The Yamas and Niyamas Part 4

Update: Quick note to all. As I’ve learnt and grown, and with the new knowledge I’ve gained, I’ve come to understand that my pronunciation of some Sanskrit words in some of the voice recordings for my blog are incorrect. My dearest apologizes for this mistake. I appreciate your patience while I update my recordings to correct these errors.

Wow, we are already into part four of this series. I am getting so excited as we dig deeper into these values. The more I practice and learn, and the more I get to share my experiences with you, the deeper my passion grows. I am so grateful that you are following me on this journey and hope that this serves you positively through yours.

The third of the five yamas is brahmacharya which in English is often translated to continence or celibacy. Now I know what you are thinking, and I would like to clarify quickly that it is referring to control and not suppression. It is stated directly in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali to “be moderate”, and everyone’s opinion on moderation can be different. Like with everything else there are different perspectives and here we are going to discuss brahmacharya as having self control, balancing our energies, and what it means to live a life of moderation. Moderation can be applied in every area of our lives and in doing so will provide us balance and peace. This can include eating in moderation, living simply through moderation of consumer products, and being mindful of waste and over consumption of resources such as water and electricity. Living in moderation also applies to having balance in our daily life with how we spend our time and what interactions we have in order to balance our senses. And, it also applies to what impact we have on your environment through our carbon footprint and other environmental factors. Over the years building my awareness was key to identifying areas where I was or wasn’t being moderate. To my surprise I continue to discover new ways I can live more simply and balanced.

Eating in moderation is a huge problem in our society along with what we are eating, and they are both major causes of preventable and treatable chronic diseases around the world. This is something that I struggled with as far back as my pre-teens or earlier and it grew much bigger into my adult years. Most of us grow up associating food with pleasure, it is often the center of all gatherings and it brings people together. We are conditioned into having this emotional attachment to food throughout our entire lives. So, we turn to food when we are celebrating or to make us feel better when we are down. Now the other side to this story is that we are fighting to save time and looking for convenience. So, there is this industry of fast food, prepackaged and easy to make meals that we turn to in the moment to do just that. Without awareness and moderation this cycle can be deadly, literally.

I was heading down this path, I had no control, no will power. Overeating for pleasure was a huge weakness for me and I realized I had a very strong attachment to food. I almost had a fear of getting hungry. I would have little control over my emotions when I would get hungry or if I didn’t know where I was going to get my next meal. I would eat unhealthy food frequently because the lifestyle I was living left me little time to plan, prepare and cook my own food. I would even eat just to eat, not because I was hungry but because I wanted to, I was having cravings, I was bored, or emotionally distressed. I realized that my loss of control when I was hungry was because of this emotional attachment and my body and mind were not getting the nutrients they needed to perform properly. I was starving, starving of nutrients. I was overweight, unhealthy, with an overfull stomach, but I was starving. Through years of discovery and creating awareness I’ve overcome most of these attachments. It wasn’t an easy process and I like to compare it to that of addiction. Truly that is what I had, an addiction to food. I did not realize it initially but my behaviours and struggles to let go were like those of when I was battling the addiction of nicotine. I learnt why we crave the foods we do. I noticed when I ate well, I felt good, and could perform better mentally and physically. I came to understand the direct correlation the type of food we eat has with our body and how it influences our ability to function properly.

Along with what we are eating, our activities also need to be done with the awareness of moderation to bring us closer to obtaining a balanced lifestyle. If you have read my previous entries, or know me personally, then you may know my life has always been unbalanced. Aside from my diet I was spread thinly between work and every other one of life’s demands. I’m sure many of you can relate. I did not make time for myself, ever. Or my view of time for myself was sitting on the couch watching tv all night or having drinks with friends. I did not have much of a routine outside of my work hours and I had an endless to do list. I wasn’t pursing any of my dreams or passions, I wasn’t even sure of what these were. I was so distracted, distracted with all the noise around me. I didn’t follow or maintain any regular activity or sport most of my life because of my history of brittle bones, and in my adult years I used the excuse of being too busy, too tired, along with no idea where to start. With all the different claims to a healthier, stronger, happier you, the noise made me so confused. Where do I start? I asked myself “What are you doing to grow yourself personally?” The answer was nothing. And I finally realized who was in control of this, that was me. In learning to live with pain I was forced to step back and really analyze and identified what really mattered, what was most important, and what I truly needed. I had to listen to my body and give it what it was screaming for. Now, one of the most important pain coping strategies I use today is moderating my activities to balance my energies. I’ve had to learn to say no and discover what my boundaries are, basically when enough is enough. Now I have time for growth and strength but also recovery and play. This has given me the ability to improve my health, move forward in life and make progress in my personal growth journey.  

