A Little Discipline Will Take You Where You Want to Go.
“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.” — Buddha
I’ve not always been the most disciplined of people. Read my school reports and you will hear stories of a child and teenager that’s disruptive and distracted; “Could do better if she applied herself properly” was my tagline.
Reflecting on that now I realise that I simply didn’t know what on earth it was all for; all this concentrating and tests and homework seemed fruitless. I was lacking (as many children will) any vision of what I was working towards.
Now, as an adult I can’t quite fall back on that excuse, neither do I want to. I know where I want to go and what I want in life and, for the most part, I know that getting there will be a steady journey IF I apply myself. That is, IF I keep showing up, putting one paw in front of the other, even when I don’t want to.
This kind of self application is exactly what Tapas is all about.
One of the five Niyamas, Tapas is interpreted as discipline of the self; a practice of burning through impurities mentally, emotionally and physically through constant focused attention.
Tapas can quite easily be understood in conjunction with the physical practise of yoga. A strong and challenging class, or self-practise, will create heat in the body, help to release toxins and focus the mind: an act of cleansing both the body and mind through determination and commitment.
Tapas is such an important practise because it strengthens your sense of worth, your sense of self; through continued effort you take the step-by-step journey into your power. Not because it inflates the ego, but because it shows the strength of your character to see something through to the end.
The act of showing up can present itself in so many different ways; getting up a little earlier, going to bed a little earlier, sitting down to meditate, getting yourself to that early morning class. It can also come in the form of pushing through negative thought patterns or behaviours that impact your self of sense; perhaps it’s pushing through fear, or discomfort, maybe pushing through old ways of being that, while habitual and familiar, no longer serve you.
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But why is Discipline so important? So life changing? Though many of us may consider Discipline to be some way of constraining energy or creativity it is actually the thing that preserves it and in turn gifts us a sense of freedom. When we’re able to overcome the mind’s tricksy ways of telling us we can’t do something, or we should put it off until the next day, and show up for ourselves with one tiny step in the direction we want to go then we’re teaching our brain that WE CAN. Rather than being a way to punish ourselves, it’s a way to live deeply aligned to who we truly are and what we truly want in our lives.
What have you been putting off, or avoiding? Perhaps this week could be the week that you prove to yourself just how important you are and simply show up, especially if you don’t want to.
Always with love,
Katie xx