Saucha / Shaucha (Purification and Cleanliness)
This Niyama emphasises the importance of purity and cleanliness of the body and mind. The practices of asana, pranayama, and meditation cleanse and purify the body and mind, as well as strengthen their capacity to maintain a pure state of being. Cleanliness of body and mind leads to clarity and a sense of peace.
“Through cleanliness and purity of body and mind (shaucha), one develops an attitude of distancing, or disinterest towards one’s own body, and becomes disinclined towards contacting the bodies of others. ”
However, it doesn’t just mean physical or mental cleanliness.
Saucha also encourages you to maintain cleanliness in your environment. This may be your office, home or community. You must also consciously work at surrounding yourself with a pure environment (including food, drink, friends, entertainment, home furnishings, and transportation) to not add any external impurities back into your body or mind. For example, minimising caffeine, junk food, social media and chemicals that you have in your home.
Cultivating Saucha gives you the ability to recognise the habits you have picked up in your life that no longer serve you or are not healthy for you.
When you take your ‘bad’ habits onto the mat with you, then your practice becomes a lot harder. Each time you practice, you have to sift through the ‘impurities’ or negativity you’ve picked up before reaping the benefits.
Off your mat, you can time each day to ensure your home, office environment is clean and tidy. That you plan your meals to facilitate making healthy and wholesome choices when it comes to food and drink. And that you pause each day to reflect on habits that are no longer serving you and make a plan to change them.
“Also through cleanliness and purity of body and mind (shaucha) comes a purification of the subtle mental essence (sattva), a pleasantness, goodness and gladness of feeling, a one-pointedness with intentness, the conquest or mastery over the senses, and a fitness, qualification, or capability for self-realization. ”
Take time, and maybe even write down, how you feel in your body and your mind at the start and as well as after you have started to make changes. Keep a track of your progress with time.
I weave Saucha into my life by trying to ensure my kitchen is clean before I go to bed, making sure my desk is tidy at the end of a day and drinking water regularly. I find that when I do, the morning doesn’t require as much effort to get started.