The Koshas in Yoga

We don’t only work with our physical bodies when we practice yoga. That much is clear when you experience a change in mood, energy or perspective after a yoga session.

The Koshas in yoga explain how and why what we do on the mat works beyond just the physical and why yoga is a great practice for managing stress, anxiety, overwhelm, and generally developing more equilibrium in life. Read on for more and a 30 minute practice to connect with your Koshas.

More than just physical balance

What are the Koshas?

Yogic tradition explains the Koshas as the different layers of our being.

There are 5 Koshas, starting with the physical body (Annamayakosha) and becoming progressively more subtle; Pranamayakosha, the energy body; Manomayakosha, the mental body; Vijnanamayakosha, the wisdom or intuitive body; Anandamayakosha, the bliss or emotional body.

It may seem pretty abstract at first to describe the mind, energy or emotions as a “body” but in many ways it makes a lot of sense. All of these aspects of ourselves permeate across our bodies and affect each other (e.g. you may shake when you’re nervous or experience joy when you’re energised or feel a pit in your stomach when you have a bad feeling about something).

The Koshas interact with each other and we may experience one through working with another. For example when you sit to meditate and focus on your breath (Pranamayakosha), your Manomayakosha or mental state often makes itself known.

How do we work with the Koshas in yoga?

We don’t often address the Koshas directly in our yoga practices, but that doesn’t mean we don’t work with them a lot.

Primarily, hatha or physical yoga works with the Annamayakosha and Pranamayakosha (physical and energy bodies) by focusing on movement and breath.

These Koshas are the most tangible and therefore the most straightforward to work with.

As the Koshas are all interlinked, when we develop our relationship with the physical body and the breath we also develop greater insights into the other parts. As our yoga practices encourages health and vitality in our physical body we may notice greater mental and emotional equilibrium begin to emerge too.

When we work with themes like lengthening, hip opening and deepening the breath in a yoga class we may use the Annamayakosha and Pranamayakosha as a gateway to working on the other Koshas.

People are known to report emotional breakthroughs after hip opening or focused breath work practices and it’s common to hear that practitioners feel “blissed out” after class. The more we practice, the more we also tend to work with Vijnanamayakosha and develop our own self-knowledge and intuition.

Why work with the Koshas in yoga?

It’s perfectly possible to work with the Koshas without having to know or understand the concept itself. The tradition considers that Koshas are inherent to us as humans and our yoga practices will work with and through them whether we are consciously considering it or not. A bit like using grammar in language.

Because the Koshas are interlinked with one another, as we spend more time practicing yoga and or start to notice more experiences and results of our practice, it can be helpful to understand the Koshas as context for what’s going on. For example, might start to get a much better connection with ourselves, our intuition and sense of innate wisdom at a certain point, and the Koshas show this isn’t just a random coincidence.

If we’re practicing yoga to support our mental health, manage stress, overwhelm or anxiety, the framework of the Koshas is also extremely helpful. You may have spotted that these are particularly functions of the more subtle Koshas.

For example, for someone who is experiencing racing thoughts due to anxiety it may not be useful to do practices such as mindfulness meditation which confront the manomayakosha directly, but knowing that working mindfully with the body and the breath will influence the quality of the mind is very reassuring and gives us useful tools to help.

Can we balance the Koshas in yoga?

Strictly speaking the Koshas do not require “balancing” as they are an interrelated system. In the hatha yoga tradition the health of each part influences the whole. So as we work to understand and develop the wellbeing of our physical body through yoga asana practices, we automatically influence the health of our mental, emotional, intuitive and energetic selves too.

In the same vein, if we work on emotional Self development (e.g via therapy or courses outside yoga) we may notice changes in our physical and energetic selves as our emotional health changes.

The key is that through an understanding of the Koshas we can notice these changes and perhaps use them as gateways for further, positive change.

What are the benefits of working with the Koshas in our yoga practice?

The Koshas help us to understand why we can notice a difference in our energy levels, emotions or mental state after practicing yoga.

This is especially helpful if we’re practicing yoga to support our mental health, to help with stress, anxiety or overwhelm, because it means that in working with movement & breath we’re not just randomly getting mental & emotional health benefits.

The more we work mindfully into the Annamayakosha and the Pranamayakosha, the better insight and balance we will develop with the intuitive, mental and emotional sides of ourselves.

If we are looking to be able to work more directly with these subtle parts of ourselves, for example to access focus and concentration in meditation and elsewhere, to improve our mental health overall or keep a cool, compassionate head when triggered, then consciously working with the Koshas in our yoga practice may give us clues as to how we can extend our practice, even off the yoga mat.

Is there anyone who shouldn't work with the Koshas in yoga?

Really speaking, everyone will work with them. But you don't need to consciously work with them if it doesn't make sense to you or you don't find it helpful.

A practice to connect with your 5 Koshas

Join me for this 30 minute meditation, breathwork and movement practice to connect with your 5 Koshas. Comment below on how you found it!

30 minute 5 Koshas Practice

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