New Year, Niyama: Cultivating Tapas On and Off the Mat

I’ve made New Year’s resolutions every year since I was ten years old. When I was younger, I would make comprehensive list of over a dozen goals, encompassing far more promises to myself than I could ever hope to keep. And while I know the conventional wisdom regarding resolutions (studies show that eighty percent of New Year’s resolutions are abandoned by mid-February), I still sit down with my pad and paper on December 31st, more for the tradition of it than anything else: a way to check in with myself and see how my ambitions have shifted in the past year or two or 10. About a decade ago, I started limiting myself to five resolutions, and while some are always situationally specific (finish a project, complete a certification, etc.) a few themes tend to repeat from year to year.  Regardless of what I accomplish or how I change, there are three areas in which, in my own annual estimation, I can always improve: food, money, and family.  And despite the genuine resolve I feel every year as the countdown to midnight adds a sort of symbolic punctuation to my intentions, by mid-March I tend to be back where I started: eating a bowl of cereal at midnight next to an untouched copy of Investing For Dummies while letting a call from my sister go to voicemail for the third time that week.

For years I thought my inability to stick to my resolutions was a problem of will power, namely that I simply didn’t have any, or not nearly enough. My mother has the self-discipline of an elite athlete or an oblate of a particularly abstemious convent, and although she is unfailingly kind, she has always been somewhat bemused to realize that complete self-control is a struggle for other people. My sister inherited her temperament, including her iron will, which didn’t help assuage my belief that my character was simply inherently weaker.  I am far more like my late father, who was creative and innovative and tremendously sensitive, but also self-indulgent, impulsive, and easily bored.  So it was a true epiphany for me, in my early study of yoga, to learn about the concept of tapas. 

Sometimes translated as “burning discipline,” tapas is one of the five niyamas—the second of the eight limbs of yogic philosophy as described by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras.  Observation of the five yamas (the first limb, translated as restrictions or restraints) and the five niymamas (personal observances) are considered moral imperatives in yoga: they are the roadmap for righteous living.  It’s not uncommon for a new yogi to be daunted upon learning about the yamas and niyamas— including expectations of purity, truthfulness, an even temper, and self-mastery, they can seem like a lot to live up to.  It might seem counterintuitive that I was so thrilled to learn about tapas, given my track-record with will power.  But yoga philosophy teaches that mastery of the eight limbs of yoga is not only possible, it’s the point of existence.  For me, learning about tapas opened the door to self-discipline as a possibility: rather than a God-given talent that just wasn’t in my make-up, the Yoga Sutras teach that tapas is a virtue elemental to human nature—all human nature— it just needs to be cultivated.  And here’s the really beautiful part: the practice of yoga itself inherently strengthens tapas.

So if you, like me, are feeling pretty good about ahimsa (non-violence) or saucha (cleanliness), but could use a bit of work keeping your nose to the grindstone, here are four tips for cultivating tapas on and off the mat.

1. Pin Down the Why

If you’ve ever had a conversation with a three-year-old, you already know how to go about this step.  Once a child grasps the concept of “why?”, she will ask ask it over and over and over again until she reaches something fundamental (or gets distracted by goldfish crackers).  Take this approach when setting a goal for yourself.  Keep asking yourself why the goal is important until you find the emotional core.  For example, say my goal is to increase my lower back flexibility.  Why? Because I want to be able to do a “full” urdhva dhanurasana.  Why? Because everyone else in my Saturday class can do one. Why does that matter? Because many of them aren’t even yoga teachers, and I am.  And why does that matter? Because it makes me feel like a fraud!  Ah, now we’ve hit bedrock—I don’t want to achieve a full urdhva danurasana per se, I want to feel more confident in my role as a yoga teacher.  I’ll be far more likely to achieve my goal if I grasp the fundamental why.  Now is the time to ask myself, “Will accomplishing this pose truly make me more confident as a teacher?” If the answer is yes, it’s far more likely that working towards my goal will fuel tapas.  If the answer is no, it’s likely that frustration will deplete tapas before I’ve succeeded.  At this point, I should ask myself, “When do I feel truly confident as a teacher?” If the answer is, “When I look around the room and see relaxed faces in savasana at the end of a class,” then perhaps I should adjust my goal to finding my particular niche as a teacher, creating a workshop, or increasing my teaching hours over the next year.  When our goals align with our values—what we actually value—tapas will naturally ignite.

