One of yoga’s oldest texts, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, offers ten ethical precepts, known as the yamas and niyamas, that serve both as foundational steps to enlightenment and as invitations for students to be in right relationship with themselves and others. These include principles of non-harming, truthfulness, contentment and moderation, while the tenets of effort, self-reflection and surrender comprise the basis for all skillful action. Indeed, they have had a lasting and important influence on established ethical systems throughout the world. 

Although these precepts are traditionally paired with yoga’s postural and breath practices, many students find them somewhat challenging to learn and live by. In fact, many report that activities off the mat, such as swimming, cycling and walking, can offer meditative opportunities for integrating these behaviors into their lives. Some even feel that their off-the-mat work helps them have a deeper understanding of the precepts while they’re on the mat, creating a rewarding and meaningful learning loop that, in turn, helps them integrate yoga into all parts of their lives. 

Cherry Porter, a longtime Decatur resident, began practicing yoga seven years ago after years of engaging in other movement practices, including aerobics instruction, competitive running and scuba diving. She took up lap swimming at the same time as starting yoga and continues to enjoy both. She feels it has turned into a feedback loop of learning: meeting yoga’s ethical principles off the mat and bringing them onto the mat again has given her “a new reason to be alive,” she says.

The Practicalities of Non-Harming

Ahimsa, or non-harming, is one of the ethical principles dedicated to being in right relationship with others. In the yoga studio, it’s possible to put the mat down gently, close the door quietly and move and speak with consideration. The environment is conducive to resisting criticism of oneself, others, clothing or mannerisms. But the yoga studio space is designed to enable these softer behaviors. In contrast, public roads, cycling lanes, hiking trails—and, of all things, shared swimming lanes at public pools—can make embodying them much more challenging. 

Paula Anderson is a movement specialist who, until her recent retirement, taught various movement practices at Emory University. She remains active in cycling, swimming and yoga, in particular. Through her weekly experience of sharing pool spaces, she encounters the concept of non-harming and making choices for the greater good rather than personal benefit.

“Pools are a shared space,” she says, “but no one wants to share a lane! Wrists are clanking, you’re kicking each other, and no one wants that. But it’s the right thing to do!” Porter empathizes. “I hate waiting for a lane, and I don’t like sharing lanes, either. But I don’t want to not share. I empathize with that person waiting.”

Christine Vanroosen, a Brookhaven resident and longtime yogi and swimmer, feels that most people, including her, are attached to their own preferences to the point of selfishness. “In crowded yoga classes, it can be very territorial, and it’s because we like where we’re comfortable.” She feels that sharing a lane is good yoga practice, putting the greater good ahead of her own comfort. 

But ahimsa is a personal practice, too. Easing up on self-imposed benchmarks around lap times, mileage cycled or perfection are all ways of practicing self-compassion off the mat. 

Buying an e-bike was a pivotal moment for Anderson. “It was to the point where I knew I was hurting myself—my back, my knees—and I thought, ‘I want to feel that I’m strengthening my body, not tearing it down.’” Vanroosen similarly notes that non-harming was more evident in the water: “I try to go through the water as smoothly as I can, where I know I’m not hurting myself.”


Kenneth Anderson, Paula’s husband, is a competitive swimmer, a cyclist and has been practicing yoga for just over five years. Like Vanroosen, he intentionally works with his movement practices off the mat to embody ahimsa. “I tend to get injured because of overuse or over-efforting, so I specifically try to not do self-harm and to rather do things that will let me get better without hurting myself.” 

Truthfulness and Self-Reflection, Hand in Hand

A focus on non-harming dovetails well with satya, or truthfulness, and svadhyaya, or self-reflection. Kenneth Anderson believes there’s a fine balance between working toward one’s goals and softening to truthfulness around one’s own condition. “It can be a bit of a battle sometimes,” he says. “As an athlete, I’ve always done self-study. With swimming, it’s just you and the water—and there’s no other distractions.”

Vanroosen says that honest self-reflection helps her find the right balance between tapas—disciplined effort—and non-harming. “I try to be very cognizant of my state of mind, how much sleep I’ve had, how much food. Sometimes I push a little bit, but I’m not gonna hurt myself. Balance is essential.” Paula Anderson points out that water’s density demands efficiency, making swimming an ideal environment for self-reflection. She says, “All the ways that you can cause more turbulence or more resistance: they matter. So you want resistance in the right times, in the right ways.”

The efforting of tapas is often associated with challenge. Whether it’s getting on the bike during wintry conditions, recognizing uncomfortable mind-chatter that arises during swimming or cycling, tapas is about showing up for experience in a way that leads to change. In her seminal work, The Yamas & Niyamas, Deborah Adele also relates tapas to “right resistance,” and describes it as taking the weather forecast before doing a controlled burn of a field. You want to check the conditions before you light the match, she writes. Similarly, when we dedicate ourselves to something challenging, it’s best to apply the correct amount of resistance to the body, the mind and the situation, rather than applying too much or too little effort.

“That’s where the tapas has come in for me,” says Paula Anderson. “I swim every week, even when it’s 43 degrees and raining out. Even when I don’t want to.” Porter notes that despite discomfort during swimming, it benefits her chronic pain for hours afterward, so she continues. As BKS Iyengar has written, “Sometimes we have to put the clay in the oven.”

A Deeper Contentment

In the Sutras, the yamas and niyamas are positioned as an important way to ease suffering. The precepts of non-harming, truthfulness, disciplined effort, and self-reflection need to be present in all endeavors, but so must a present-minded clarity or mindfulness that leads to being content with what is. The sutras teach that contentment through mindfulness will actually lead the aspirant to a better sense of her bliss body, thus moving her further along her path to enlightenment. She then re-dedicates herself to effort, self-study and the other yamas and niyamas, and the cycle of learning begins anew. 


Present-minded clarity is just one way of thinking about the niyama sauca, which literally translates to “cleanliness,” but holds the meaning of “mindfulness” in popular culture. For many yoga students, mindfulness starts as connecting with pleasure and gratitude. Porter, for example, begins every swim with two-thirds of a lap underwater—just to feel it. Kenneth Anderson encourages beginning swimmers to connect with the sensations of being in the water like a fish, because “it just feels nice.” Like Anderson, Vanroosen begins her swims by being mindful of the pleasure of swimming along the bottom of the pool.

What follows is a balancing act of effort, self-reflection and contentment—which becomes the “skillful action” of yoga. “A lot of athletes struggle with being content with what they’re putting into the sport [and] how they’re doing. It’s a balancing act of being content that you’re putting enough effort in. You know, it’s putting in the right effort.” 

This deeper contentment isn’t only available in the experience of water; Paula Anderson feels it in cycling, too. “I’d say it’s mostly the santosha of the experience—of seeing what I’m seeing, appreciating that I’m out there doing it and being in good company. At that moment, I feel I’m the luckiest person in the world. Joy wells up in me, and it’s immeasurable.” ❧

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Patricia Schmidt, C-IAYT, E-RYT 500, YACEP, is a certified yoga therapist specializing in pelvic health, accessible yoga and yoga for cancer support. She is a Franklin Method trainer, Roll Model method teacher and somatic movement specialist. To learn more, visit PLSYoga.com.