9 Steps to Self-Awareness: An Introduction

The Nine Steps to Self-Awareness are sourced from the Taittiriya Upanishad’s kosha model. This model says we are more than a mind interacting with a body. It provides a 360-degree view of what it means to be human and enrolled in Earth school. It says we have five-layers of being: physical, breath/energy, mind/emotions, witness/intuitive wisdom and bliss. Understanding ourselves this way gives us a broader foundation for self-exploration than the western mind/body model.

To apply the koshas to everyday life in our five-sense material world, we need accessible practical techniques to work with. Joseph Le Page, my teacher, is the founder of the school of Integrative Yoga Therapy. His lectures on the koshas and his Ten Steps to Freedom, a handout from his yoga therapy training manual, provided me with both an understanding of the kosha model and techniques for embodying it. After working with it personally and professionally I eventually adapted the ideas for my book, Enlighten Up! Finding Clarity, Contentment and Resilience in a Complicated World.

I gratefully acknowledge the source material from the Taittiriya Upanishad and from Joseph Le Page’s work. His Ten Steps to Freedom and my Nine Steps to Self-awareness both provide accessible yoga techniques but there are differences. Because I wanted to introduce this concept to students who come to yoga seeking ways to manage stress and live with more balance, I did not include Joseph’s tenth step, True Self (another way of describing Unity Consciousness or self with a capital ‘S’) because each person’s relationship to an interpretation of the Divine is personal and discovered in their own time.

The focus of my Nine Steps to Self-Awareness is on developing conscious self-exploration through all five layers of being during our existence in Earth school with all of its ups and downs.

​The Nine Steps to Self-Awareness
Physical Body and Environment (Annamayakosha)
1. Become aware of your body and your environment

Breath and Energy (Pranamayakosha)
2. Become aware of your breath and energy states

Mind, Emotions (Manomayakosha)
3. Identify your thoughts and feelings
4. Explore your beliefs

Witness/Intuitive Wisdom (Vijnyanamayakosha)
5. Turn the mind back on itself
6. Take skillful action

​Bliss (Anandamayakosha)
7. Find your bliss
8. Connect to your bliss
9. Bring bliss into your daily life

Self-awareness is the ability to see, understand and accept our beliefs, habits and behavior without judgment. Then we can consciously choose to make changes, remain unchanged with full awareness of the consequences or find acceptance and peace of mind if change is not possible. Cultivating this level of self-awareness is a lifelong journey that can be started at any age. 

Working with the Nine Steps of Self-Awareness can help you:

• Make better lifestyle choices
• Manage stress
• Improve relationships that can be improved
• End toxic relationships that cannot be improved
• Lessen the tendency to judge yourself and others
• Understand what you can and cannot control
• Learn how to relax

Research shows that people with self-awareness skills tend to have better psychological health, a more positive outlook on life and are likely to be more compassionate with themselves and others. This larger sense of self results in the ability to navigate life from a calm center no matter the swirls, whirls and storms that will inevitably surround us. 

I’ve gotten positive feedback from several people who used the nine steps and the techniques that come with it. One person said it helped her grandson who was struggling with self-esteem issues. Another said the breathing techniques helped her manage anxiety, and here is what one doctor wrote about the effort to make this model relevant to today’s world:

“Ms. Gibbs seeks to help the reader understand oneself as opposed to fixing oneself. She has clearly spelled out the layers of awareness and shares her journey to enlightenment through her many stories. The book is enriched with yoga exercises that a beginner like myself was able to appreciate. – Marilyn Martin, M.D., The Resource Group


The next several posts will discuss the Nine Steps to Self-Awareness step by step and share several accessible practical techniques for embodying these steps in your daily life. My next post will discuss Step 1: Become aware of your body and your environment.

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