2. Keep It Simple

Studies demonstrate that people who make concrete, visual plans to implement their goals succeed at 2-3x the rate of those who don’t, but only if they pursue one goal at a time.  And further studies demonstrate that people who achieve what they set out to do succeed not because they have superior discipline, but because they cultivate tapas through effective use of habits. You can set goals in different areas of your life, but if you want to maintain the discipline you need to succeed, you should plan on letting one habit fully take root before your start working on a second.  It takes approximately 66 days for a newly seeded habit to fully blossom into automatic behavior, meaning that you if you’ve set just three New Year’s resolutions, under the most ideal circumstances, it will take a minimum of half a year to establish the habits necessary to keep them.  You’re most likely to keep your tapas burning if you approach your goals in a way that makes sense progressively.  

Say your resolutions are to meditate daily, commit to three hours per week of cardiovascular exercise, and lose fifteen pounds. It make sense to pursue them in the following order: first, establish the exercise habit with the intention of completing your activity daily at a time that will eventually be free for meditation—ideally towards the end of the day.  Once the exercise habit is established, begin developing the meditation habit, as seated meditation especially is much easier if the body is already physically spent, plus, if you spend 66 days developing a cardio habit that incorporates strengthening the lower back, seated meditation will that much easier to achieve. Finally, after four months of regular cardiovascular exercise, you may find that your goal of losing fifteen pounds can be substantially readjusted, or has become completely moot.  Tapas feeds on itself—successfully establishing one habit creates a behavioral framework to establish the next.

3. Set Micro-Goals 

I once had a creative writing teacher who did not believe in writer’s block.  His position was that writers avoid writing for two reasons: 1) they dread sitting down to write and finding that nothing comes out, and 2) they set early goals—“I will get up every morning before work and write from 5:00 to 7:00 a.m.”—that are far too ambitious.  His solution to the problem—which changed my writing life—was twofold: 1) Give yourself permission to write badly.  The important thing is to write.  If you sit at your computer and write “I have no ideas” for ten minutes a day for a week, this is substantially better than not doing so, because you are establishing a habit of writing.  The same is true of your yoga practice.  If you hate inversions but want to master them, don’t set an early goal of practicing inversions every day.  Make a sequence of simple poses you enjoy that strengthen the muscles and develop the balance you’ll need to eventually master one inversion (a process called vinyasa krama), and resolve to complete the sequence daily, or three times a week—whatever feels 100% doable and triggers no stress.  Eventually you will notice that you are stronger and your balance has improved, and you will feel much more confident trying out that shoulder stand.

2) This one is incredibly important: set yourself goals that trigger absolutely zero mental resistance—ZERO—and begin there.  If your goal is to sit in meditation daily for an hour before bed, but you find yourself continually putting it off and finding excuses, sit down and ask yourself how long you can commit, right now, to meditating each night and feel absolutely no resistance.  If you feel resistance at ten minutes, lower it to five.  If you feel resistance to five, lower it further. If you get down to 60 seconds of meditation before you feel absolutely zero resistance committing to a nightly practice, then that’s where you begin, with absolutely no self-judgment. It is extremely likely that over time you will find yourself naturally extending you practice to three, ten, twenty and eventually even that 60 minutes you originally intended.  But if you’re like me, you will put off beginning until you have a micro-goal that triggers zero mental resistance.  

This practice not only works like magic, it also dovetails neatly with a maxim I learned from my master teacher in my yoga therapy program which has impacted my practice more than any other yoga advice I’ve ever received, to wit: “The best yoga practice is the one you do.” Sixty-six days of a consistent five-minute meditation practice is far more beneficial than ten or twenty thirty-minute meditations done sporadically over the same period of time.  And the chances are excellent that the length of your practice will grow and grow, because every time you sit down to meditate for another consecutive day, your tapas builds.  Self-discipline is all about consistency.  When you’ve established the habit, progression and challenge will follow, because you’ll get bored: you’ll want new challenges, deeper experiences, and more difficult skills.  But you’ll never set that foundation if you don’t start with zero resistance.

