Show Notes
PRACTICE WITH US: 365 Sadhana Sangha https://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join 100 Hr Asana Sadhana Dharma https://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto 200 Hr Yoga Teacher Training Sri Lanka 2026 https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka 50 Hr Online Yin Yoga Teacher Training https://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-oto
ON THIS WEEK’S EPISODE: Have you ever noticed how some people aren’t actually exhausted they’re just scattered? In this episode we explore Samāna, the balancing, gathering, integrating principle that brings us back into the centre when life feels dispersed. This conversation reframes nourishment as equilibrium: when the system returns to homeostasis, every layer of life is fed. We unpack why more effort, more intensity, and more “input” doesn’t fix burnout and what’s missing is integration. You’ll learn how Samāna works through breath, body, digestion, and the mind, and how balance becomes the foundation that lets you move through life with clarity, buoyancy, and ease.
DEFINITION & ETYMOLOGY: • Samāna / Samana - the equalising, gathering, integrating principle of prāṇa• Root sama (सम) - equal, together, whole, unified, complete• A key distinction explored in this episode:– samāna as a quality of balance and equilibrium– samāna as a vāyu (a specific action of prāṇa in the body), often linked with digestion and the navel centre
KEY CONCEPTS & INSIGHTS: • Feeling “burnt out” is often dispersed energy, not a lack of energy• Adding more intensity (hard practice, heavy breathwork, more doing) can further deplete a scattered system• Samāna is the force that brings you back to centre physically, mentally, emotionally• Balance is not an extreme: yoga continually returns us to the middle ground• Water as nourishment = equilibrium, buoyancy, and the ability to stay afloat• When you know what imbalance feels like, you gain a reference point for what balance actually is
TEXTUAL & TRADITIONAL SOURCES: • Charaka Saṃhitā (Chapter 12) - Samāna vāyu digests the nutritive essence of food• Charaka Saṃhitā - Samāna resides in the abdominal / belly region• Aṣṭāṅga Hṛdayam - Samāna assists Agni (digestive fire): it steadies the fire rather than being the fire itself
PRACTICAL INTEGRATION: • Nāḍī Śodhana (alternate nostril breathing) to balance Iḍā and Piṅgalā• Sama Vṛtti (equal ratio / box breathing) e.g. 4 in / 4 hold / 4 out / 4 hold• Twisting postures to gather awareness into the belly and create an internalising, centring effect• Balancing postures (like tree pose) as a lived training of returning to centre• Reflect: where does your energy disperse (work, relationships, social media)? What brings you back?• Track the last 24 hours: what pulled you out, what restored you
SHARE & CONNECT Thank you for listening to the Om Som Yoga & Ayurveda Podcast. Please share this episode with someone it might support, and connect with us on social media or via our website. Instagram: @OmSom.yoga Website: OmSom.yoga We operate a yoga studio in Berwick, Victoria, Australia, offering classes, workshops, and Yoga Teacher Training programs. We’d love to connect with you wherever you are on your journey.