It is not only important to balance your energy directions but also the type of energy you are creating. I’ve mentioned in previous posts the importance of having a positive mind frame and outlook, and how it creates a ripple effect attracting other positive energies. If we are living a life full of stress or negativity it is not only going to greatly impact our ability to live a happy life but our ability to survive. One of the greatest gifts we have is a choice. We have the choice of what kind of day we are going to have and how we are going to react to each event that comes our way. It is the energies behind these choices that directs the next event, so to speak. We have the choice of playing the victim, and let’s face it we all have our problems, or the optimist. Your situation could always be worse or better, but to live in the past or the future they are constantly changing and uncontrollable. The moment that is controllable is now. Whether for you this means to stop hanging out with negative minded people or forcing yourself to keep a gratitude journal, a balance of energies is something I urge you to practice.

Some important terms and an area that I am very conscious about in my daily choices is reduce, reuse, recycle, and I like to throw in repair or re-purpose. This area of moderation is also a major concern within our society. I briefly touched on moderation of consumer goods in my last post and I witness each day how over consumption and waste escalates around us. Again, I must bring back the awareness that we all continue to struggle to save money or have enough. Ask yourself “where can I moderate to save money?” Here are a few strategies I use to stay within my budget. I no longer buy items to just own them, too many times I have wasted money on a gadget to have it sit and never be used. When I have impulses to buy something, I first ask myself “is this necessary, do I really need it?” and “is it worth the price and am I going to use it?” most times before I even answer all these questions I put it back on the shelf. When I have impulses to go shopping, I ask myself before even leaving the house “what do I need?” and most of the time I decide I don’t need anything so there’s no point in going. This saves me a ton of money and time. Once I identified the most important things in my life and what truly makes me happy, I realized that my need for most items is obsolete. I have been focusing on simplifying every aspect of my life and finding fulfillment from within and not from physical or monetary items.

Another way I support the honorable R’s is in my daily awareness in reducing food waste. This is something that I am now very passionate about and I am increasingly moving towards being more self-sustainable. I am a chef and a gardener which makes me very passionate about food and I can appreciate the effort that goes into growing it. This is not something I can do year-round because of where I live, at least I haven’t discovered a way yet, but I am always looking for new ways to support local and sustainable producers. An example of a sustainable practice I follow is using whole ingredients, like a whole chicken. Buying a whole chicken is more cost effective and practical. Not only do you have white and dark meat depending on your preference or recipe, but you can use the carcass for bone broth that can then be used in soups, sauces, and gravies. If you only buy one part of the chicken what happens to the rest?” This is just one example of reducing food waste through sustainability. I used to waste hundreds of dollars and pounds of food by letting it go bad in my fridge or on the counter, but now that I mainly cook at home my waste has been reduced to only my organic scraps that I compost for my garden. I have worked hard to reduce my food waste and continue to build on this new lifestyle by doing my best to only eat what is necessary for my body’s optimal health and performance.

Every action we take impacts our surroundings and I wanted to touch briefly on how self control can be practiced when we look at our impact on natural ecosystems. Not only through moderation but the elimination of unnecessary actions. Now again the honorable R’s come into mind but beyond putting our litter in the garbage and recycling reusable resources, there are other ways we can impact our environment. For example, when we are out in nature wherever it is and whatever we are doing, you may have heard the phrase “leave no trace”. This means do not leave anything behind, do not pick flowers or disturb the rocks in a river. These is all unnecessary actions that we take for our own pleasure that can change course of an ecosystem. And, going back to the litter example it is one behavior I still don’t understand. Even when we are not out in some forest but in a city, you’ll see common waste everywhere, and next to that trash is a garbage can. There is no awareness, no moderation and it is completely in our control. Each and everyone of us has the choice to respect the planet and do our part to preserve its natural wonders and beauty.

You may be noticing a trend, in that awareness is the key to identifying all these actions and behavior’s. Awareness doesn’t just happen though, it is something that you have to build on. I noticed myself go through different stages of awareness. As I worked through my different layers, I would gain more clarity and I would continue to reflect and ask, “how can I improve?”, “why do I behave like this?” That introspection allowed me to explore and discover what is true and necessary in my own life. Introspection is something I will be discussing in a future entry so stay tuned and we will dive into our minds a little more. In the meantime, lets evaluate our level of moderation currently and remind ourselves of what is important, especially as we transition back into our work life and into this new norm.

Until next time…

Namaste

“Balance is the key to everything. What we do, think, say, eat, feel, they all require awareness, and through this awareness we can grow.” — Koi Fresco