4. Reward Yourself For Milestones (Even The Small Ones!)

When I started my 200-hour training, I learned about meditating with a mala, and I noticed that many experienced yogis in my training wore full malas as well as mala bracelets.  I wanted a mala bracelet for myself, but I decided to wait until I completed my training to buy one.  I spent some downtime shopping online and researching different stones until I had my ideal mala picked out.  Envisioning the day that I would put it on, and what wearing it would mean to me, helped me stay focused on my goal.  Similarly, I decided on a small meaningful purchase I wanted to reward myself with when I completed my 500-hour designation, and each time I finished a training that brought me closer to that goal, I rewarded myself with some time spent seeking the perfect item and narrowing down my choice.  On a smaller scale, I inform my husband when I’m working towards a pose and periodically ask him to check my progress.  After I’ve spent weeks or months building strength or flexibility and finally achieve a pose, we mark it in some way.  It’s not as if we went to the Russian Tea Room the first time I was able to hold chaturanga, but we certainly toasted in front of the TV that night, and he was proud of me.  Having a friend or family member invested in your progress, and respecting your own hard work enough to celebrate it, are like gusts of oxygen that help your tapas to flare.

Speaking of my husband (an iron-will type like my mother—let’s not examine that too closely), he often jokes that he may be a perfectionist, but I am a “good enough-ist.” But perfectionists often need help cultivating tapas, as well: the pressure of needing to be perceived as perfect can lead to maladaptive behaviors such as procrastination, as well as mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. Whether you identity as a perfectionist, a good enough-ist, or something in between, if you apply the suggestions above, you will be well on your way to cultivating the tapas that will aid you tremendously in reaching your personal goals in your yogic life and beyond.  

Looking to study yoga therapy and how to modify your teaching to make the most of tapas?  Check out our Trainings Page for upcoming yoga therapy modules. 

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Online Sources (not otherwise linked above):

Yoga Journal

Yogainternational.com

Yogapedia

PsychologyToday.com

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Molly Goforth is a yoga and meditation teacher and a student at Prema Yoga Institute. She specializes in accessibility and trauma-informed yoga teaching and practice.

What is Yoga Therapy?

Most people in the West know what yoga is - about 1 in 3 people in the U.S. have tried yoga in some way. Is yoga therapy a more focused yoga class? Isn’t yoga - generally - healing and therapeutic? What, then, is the difference between yoga, yoga classes and yoga therapy?

TKV Desikachar, a leader of yoga therapy before his passing, summed it up nicely:

Yoga therapy is a self-empowering process, where the care-seeker, with the help of the Yoga therapist, implements a personalized and evolving Yoga practice, that not only addresses the illness in a multi-dimensional manner, but also aims to alleviate his/her suffering in a progressive, non-invasive and complementary manner.  Depending upon the nature of the illness, Yoga therapy can not only be preventative or curative, but also serve a means to manage the illness, or facilitate healing in the person at all levels.

~ TKV Desikachar & Kausthub Desikachar

Yoga therapy is ideal for clients with specific mental or physical imbalances or for those just starting yoga. It can be used as a safe path back from disease, injury, or pregnancy - or to manage ongoing pain or disease. Yoga therapy specialties are vast - covering everything from high-performance athletic recovery and conditioning to teaching aging yogis, veterans, trauma survivors, and recovering addicts.  

Even if the client is a yoga student just seeking a health and wellness "refresh," yoga therapy always sees the person whole, and empowers wellness in body, mind, and spirit.

Recent History of Yoga

Yoga is ancient and - in its current manifestation - extremely varied. Most group classes in the West are created for athletic, healthy adults.  The most popular forms of yoga – vinyasa, Ashtanga, power yoga, and hot yoga – descended from a man named Krishnamacharya (as did Iyengar, viniyoga, and more).  These classes can all be a part of a healthy lifestyle – especially if you are generally healthy and athletic already.

But Krishnamacharya did not spend most his career teaching group classes.  Instead, he met with individuals one on one – assessing them Ayurvedicly and assigning a personal, holistic yoga practice to meet their needs and empower their health.  Yoga therapy continues the tradition of yoga chikitsa - or yoga medicine - using its vast techniques for balance, health and wellness.