HARI OM
More from Om Som Yoga + Ayurveda Podcast
PRACTICE WITH US✦ Practice Online — Sadhana Sangha: 5 practices per month, asana workshops, subtle body techniques & Yoga Sūtra translation https://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join✦ OmSom App (free) — Yoga philosophy, Sanskrit study & our online community. Search OmSom in the App Store✦ 100 Hr Yoga Teacher Training — Asana Sadhana Dharma bridging course https://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto✦ 200 Hr YTT — Sri Lanka Immersion 2027 https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka✦ 300 Hr YTT — Online & India Immersion 2026/2027 https://omsom.yoga/300-hour-advanced-hatha-yoga-training✦ 50 Hr Yin YTT — Online https://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-oto✦ Practice in Person — Classes, workshops & community in Berwick, Victoria https://omsom.yoga/book-a-class IN THIS EPISODEWhat's the fastest way to steady a restless mind? Most would say discipline. Patañjali offers a shortcut in his very first chapter: īśvara-praṇidhānād vā — "or, by devotion." The mind doesn't need to be forced; it takes the shape of whatever it dwells upon. Week three of THE PATHS OF YOGA is BHAKTI YOGA, the path of devotion — where love itself is the vehicle, and emotion, the most unruly force in human life, becomes the most direct road home. We open with Hanumān breaking open Sītā's priceless pearls one by one — "if Rāma is not inside it, it has no value to me" — and what the court saw when he tore open his own chest. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN✦ Bhakti from the root bhaj — "to share, to partake, to belong to": not worship at something distant, but participation in the beloved ✦ The mind becomes what it loves — worry is just devotion pointed at fear ✦ Aparā and parā bhakti: love with a face as the practice; lover, loving and beloved dissolving into one as the fruit ✦ Why Patañjali makes devotion a valid technique — and YS 1.39's quiet generosity: meditate on whatever you love ✦ The nine limbs of bhakti: hearing, chanting, remembering, serving, worshipping, bowing, servitude, friendship, self-offering ✦ The democratic path: no qualification, no Sanskrit — a leaf, a flower, water, offered with love, is enough ✦ Paige's doṣa medicine TEXTUAL REFERENCES✦ Nārada Bhakti Sūtra 1–2: "bhakti is of the nature of supreme love directed toward this" ✦ Bhagavad Gītā 9.26: a leaf, a flower, a fruit, water — offered with devotion, accepted ✦ Bhagavad Gītā 12.2: those whose minds have entered the beloved are the most established in yoga ✦ Yoga Sūtra 1.23 & 1.39: by devotion to Īśvara; by meditation on whatever is dearly desired ✦ Bhāgavata Purāṇa 7.5.23: Prahlāda's nine limbs ✦ The Hanumān pearl-necklace story, Rāmāyaṇa devotional tradition TRY THIS IN YOUR PRACTICE✦ Open practice by dedicating it to something you love — and notice how the quality of attention changes ✦ Japa with feeling: the mantra practised not as technique but as address — someone is being spoken to ✦ Take one of the nine limbs as your whole practice this week: just hearing, or just remembering ✦ Offer the first portion of one meal a day ✦ Notice what your mind already worships — what it returns to when no one is directing it — and choose deliberately ✦ Leave us a comment: if the mind becomes what it loves, what is your mind becoming? SHARE & CONNECTWebsite: https://omsom.yogaOmSom App (free): search OmSom in the App StoreInstagram: @omsomyogaIf this episode landed, the best way to support the show is to share it with one person who might need it. We run a yoga studio in Berwick, Victoria, offering classes, workshops, and Yoga Teacher Training programs. Wherever you are on your journey, we'd love to connect with you.HARI OM
PRACTICE WITH US
PRACTICE WITH US ✦ Practice Online - Sadhana Sangha: 5 practices per month, asana workshops, subtle body techniques & Yoga Sūtra translation https://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join ✦ OmSom App (free) - Yoga philosophy, Sanskrit study & our online community. Search OmSom in the App Store ✦ 100 Hr Yoga Teacher Training - Asana Sadhana Dharma bridging course https://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto ✦ 200 Hr YTT - Sri Lanka Immersion 2027 https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka ✦ 300 Hr YTT - Online & India Immersion 2026/2027 https://omsom.yoga/300-hour-advanced-hatha-yoga-training ✦ 50 Hr Yin YTT - Online https://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-oto ✦ Practice in Person - Classes, workshops & community in Berwick, Victoria https://omsom.yoga/book-a-class
PRACTICE WITH US ✦ Practice Online — Sadhana Sangha: 5 practices per month, asana workshops, subtle body techniques & Yoga Sūtra translation https://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join ✦ OmSom App (free) — Yoga philosophy, Sanskrit study & our online community. Search OmSom in the App Store ✦ 100 Hr Yoga Teacher Training — Asana Sadhana Dharma bridging course https://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto ✦ 200 Hr YTT — Sri Lanka Immersion 2027 https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka ✦ 300 Hr YTT — Online & India Immersion 2026/2027 https://omsom.yoga/300-hour-advanced-hatha-yoga-training ✦ 50 Hr Yin YTT — Online https://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-oto ✦ Practice in Person — Classes, workshops & community in Berwick, Victoria https://omsom.yoga/book-a-class