Bring Brahmacharya Into Your Yoga Practice

Use asana, mantra, and mudra to maintain vitality and bring into focus the subtle and not-so-subtle ways the yama plays out in your life.

Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members! Download the app.

Incorporate brahmacharya (maintenance of vitality) into your yoga practice with an asana, mantra, and mudra to help bring into focus the subtle and not-so-subtle ways the yama plays out in your life.

Brahmacharya translates as the concept of celibacy or, applied to a more modern lifestyle, it is the art of continency, sustaining energy, and not depleting your vitality. To incorporate brahmacharya into your own life and practice, start with the posemudra (hand-and-finger gesture), and mantra (a sacred utterance repeated continuously) below. Do this practice on its own, add more poses with the accompanying 10-minute video sequence, or link all of the yamas and niyamas together, one pose as a time, forming a sequence.

Brahmacharya Yoga Practice

Hold the pose, with its mudra, for 3–5 breaths, mindfully chanting, aloud or internally, its accompanying mantra.

coral brown, child's pose, balasana, brahmacharya

Asana: Balasana (Child’s Pose)

Come onto your knees with your toes touching and relax your belly on your thighs. The restorative and insular nature of Child’s Pose summons the parasympathetic nervous system to facilitate relaxation and renewal.

coral brown, santosha prana  mudra

Mudra: Prana Mudra

Extend your arms forward and bring your thumb, ring, and pinky fingers on each hand to touch while lengthening the index and middle fingers. This gesture of Prana Mudra elicits the vitality that resides within our prana, or life force.

Mantra Meditation: Om somaye namaha

Chanting the mantra Om somaye namaha calls upon the rejuvenating nectar (soma) that drips from the moon in Hindu mythology and washes away stress that causes you to feel depleted.

See also Path to Happiness: 9 Interpretations of the Yamas + Niyamas

Watch the video

To tie it all together, or to deepen your work around brahmacharya, try this restorative 10-minute practice with Coral Brown.

PREVIOUS YAMA PRACTICE Aparigraha (non-possessiveness)
NEXT NIYAMA PRACTICETapas (purification through discipline)
RETURN TO Live Your Yoga: Discover the Yamas + Niyamas

Popular on Yoga Journal