The Panchamaya Kosha Model: The Foundation of Yoga Therapy

The Upanishads describe a five (pancha) sheathed (kosha) viewpoint of the human system, meaning each person has five layers or bodies, one deeper than the previous, that interrelate and either contribute or detract from health and well-being. Unlike western medicine, which isolates an issue, eastern medicine views issues broadly, meaning an issue in any area will impact all the other layers of existence. The idea is to seek and address the root cause of suffering instead of tending to symptoms. Yoga therapists collaborate with western healthcare practitioners as an adjunct treatment to discover the disconnect within the sheaths, address the findings, and ensure a whole-person healing approach.

The Physical Body: Annamaya Kosha

The first sheath contains the physical body. Beyond our muscles and bones, this sheath also refers to plasma, blood, fats, waste, reproductive material, and nourishment. Yoga therapists use this sheath to support clients in caring for the body with energy & nutrients through eating and movement that supports activity, digestion, cleansing, and rest. Asana is part of this body. However, yoga therapy goes beyond the traditional yoga posture and includes somatic movement, nerve gliding, shaking, functional movement, and myofascial release.

The Energetic Body: Pranamaya Kosha

The second sheath observes life energy (prana) and how it flows to every cell in the body according to its needs. This body encompasses energy, breathing, sleep, the nervous system, nadis, chakras, and vayus. The nadis are energetic channels within the body that converge at eight different areas called the chakras. The vayus are the five directions in which prana moves in the body. One way clients receive support in this body is through breath awareness. Breath awareness is more than observing the breath. It includes how movement, thoughts, and life encounters impact your breathing. Once you recognize your reaction, you can use breathing techniques to change that reaction to support you.

The Mental Body: Manomaya Kosha

The third sheath relates to our minds and how we make sense of the world. The primary categories are instinct, emotion, & core belief system. Yogic philosophy views the mental body as consisting of the senses, the ego, memory, and the ability to discern safety. Throughout our lives, we encounter obstacles, known as kleshas, that create disturbances in the mental body. Yoga therapists use the obstacles as investigative tools, exploring narratives and reactions that often are the root of the problem. In this body, clients begin to notice habits and develop a deeper awareness of emotions and thought processes and how they impact the body. Clients explore various yogic tools to shift patterns that detract from one’s health.

The Wisdom Body: Vijnamaya Kosha

The fourth sheath is our ability to discern using our higher wisdom, nonjudgemental intellect, and consciousness. The Upanishads and Yoga Sutras speak to our ability to make choices that will serve us through observing our senses, collecting information, and listening to our inner guidance versus reacting. Yoga Sutras 2.1, Patanjali suggests a three-part process, called kriya yoga, to cultivate wisdom and bring one into the present moment. The steps include practice (tapas), letting go of judgment while continuing to question and inquire within (svadhyaya), and trust (ishvara-pranidhana). Trust is often the most challenging, as it points to trusting the process. It encourages an attitude of putting in effort, accepting certain types of failure, and continuing to move forward. As a yoga therapist, it is within this body we help our clients dig deep and explore questions such as: ‘Where are you saying no?’ and ‘Where do you want to say yes?’ We then formulate practices to support self-inquiry, curiosity, and trust.

The Joy Body: Annamaya Kosha

The last sheath speaks to our sense of purpose, value, and meaning in the world and our ability to feel connected. Connection indicates our relationship with others as well as something larger than ourselves. Scientifically speaking, this sheath governs the right side of our brain. Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D (2021), explains that the right-thinking hemisphere of the brain connects us to consciousness: open, aware, and accepting everything is exactly as it should be, without judgment, and celebrates life with wonder as we are not just worthy of love, we are love. Research demonstrates that having meaning, purpose, and value in life improves the quality of life and immune function while decreasing inflammation, allostatic load, perceived isolation, and all-cause mortality (Sullivan et al., 2018). Yoga therapists promote eudaimonia by supporting the client’s understanding that suffering arises from their relationship, reaction, and misidentification with life phenomena. Those responses then create a body-mind experience. With yogic practices, clients learn how to shift those patterns toward well-being.

