Niyama is the second of Patanjali's eight limbs of yoga, coming right after yama. It brings together five principles aimed at your own life: saucha, santosha, tapas, svadhyaya and ishvara pranidhana. Patanjali singles out the last three as kriya yoga, the yoga of action.
Further down, the app's text goes through the principles one by one, followed by a look at how the niyamas help you keep practicing regularly.
Niyama is the second limb of yoga: five principles of inner discipline. If yama is about your relationship with the world, niyama is about your relationship with yourself.
1. Saucha — purity. Purity of the body (this includes the shatkarmas, the cleansing practices in the Breathwork section), purity of the space around you, and “information hygiene”: what we fill our minds with.
2. Santosha — contentment. The ability to be satisfied with what you have without ceasing to grow. It isn't passivity but the absence of an inner war with reality. In practice, it means accepting your body today instead of waiting for it to “become worthy.”
3. Tapas — discipline, inner fire. The willingness to practice even when you don't feel like it. Tapas is exactly what's behind your streak in this app: every day of practice is a small act of tapas.
4. Svadhyaya — self-study and learning. Observing your reactions, reading texts on yoga, looking honestly inward. Practice on the mat is svadhyaya too: every day, your body tells you something new about yourself.
5. Ishvara pranidhana — trust and surrender. The ability to let go of control over the outcome and simply do your part. For a non-religious person, this is the principle “do what you must, and let go of the result.”
Niyama turns one-off workouts into a path. Discipline without self-punishment, contentment without stagnation, self-study without endless self-analysis: that is mature practice.
Niyamas in Everyday Practice
- Saucha. A clean mat, a fresh-aired room and an empty stomach: asanas feel best two or three hours after a meal. Among the classical cleansing practices, jala neti is the simplest place to start.
- Santosha. On a day when your energy is low, choose the Low-Energy Day sequence, done entirely on the floor, and don't count it as a lesser practice.
- Tapas. Consistency beats records: ten minutes of morning practice every day takes more discipline than one long marathon.
- Svadhyaya. Compare your two sides in asymmetrical poses such as Triangle Pose: the difference between right and left reveals a lot about your habits.
- Ishvara pranidhana. In Savasana you aren't trying to achieve anything; you simply let the practice end. It's good training in letting go of outcomes.
Kriya Yoga
Tapas, svadhyaya and ishvara pranidhana open the second chapter of the Yoga Sutras as a practice of their own, kriya yoga. Patanjali describes its purpose like this: to weaken the kleshas, the roots of suffering, and prepare the mind for concentration.
In plain terms, effort, self-observation and trust in the process together keep a practice stable. They stop it from sliding into either self-punishment or empty routine.
How the Niyamas Keep You Consistent
Attach your practice to something that already happens every day: after your shower, before breakfast or before bed. That's tapas without heroics. Once a week, ask yourself what has shifted in your body and mood, and you're already doing svadhyaya.
And if a week slips by, start over without blaming yourself: that's what santosha and ishvara pranidhana look like in real life.
Hatha Yoga