Self-observation is one of the most undervalued practices in modern yoga. It is embedded in the Niyamas of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras as Svadhyaya — self-study. But the self-study meant here is not reading books about the self. It is the direct, continuous observation of how the mind moves: what it wants, what it avoids, how it reacts, what patterns it runs habitually. This kind of honest, undefended seeing of one’s own psychological processes is among the most challenging and most demanding practices in yoga.
The Witness (Sakshi)
At the heart of self-observation practice is the concept of the sakshi — the witness. The witness is not a separate faculty you develop. It is the awareness that is always already present, watching experience unfold. In ordinary life, we are so completely identified with our thoughts, emotions, and reactions that we rarely notice this witnessing quality. Yoga practice, particularly meditation, gradually shifts the practitioner’s sense of identity from the contents of experience (the thoughts, emotions, sensations) to the witnessing awareness itself.
When a thought arises in meditation and you notice it, who is noticing? Not another thought — thoughts cannot observe themselves. The noticing is the witness. Each moment of observing your own mental activity is a moment of disidentification from that activity. Accumulated over time, this produces a fundamental shift in how the practitioner relates to their own mind.
Self-Observation in Asana
Yoga asana is a rich field for self-observation because it presents consistent, reproducible challenges that reveal the mind’s patterns clearly. Notice what happens in your mind when you encounter a pose you dislike. Resistance arises — perhaps irritation, perhaps a quiet internal commentary. Notice what happens when you practise a pose you enjoy — anticipation, perhaps possessiveness about the experience. Notice what happens in a difficult balance when you fall — frustration, embarrassment, the impulse to look around and see if anyone noticed.
None of these reactions are problems. They are simply the mind’s habitual responses to challenge, pleasure, and difficulty — the same patterns that operate in every other area of life. The yoga mat is a laboratory where you can observe these patterns in relatively safe and controlled conditions.
Self-Observation in Daily Life
The Gurdjieff tradition — which intersects in interesting ways with yoga — called this continuous self-observation “self-remembering” and considered it the foundational practice of all inner work. The idea is simple: throughout the day, remember yourself. Not your name or your role — but the awareness that is looking out through your eyes. This moment of self-remembering breaks the trance of habitual automatic response and creates a space of choice.
This is what Gurdjieff called the “stop exercise” and what the yoga tradition calls sakshi bhava (the attitude of the witness). Both point at the same thing: the creation of a small gap between stimulus and response in which awareness is present. In that gap, habitual reactions can be seen without being automatically enacted.
What Self-Observation Reveals
Sustained self-observation reveals, among other things: the degree to which emotional reactions are disproportionate to their causes; the specific triggers that reliably produce specific reactions; the habitual stories the mind tells about certain people, situations, and itself; the ways in which the same pattern of avoidance or over-reaching appears in practice and in life; and the fact that most of what we take to be “ourselves” is actually a collection of learned responses and borrowed beliefs that we have never consciously examined.
This is not a comfortable process. Genuine self-observation regularly produces discomfort, because it shows us things about ourselves that we would prefer not to see. The tradition is unanimous that this discomfort is not a reason to stop — it is a sign that the practice is working. The teacher’s role in supporting this process — creating a safe enough environment for students to look honestly at themselves — is one of the highest functions of yoga teaching. At Medhya Laya, Svadhyaya is not an abstract philosophical concept but a living practice embedded in every aspect of the teacher training curriculum.
Learn This at Medhya Laya
Study self-observation in yoga with qualified teachers in our Hatha Yoga programs in Rishikesh.