How a Yoga Class differs from a Yoga Therapy Session

The client’s input and the therapeutic use of the panchamaya kosha system are examples of the differences between a yoga class and a yoga therapy session. A yoga class may focus on one or more of the koshas and have outlooks chosen by the teacher, such as levels, themes, peak poses, or a student’s request.

A yoga therapy session focuses on all five koshas and supports the client (or clients) based on their needs and goals for a specific condition. The clients drive the development of the session. Each session includes a dialogue between the therapist and the client (or clients) so that practices are appropriate, accessible, and utilized outside the session.

Whether you take a yoga class or attend a yoga therapy session, you typically walk away feeling better. Why is that? Next month’s issue will include an article detailing the neurochemistry behind yoga, why we feel so good after, and how yoga therapists use this modality to increase eudaimonia.

Taylor, Jill. Bolte. (2021). Whole Brain Living: the Anatomy of Choice and the Four Characters That Drive Our Life. Hay House, Inc.

Sullivan, M. B., Erb, M., Schmalzl, L., Moonaz, S., Noggle Taylor, J., & Porges, S. W. (2018). Yoga Therapy and Polyvagal Theory: The Convergence of Traditional Wisdom and Contemporary Neuroscience for Self-Regulation and Resilience. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 12, 67. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2018.00067

Yoga therapy is a biopsychosocial-spiritual approach to health care. George L. Engel, M.D. was an internist, psychiatrist, scholar, researcher, and teacher who created the biopsychosocial model. In the 1970s, Engel wrote articles describing this model, stipulating that all three levels must be considered in every healthcare situation to provide the most complete diagnoses and treatment plan. He criticized that the current medical system was 1-dimensional and failed to provide adequate care.

In 1989, Larry Payne, PhD, and Richard Miller, PhD founded the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT) to promote yoga as and complementary healing art and science. Yoga therapy is an adjunctive treatment protocol that bridges the biomedical and integrative healthcare gap.

Wright, Watson, & Bell added a spiritual component to Engels’s model in 1996, which IAYT has also incorporated. While the definition of spirituality is broad, the concept focuses on the importance of having meaning, purpose, and value in one’s life. Without it, health and well-being diminish.

The scientific background coincides with the ancient yogic philosophy of Taittiriya Upanishad. In the second chapter, the Taittiriya Upanishad describes a way of considering the human system that incorporates five interconnected “sheaths”— the panchamaya kosha model. Each sheath is vital to one’s health and well-being. The sheaths move from gross, starting with the body, to more subtle layers, addressing all levels of human existence. They are intertwined and dependent on one another—an issue in one will impact all the other layers.

Who are yoga therapists?

Yoga therapists work with clients to improve their health and well-being while considering how biology, psychology, spirituality, and social factors interact and impact the client’s health. Yoga therapists draw from all tools in & related scientific research, complete personalized assessments, and curate care plans that address illness, disease, health, and well-being on all levels while empowering clients through active participation. Additionally, yoga therapists can collaborate with the existing medical team to ensure a whole-person healing approach is in place.

IAYT stipulates that all certified yoga therapists spend a minimum of 1000 hours of education over two years, learning the principles and practices of yoga to promote health and well-being within a therapeutic relationship that includes personalized assessment, goal setting, lifestyle management, and yoga practices for individuals or small groups. Yoga therapist’s education includes principles and practices of yoga, assessment skills, and an understanding of biomedical and psychological foundational principles. Training includes how to eliminate, reduce, and manage symptoms that cause suffering, as well as how to improve function, prevent the occurrence or re-occurrence of underlying causes of illness, and move clients toward improved health and well-being.

Is Yoga different from Yoga Therapy?

