or a sore foot, try and leave it, Okay, unless you absolutely have to try and leave it because you're going to teach yourself that things change right. Things don't go as you'd like them to, but you're going to sit there anyway and be peaceful, Okay. So it's really important to practice that, to create the conditions of life not really going the way you wish it was, and then learning how to sit in peace anyway. Really important.

Speaker 1: 20:09

The other thing you can do for Ishvara Pranidhana is to have a daily offering, you know. So, something I like to do. I have beautiful meditation bells just over here on my little meditation. That's nice to be able to show you. So I've got my Buddha statue and a few different offerings and cards and things that mean a lot to me. Every day I will ding meditation bells as a clearing and I'll say hello when I open my yoga studio. I always say hello to the studio, welcome it, say thank you, thank you to the plants, thank you to the nature.

Speaker 1: 20:39

Something I got from Louise Hay and also Ajahn Brahm is to wake up in the morning and go hello life, good morning, hello me, good morning. You know. And actually hello, hello, acknowledging the beauty of life, welcoming life, looking up into the sky. You know something hands on your heart, take a deep breath and be thankful. You know you can find your own way of being devoted to something. You know.

Speaker 1: 21:04

If you are someone who is a part of a particular belief or religion, you may have your own ways of showing faith or devotion. Okay, so do something that lets you practice being devoted and make it part of your routine, and you can be creative with this, or you can be very traditional. It's completely up to you. Maybe doing an aum in the morning or a meditation every morning. Maybe that's your devotion. Choose something and find a way to show your recognition, to show that you surrender, to show that you're not the biggest thing in the world and you're not going to try and control everything To be devoted to the idea of surrender and letting go.

Speaker 1: 21:46

I want to offer you a journaling prompt to end, or even just something to think about. But think about. What are you trying to control right now? What are you trying to control? Are you trying to control if someone likes you or not? Are you trying to control your body? Are you trying to control your part? What are you trying to control and can you let it go? Why are you trying to control? Can you let it go? You don't have any control. If you love something, let it go, right, let it go, and if it comes back to you, it's meant for you. You have to practice letting go so regularly.

Speaker 1: 22:22

Reflect on where are you trying to hold on? What am I trying to control? Where do I feel it in my body? Why is it so hard for me to release it? What am I hoping that happens here? Reflect on yourself. Reflect on why you're trying to control. What are you so scared of? You have to reflect on this within yourself, otherwise you never will and you'll just go about your life, controlling, being let down, being frustrated, never really letting go or surrendering. So you've got to reflect. Where can I let go more? How can I let go more? What's going to help me? Where can I get the help that I need to do this?

Speaker 1: 23:00

If you would like to go a little bit deeper again, check out that meditation. It comes out on Friday, so keep your eye out. And you can also jump over to Patreon. We do a lot of mindset coaching over there, a lot of yoga philosophy, a lot of deep dives, especially in the Magical Mindset subscription. So you can jump on there and access this coaching and information where we go into the practices and we do the how of all of this, of all of these practices, where we go through the how of how to do it. So jump over there, go check it out. The link is in the show notes. It's also sitting on the YouTube channel If you want to go and check that out. Thank you for being here, magical Human. Make sure you subscribe like. Leave a review if you can. If you have a moment, I always appreciate that. Leave a comment if you want to start a conversation. So much love to you. Enjoy the rest of your day. I'm sorry you.