Yoga Therapy in the West

Yoga Therapy is an emerging professional field that is integrative – taking into account the whole person – and so compliments and supports Western medical care.  Yoga therapy is grounded in the ancient world view of yoga and influenced by Ayurvedic medicine – as well as cutting-edge neuroscience, kinesiology, soma-psychology, and yoga research. Yoga therapy uses yoga postures, breathing techniques, philosophical understandings of our thoughts and emotions, meditation techniques, and Ayurvedic food practices to care for the body, mind and spirit as an integrated whole.

Yoga therapy is both highly individualized and deeply integrated. Along with other mindful practices, yoga therapy excels at prevention, and focuses on the uniqueness of each individual person and situation.  Because certified yoga therapists have studied for two years more than a beginning registered yoga teacher, they have prepared to complement medical care – taking into consideration any diagnoses when teaching yoga and mindfulness. 

Yoga therapists take the long view of health and see the importance of small shifts in their clients. Healing is viewed as a process. A good yoga therapist takes into consideration the advisement of doctors and caregivers, then chooses an entry point to yoga/mindfulness that is most manageable and supportive for each client.

For example, one person with lower back pain may be best treated with a practice of flowing postures that bring warmth and energy to the body. Another person with a similar complaint might be started with restorative postures and guided meditation, such as yoga nidra. A third client with lower back pain might benefit from constructive rest, guided meditation for pain reduction, and seasoning their food with different herbs and spices to improve digestion and inflammation.

Yoga Therapy and the Nervous System

One of the most powerful and valuable effects of yoga is its ability to calm us down -- to regulate our nervous system and bring it into a stable, relaxed, and aware state.

For instance, the vinyasa format of physical exertion followed by focused rest is a tried-and-true way to bring our nervous systems back to their natural state of calm.  A yoga therapist can modify this format during an injury recovery period to bring a client that same health benefit.

What meditation, yoga therapy, and the evolving Western neuroscience approach to trauma know is that regulating one’s nervous system is a skill.  As a skill, it is teachable and learnable. Cultivating this skill positively affects the choices one makes to interact with self, others and nature. With this skill on board, these choices tend toward what we know to be healthier: Less anger and irritability; more kindness and generosity; more connection; better sleep habits; better food choices; and less interest and engagement in harmful behaviors, such as drug and alcohol consumption, smoking, and more.

Yoga therapy excels at teaching clients how to manage stress - and therefore is deeply valuable when managing stress-related diseases and conditions.

Yoga Therapy Empowers the Client’s Health

Yoga therapy, above all, seeks to empower individuals to take the best care of themselves as possible. Yoga therapists can teach practices and techniques to manage pain and discomfort, to calm and relax, and/or to strengthen and energize. The foundational goal of all of these practices is to engender love and compassion for the self. Practicing yoga postures, meditation, breathing techniques, Ayurvedic eating principles, and improving one’s outlook are all actions of selfcare.

Yoga Therapy Research

Yoga therapy has been researched and found to be effective in the Western medical model for a variety of ailments including heart disease, back pain, diabetes, cancer care, stress, depression, and anxiety.  Some of the most interesting and provocative research is happening in the fields of neuroscience and trauma.

Manifestations of trauma have traditionally been viewed as mental health issues, yet new research is showing that trauma is not only “stored” in the body, but often the body is the best (and in some cases only) access point to healing from trauma. The relatively new Polyvagal Theory of human nervous systems also suggests that mental and physical health issues are not only inextricably intertwined (despite centuries of effort to see, speak about and treat them as separate), but that effective treatment requires an integrated approach.

Yoga Therapy Standards and Education

Yoga therapists are also trained in the views and language of Western medical science (including 100+ hours of university-level anatomy and physiology and 50+ of psychology) so that they can communicate effectively within the prevailing healthcare system. Increasingly clinics, hospitals and doctors’ offices are seeking out yoga therapists as complementary providers.

The International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT) is the governing body for Yoga Therapy.  IAYT has created rigorous certification standards for schools, and is in the process of developing a licensure examination. The Veteran’s Administration, certain state disability programs, and integrative hospitals and clinics have all used yoga therapy as part of a complimentary approach to wellness.