Yes! Education and intention are the main differences despite overlapping principles, tools, and benefits. Yoga classes are for those looking to build a mind-body connection under the guidance of teachers who can support healthy individuals. Yoga therapy is for those seeking healing support for an illness, disease, injury, condition, or anything diminishing one’s quality of life.

 

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Substance addiction is a brain disease that takes over one’s life. It interferes with how the brain performs by affecting how neurons send, receive, and process signals via neurotransmitters. Yoga therapy is a complementary and alternative medicine beneficial in treating addiction.

The amygdala, basal ganglia, and prefrontal cortex are the three primary brain structures impacted by addiction. These three structures appear in two interrelated networks, the anterior cingulate cortex hub (ACC), and amygdala hub (Hanson, 2009). These systems offer top-down (ACC) and bottom-up (amygdala) approaches to motivational behavior. Ideally, these two hubs support one another and, in turn, reduce suffering. Yoga therapy harmonizes the disconnect between the ACC and amygdala hubs seen in substance abuse alleviating suffering and cultivating self-regulation, resilience, and eudaimonia.

When the ACC and amygdala become out of sync or in conflict, it creates and perpetuates suffering. Suffering is an embodied experience occurring via the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPAA). When drug effects diminish, or withdrawal occurs, the amygdala is triggered and, according to Hanson, is “hardwired to focus on negative information and react intensely to it” (2009).

The basal ganglia’s responsibility is rewards, stimulation, and movement. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that corresponds with the basal ganglia. When released, it has a wide-reaching effect on the brain and is involved in rewards, attention to stimuli, and motivation (Hanson, 2009). Healthy reward circuits receive a burst of dopamine when a reward is met and requires a recall. Dopamine changes the neural connectivity to that action, causing a more natural repeated response in the future, leading to the formation of habits. Unfortunately, substance abuse alters this natural response to seek out substances at the expense of other, healthier goals and activities.

Withdrawals cause the body to prepare for survival instincts responses of fight or flight. The brain starts shifting between the amygdala’s stress response, noting a disturbance, and the basal ganglia, seeking out past behavior to produce the desired result, which ultimately reduces impulse control of the prefrontal cortex through compulsively seeking out a drug (NIDA, 2009). The prefrontal cortex’s executive function declines because the SNS/HPAA emphasizes negativity and impulses, diminishing logic, appraisals, and intentions (Hanson, 2009). This circuit causes users to enter into a vicious and never-ending cycle of disappointment and reward-seeking due to tolerance.

Yoga therapy offers top-up techniques (mindfulness, meditation, and attention regulation), impacting the ACC, and bottom-down techniques (breath and movement practices), affecting the amygdala to support substance abuse. Working jointly with top-down and bottom-up approaches fosters collaboration and harmony between the two hubs and influences the regulation of the autonomic nervous system by decreasing the activation and impact of the SNS and HPAA. Autonomic regulation allows substance abuse users to end the cycle of extreme volleying between states of stress and reward. Self-regulation is cultivated, which is the conscious ability to maintain stability by accurately perceiving and adjusting one’s responses and reactions to threats or adversity. Self-regulation contributes to the development of resilience, allowing individuals to return to homeostasis quickly when experiencing stressful situations, and enabling the conservation of internal and psychophysiological resources.

Yoga therapy supports clients by seeking out the underlying cause of a condition. It aims to enhance a personal relationship between nature and self to strengthen regulation, resilience, and systemic well-being. Individuals learn to recognize the natural fluctuating states of life and how to navigate to restore and maintain homeostasis. Yoga therapy cultivates sustained attention, concentration, emotional regulation, and personal & spiritual growth. All of which enable cessation of habits and re-appraisal of natural stimuli, so one no longer avoids, grasps, or flees from life situations while improving their rationality, values, and worldviews.

 

Ready for a session? Learn more about yoga therapy for substance abuse

References:
Hanson, R., & Mendius, R. (2009). Buddha’s Brain: The practical neuroscience of happiness, love & wisdom. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications.

