The Three Gunas or Qualities

Following on from my post about the “Magic of Three” and keeping in mind the images and analogies of the triangle and a bar stool, lets delve into the Three Gunas (goon nahs).

Yoga philosophy defines three qualities or Gunas (in Sanskrit) in their simplest form as:

  • sattwa (saht wah), or light
  • rajas (rah juhs), or activity
  • tamas (tah muhs), or inertia

In fact, they are actually “stacked” as lowest, middle and highest as shown above . All things from food, places, animals and of course people have one of more of these qualities and while we continue to work to balance these three qualities and strive to develop higher and higher energies, the easiest movement is downwards into tamas (lethargy) or rajas (activity). Staying connected and developing or ascending into the quality of clarity or Sattwa is the most difficult.

While it may seem important to strive to develop Sattwa, I believe that it is equally important that a balanced amount of all three qualities are maintained and here is why.

Tamas refers to heaviness, dullness, lethargy and laziness. Initially one would look at that list and think “Whoo-boy! I don’t want any tamas in my life thanks.” But remember the triangle and the bar stool. While an excess of tamas can result in lethargy, laziness, boredom and a dull and unconscious life (and your yoga practice), a balanced amount of tamas is required for rest, rejuvenation and restoration all of which are important if we are to maintain a healthy body, a fresh perspective and a happy mind and soul.

Rajas, the middle quality refers to motion, stimulation, intensity and activity. An excess here manifests in an aggressive or overactive practice and can result in nervousness, stress, irritability, anxiousness or even an imbalance in tamas (inertia). In balance, rajas is vital, energetic, enthusiastic and dynamic and allows us to get out there into the world (or onto our mats) so that we can show up as healthy, vibrant individuals and enjoy our lives and enrich those of others.

The final Guna, sattwa in excess can manifest as too much mental activity resulting in disconnection, airness, disorientation and a lack of grounding but if in balance sattwa brings awareness, peace and insight. It allows us to develop clarity, wisdom and connection and allows us to show up as centred and authentic yogi’s (on and off the mat!).

Having awareness of the  the three Gunas I hope you can appreciate and observe their interplay both on and off the mat, learning to balance and appreciate the qualities they bring to your practice and your life. ENJOY!

Sat Nam ~ Love and light ~ Margot

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Inspirational talks - Brene Brown on the Power of Vulnerability

The Talk

One of the most inspirational talks I have seen in a while. Brene Brown is an exceptional speaker. Whitty, sincere (or do I say authentic?), smart and kind.

Watching her Ted Talk (approx. 20 minutes) is time well spent and will leave you with a lot to think about.

Some jewels from the talk:

Courage: From the Latin word “cuer” which means Heart. Courage therefore means to tell the story of who you are with your whole heart. To have the courage to be imperfect and be OK with that.

Compassion: To be kind to yourself first and then to others because we can’t practice compassion with others if be can’t be kind to ourselves.

Connection: comes as a result of being authentic. This means having the ability to let go of who you think you should be in order to be who you are.

Vulnerability: Is at the root of fear, shame and our struggle for worthiness but it is also the birthplace of job, of creativity, of love and belonging.

What we do when we numb ourselves: We cope with not allowing ourselves to be vulnerable by numbing our emotions and feelings. But the issue is that you cannot selectively numb emotion. You can’t say “here’s the bad stuff. Here’s fear, here’s shame, here’s grief and disappointment  . I don’t want to feel these so I’m going to have a couple of beers and a banana-nut muffin.”

You can’t numb these hard feelings without numbing the other affects or emotions. So when we numb those we numb joy, we numb gratitude, we numb happiness. So then we feel miserable and we are looking for purpose and meaning so then we feel vulnerable and we have a couple of beers and a banana-nut muffin and we enter a vicious cycle.

The video. ENJOY!


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The Magic of Three - Triangles and Bar Stools

The Chinese believe that the number three is a lucky or good number because it sounds very similar to the word “Alive”. I loved reading that because it seemed so synchronous with the new year and a new commitment to living more consciously. So…I thought I would share my thoughts in a series of blog posts. I’m on the look-out for the magic number three and more significantly for this blog where it is found in relation to Yoga and its [...]