Yoga Therapy is bringing integrative yogic techniques and practices to the Western healthcare system.  Because of its unique ability to address the body and mind, to empower health, and to manage stress, it is a perfect complement to Western healthcare.

Are you a yoga teacher or healthcare provider looking to deepen your knowledge and therapeutic yoga skills?  PYI Yoga Therapeutics Essentials is a great place to start!  (In 2020, the training runs 2/7 – 3/1.)

Looking to bring yoga therapy into your clinic, business, or hospital? Contact us at info@premayogainstitute.com.

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Photo Credit:
People photo created by yanalya - www.freepik.com

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Deb McDermott is a first-year student in Yoga Therapy at Prema Yoga Institute. She has been a Yoga teacher for 20 years and recently completed a 40-hour training on Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY) with David Emerson and Jenn Turner.

Faculty Spotlight: Therapeutics Essentials Teacher Jon Witt

As a student in Prema Yoga Institute’s Yoga Therapy Certification program, I’ve had the privilege of studying under Jon Witt who, in partnership with Dana Slamp, teaches the foundational one hundred-hour Yoga Therapeutic Essentials course.

Jon has been a yoga professional for over a decade, having begun his teaching career in tandem with the opening of the flagship Pure Yoga studio in Hong Kong.  He completed his Yoga Therapy training in Mysore, India, under the aegis of Yogacharya V. Venkatesha.  Now based in New York City, Jon teaches at both Pure Yoga locations, and is a practicing yoga therapist who also offers teacher trainings and workshops.

I personally found Jon to be a remarkable teacher.  I work in higher education, where it’s common to encounter academics who have mastered their subject to a degree that actually inhibits their ability to effectively teach it on an introductory level; in other words, they’ve forgotten what it’s like to be a beginner.  If you were to attend Jon’s Saturday afternoon Hatha class at Pure Yoga East (which I recommend), you would witness him guide a room full of yogis with wide-ranging levels of experience, strength, flexibility and injury through an hour-long sequence, and somehow attenuate his teaching to encompass the individual needs of entire class.  He not only remembers what it’s like to be a beginner, he seems to remember every step along the road to mastery, and speak to it with specificity and tact, all in the course of one class.  As a lifelong teacher and student, I can say with confidence that it’s a rare skill to encounter.

In preparation for this interview, I asked some of Jon’s current and previous students at Prema Yoga Institute to reflect on their experience learning from him. Here’s a representative sampling of their responses:

Jon is a gifted teacher who guides you from strength to strength.

—Teri Ryan, PYI graduate

Jon Witt creates an environment that is safe and comfortable.  He relays his expert knowledge and ability with creativity, clarity, charm and wit.  Jon’s energy is full of love and caring for both the practice and for his students.

—Judy Glassman, PYI graduate

Jon is deeply knowledgeable and skilled in alignment and anatomy, making for a space that feels utterly safe and secure. His casual and friendly style allows for a student to feel totally open to taking modifications and breaks if things get too challenging. I learn something new about my body and what it needs every time I take class with him.                                                                                        

— Jennifer Cabrera, PYI student

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Jon and ask him some questions about training yoga professionals in advance of the next course offering of Therapeutic Essentials at PYI, which begins on February 7th. What follows are excerpts from that conversation.

Molly Goforth: What in particular drew you to yoga therapy?

Jon Witt: I had been teaching yoga for probably about seven years and I came to a realization that many of the classes I was teaching were more dynamic and progressive, and I enjoyed teaching them. But I was also teaching beginners, and I found that many people couldn't do most of things within that basic class. And I really wanted to help people who were struggling or who were dealing with limitations or with injuries. That was what drew me in: that I wanted to be able to work with someone who was older, or who was, for example, working through a chronic disease.

MG: What do you think yoga therapy addresses particularly or uniquely well, as opposed to another type of complementary therapy?

JW: Yoga therapy provides something different in that it’s purposely calming. If you take someone who has a knee injury or a back injury, they probably don’t realize that they’re overly stressed, and that simple breathing techniques can make a difference. Simply repositioning the body can make a dramatic difference. I mean, chiropractic therapy and physical therapy, aromatherapy, all of these thing have their value and their place.  But a consistent yoga practice is really what helped me the most.  A consistent yoga practice just works. Yoga has worked for so long. And especially if you haven’t been exposed too much to yoga, you would benefit even more greatly than someone who has.