National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2018). Drugs, Brains, and Behavior: The Science of Addiction. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugs-brains-behavior-science-addiction/drug-misuse-addiction

Learn more about yoga therapy programs for substance abuse →

Fields (2001) defines yama as moral self-restraint and niyama as moral commitments. Each has five subcategories as follows:
Yamas

• Ahimsa (non-injury)
• Satya (truthfulness)
• Asteya (non-stealing)
• Brahmacarya (restraint of sensual and sexual enjoyment)
• Aparigraha (non-acquisitiveness)

Niyamas

• Sauca (purity)
• Santosa (contentment)
• Tapas (self-discipline)
• Svadhaya (self-education)
• Isvara-Pranidhana (surrender to god) (Fields, 2001, p. 106-112)

The yamas and niyamas are habits recommended to assist in reaching liberation and reduce suffering. Each concept works with and builds upon another without rank in a heterarchy style. There are countless ways to incorporate each into daily life. Below are a few examples of how to facilitate working with each.

YAMAS
We can begin by looking at the first two yamas together as they relate to the physical yoga practice. By practicing ahimsa, one would be altering their yoga practice daily to support their physical state. The student would be taking care of their own body, preventing injury, by not forcing him or herself into postures. Additionally, by practicing satya, practitioners would acknowledge if they experience pain and verbalize that to their teacher instead of ignoring it.

The next three yamas can be viewed with a literal translation or by taking a broader view, which may be more applicable to 21st-century living. Asteya’s literal translation non-stealing could be viewed simply by not taking physical goods from a store without paying for them. However, taking a broader view, one could consider the idea of stealing energy or time, a problem that seems to be more apparent in today’s society.

Brahmacarya is often viewed as abstinence and dealing with sexuality, which is limiting. It is not necessarily the absence of the activity but the attachment to it and the energy given or lost from it. A broader view of brahmacharya could include general energy conservation and ideologies associated with its actions or lack thereof. Practicing time-management skills and not overcommitting would be a form of brahmacharya.

Lastly, aparigraha is the practice of non-attachment. A literal translation often implies eliminating material goods, which is impractical in today’s society. The current world is one of material, and thus possessions are part of living in that world. Practicing aparigraha takes and uses the material items one needs without excess or definition to one’s character.

NIYAMAS
As we transition into the niyamas, it is helpful to view each concept as it relates to a single task. Let’s begin by looking at the job of washing dishes. Sauca, which is purity, applies directly to the task. The process of cleaning dishes is to eat from clean dishes to prevent illness due to bacteria that would build on soiled dishes. Santosa, contentment, would be completing the task of washing dishes without self-praise or deprecation. It would also include doing the dishes without expecting one to receive anything other than clean dishes. If one does the dishes to earn perceived accolades or favors from a spouse, one would no longer be practicing santosa.

Tapas is the discipline to clean the dishes regardless of preference or desire. For example, some days, one may not mind doing the dishes; one may even enjoy it. Other days there may be a dread or avoidance to do them. Regardless the task is completed, which is tapas. Now, by studying and investigating why one experiences varying degrees of desire or avoidance in doing the dishes, that would be svadhaya.

Last is the concept of isvara-pranidhana, another idea often with a limited view, surrendering to god. The philosophy is not merely about devotion to a higher being; it is about relinquishing the ego. Life is no longer about self-fulfillment; but instead, life is a process that can bring about liberation when done wisely.

References:
Fields, G. (2001). Religious Therapeutics: Body and Health in Yoga, Ayurveda, and Tantra. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press

 

Do you have a home practice? Read more here

Developing a home practice can be challenging, especially when you are trying to transition from a studio-led approach to a home self-practice. Whether your schedule prevents you from making it to studio classes or looking to have an avenue at home to unwind, having a home practice is beneficial on many levels.

I have had a consistent home practice since 2010. I currently practice 2 hours a day, 5 times per week. There is a sacredness one builds with a home practice that public classes cannot replicate. In a home practice, the balance and understanding of the body, mind, and spirit connection authentically come to light. While I now have a solid, consistent home practice that I could not imagine not having, it didn’t start that way.

At first, I began my home practice with a yoga DVD for 45 minutes once a week. I did this because I could not make it to a studio due to my work schedule. I started once a week for 45 minutes because it was realistic and relatively easy to budget into my life. Slowly and progressively, I built my home practice from 45 minutes once a week to my current 120 minutes five times a week. I did this over five years, slowly adding time and days to my practice as my schedule and life allowed. I went from DVDs, to pre-recorded online classes, to Ashtanga. I went from building a home practice based on schedule practicality to having a home practice out of choice. During this time, I’ve found the key to developing a home practice is cultivating a few guidelines.

Where to Begin:

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel and spend hours trying to create guidelines. The eight limbs of yoga have already done that for you with the second limb of yoga, the niyamas. The niyamas are five principles that refer to your relationship with yourself. So let’s set up your space with the five niyamas in mind.

1. Sauca (Purification)

Purification can be as simple as dedicating a space in your home where only your practice will occur. If you have the luxury to take an entire room, do so, but don’t clutter the room with miscellaneous items that do not pertain to your practice, as this will take away from the intended space. If you do not have an entire room to dedicate to yoga, then block off an area in your house where nothing else will occur. Whether working with a room or a dedicated space, you can include a few items like wall hangings, crystals, or statues to personalize the space. Be selective with what you add into your space and avoid adding unrelated or unnecessary items. Choose only a few things that are sacred to you and have meaning. Keeping the area pure will aid in your ability to drop into your practice and stay focused.

2. Samtosa (Contentment)

Contentment is a state of satisfaction. When having a home practice, one area that prevents a condition of satisfaction is distractions. Have your space prepared with props, lighting, & window coverings so that you do not need to leave your mat to make any adjustments. Distractions come pouring in the moment you step off your mat. If you prepare your space wisely, you can be content to stay on your mat, which will reduce the number of distractions going on. Also, make this time a phone-free time. Turn it on silent and keep it out of your space to avoid distractions from friends, family, and work.

3. Tapas (Discipline)

Tapas can be the most challenging, for it is your responsibility to hold yourself accountable. Set realistic and defined parameters for your practice. For example, dedicate a time in your day when you can practice and a specified length of time. Pick a time and duration that will be relatively consistent and be the least disruptive to your day-to-day life, and set boundaries for your practice with members of your household. Let them know that during this time, you are unavailable. Work with your surroundings. I have two adorable pups that want to be with me all the time, which I love! So, to maintain contentment in my practice, I’ve trained them that if they’d like to share in my practice time, they must stay in their beds.

4. Svadhyaya (Study)

Svadhyaya allows you the opportunity to focus and learn what is going on within yourself while you practice. During led classes, part of your attention diverts to the teacher. You are trying to listen, incorporate cues, and go along with the sequence as they teach it. At home, all of your attention can be on you. Accountability also comes into play here. If you do not have a yoga practice that comes with a set sequence like Ashtanga, you will need a teacher’s help to create a set practice for yourself. Without a routine, the tendency is only to practice what you like.

Additionally, you want to ensure your practice is well-balanced and appropriate for you. You will need to assess your practice daily and decide when it is time to reconnect with a teacher. You will need periodic feedback on what you are doing solo to stay safe and make adjustments to your practice to grow. If you do not feel ready to completely dive into a home practice where it truly is just you and your mat, try using DVDs and online yoga classes to help you step away from being in a public class. Once you get comfortable practicing at home, seek a teacher’s help to create a unique practice for you or learn a style of yoga that has a set sequence.

5. Ishvarapranidhana (Surrender)

Ishvarapranidhana is to surrender. Surrender that a home practice will be different from a studio practice. Surrender that there will be positives and negatives to your home practice. Welcome the idea that not everyday or practice will be the same or have the same outcomes. Let go of expectation and know that what you show up with and how it goes is part of the journey. Surrender to the experience and let go of the expectations.