MG: Can you expand on that?

JW: If you’re someone who has a background in yoga, it's all very repetitive. If you’re doing something repetitively, at some point it still continues to be beneficial, but not as beneficial as it would be to someone who has been training with weights, or running, who has never been exposed to yoga or breath work. Yoga is a completely different form of training, so they will adapt in a completely different way.  

MG: Could you give me an example?

JW: Take someone who’s been lifting weights their whole life. They can’t raise their arms over their head, and it's progressively getting worse. Repositioning them on the floor and teaching them basic breathing techniques can completely change the way they stand and walk.  And you’re able to see what’s been declining in their routine over all this time.

MG: Such as range of motion?

JW:  Sure. Just opening that up, shifting that perspective, allows them to go back to the gym and train in ways they couldn’t before.  Before they were just pushing through it, but now they can thrive in it. It's a shift in perspective.

MG: Speaking of perspective, when you’re training yoga professionals, whether it’s teacher training or yoga therapy training, is there a core belief or a residual message that you want them to come away with after studying with you? 

JW:  I mean, to love your students. Take good care of your students. Look out for their best interest. In any yoga setting where you are being looked after by another individual, the intentions of that individual should be high. If you go in with that intention of care, whether it’s a private session or a public class, you’re bound to be successful.

I think initially, when someone first starts teaching yoga, they're most likely not going to be very good at it. But if they have the intention of helping people, over time they will refine their teaching. They will get better and they’ll have a sustainable teaching practice where it becomes a profession. When someone doesn’t really have that love for people, it makes teaching less possible.

MG: What’s the most common injury or physical problem you see in your yoga therapy practice?

JW: I think the most common injury would be back pain. From lack of activity, or too much of one activity, or it’s simple postural issues, often from the way they sit. I mean, most people go set up their cubicle or their office in a particular way, and it's been like that for so long that they're always turning to one direction.

MG: Oh, you mean like, the phone is to the left, and they’re always turning to the left, for years and years?  

JW: Yes. They’re spending eight hours a day doing it. They can make a difference just by changing their workspace around, as an example.

MG: Wow, that kind of blows my mind.

JW:  It doesn’t really take that much to actually help someone, it’s really just using the right techniques and the right kind of approach.

MG: Can you expand on that?

JW: I think with most yoga teachers, when they find themselves unsuccessful, it’s because they’ve made it too dynamic; they're not using the right approach and that's why they're not finding success with the people that they're working with. They don’t know how to scale it back.

MG: By too dynamic you mean too challenging at the beginning?

JW: Yeah. Dynamic has its place, if someone isn’t ready to be more quiet or be more still, but you have to be able to adjust.  It’s really just knowing your student.  And communicating.  With private clients, if you’re communicating and paying attention in the session, and you’re communicating after the session within that week, and then in the next session…you’re slowly building a rapport, and the information you’re getting from the student will basically tell you how you should teach them.  And on top of that, if you’re observing them in practice, you’ll be able to see what they need.

MG: Final question: is there anything that you find particularly inspiring about training yoga professionals, whether it’s teacher training or yoga therapy training, or anything that makes you feel excited about the future of yoga therapy?

JW: It’s good to know that there are other teachers who are willing to modify and adapt a practice for someone who needs it, as opposed to just giving them a general practice, something that's not appropriate, maybe something that’s actually going to harm them. So it's nice to know that people actually are interested in working with someone who is experiencing some limitations or who’s really struggling or even bit desperate, and they really want to get better but they don't necessarily know how. It's good to know that younger teachers are willing to do more study than just general study and be able to work with just about every age or ability.

 MG: Jon Witt, thank you so much for your time.

JW: You’re welcome.

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Enrollment is currently open for Yoga Therapeutic Essentials at Prema Yoga Institute, with Dana Slamp and Jon Witt. The course runs from February 7th – March 1st.

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Molly Goforth is a yoga and meditation teacher and a student at Prema Yoga Institute. She specializes in accessibility and trauma-informed yoga teaching and practice.