Building a strong willpower through yoga

What is willpower?

What is willpower? Merriam-Webster dictionary defines willpower as “energetic determination”. That means we make an enthusiastic mental resolution to achieve a certain goal in a certain period of time and then use “energetic determination” to stay on course to achieve success in our endeavors.

We are all too familiar with people making lofty New Year resolutions. Just a few days or weeks into the New Year, these resolutions seem to evaporate into thin air for most people. Why is that so? It is all because of the lack of willpower or the “energetic determination” to stay on course with the resolve made on the New Year Eve.

Let us take weight loss as an example. This is perhaps the most common resolution people make for the New Year. Of course, at a high level, everyone knows how to lose weight. It involves only two ingredients – exercise more and eat less – more output, less input! Simple, yet difficult to achieve. What prevents them from following this simple regimen? Lack of willpower!

Willpower and the Yoga Sutras

To understand willpower better and learn how to make it stronger, let us turn to some of the concepts presented in the Yoga Sutras by Patanjali. Let us recognize first that willpower is a function of the mind. As we all know, yoga, as defined and discussed by Patajanli, is all about calming and controlling the mind. In an earlier article I discussed how the mind functions. In that article, we mentioned that the mind can be considered a composite of four major functions – cognitive mind, intellect (discriminatory function), ego and the memory. The intellect is sometimes referred to as the “higher mind” and the ego as the “lower mind”. In our normal state of being, the intellect, unfortunately, is dominated by the ego. Any intention set by the intellect gets usually derailed by the ego. Ego is driven by attachment to previous pleasant experiences and aversion to previous unpleasant experiences.

Let us say that your higher mind (intellect) decides to set the intention to wake up early in the morning to do some yoga practice and set the alarm for 6 AM. Come 6 AM, the alarm goes off. Guess who waked up first? The lower mind (ego), of course, and it immediately prompts you to hit the snooze button. This is based on past pleasurable experience of staying under the covers rather than waking up and getting out of the bed that early. We see the same pattern of ego dominating the intellect in most of our life experiences.

Patanjali, in the Yoga Sutras, states that through a regular and sustained practice of the eight limbs of yoga, we can sharpen the intellect and weaken the ego. As a result, more decisions are based on what is “desirable” rather than what is “pleasurable” in a given situation. In the following sutra, he gives us specific guidelines as to how to strengthen the willpower and how to achieve the desired goals.

Three pillars of “kriya yoga” (yoga of activity)

तपःस्वाध्यायेश्वरप्रणिधानानि क्रियायोगः॥१॥

tapaḥ svādhyāy-eśvarapraṇidhānāni kriyā-yogaḥ ॥1॥

“tapas, swadhyaya, and Ishwara-pranidhana” constitute “kriya yoga” (sutra 2.1)

Tapas

Tapas is usually translated as austerity or ascetic practices. These are practices and observances that are done to toughen us up both physically and mentally, essentially building a strong willpower. Yogic practices of tapas may include maintaining a regular yoga practice consisting of asana, pranayama and meditation; observing periodic fasts; regular donations to some charity; or giving up some addiction – TV, smoking, drugs, alcohol etc. for a duration of time As a result of these practices we can withstand the dualities of life that we are faced with every step of our life – dualities like heat and cold, honor and dishonor, good and bad etc.

In our example of achieving weight loss, this would mean establishing a plan of action to attain our goal and sticking to the plan without break or interruption.

Swadhyaya

Swadhyaya means study of ancient scriptures in an effort to study and understand the “self”. From a yogic perspective where the goal is to attain the state of samadhi, swadhyaya usually implies study of ancient texts like the Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Yoga Sutras etc., and then apply these learned concepts to a deeper exploration and understanding of our inner being, leading to self-realization.

In our example of weight loss, having a raw, strong willpower is not adequate to reach the goal. We need a carefully understood and laid out plan of action. As mentioned earlier, the two key ingredients of weight loss are diet and exercise. For diet, it is important to have a thorough understanding of the nutritional needs that are based on:

• Age
• Health situation (diabetes, blood pressure, heart problem, kidney issues etc.)
• Ethnic and cultural background
• Vegetarian vs. non-vegetarian
• Season of the year (summer/winter/spring/fall)
• etc.

Based on these factors, one needs to carefully lay out a diet plan that is individually tailored, effective, practical and achievable.

A similar approach is needed to establish a plan of action for exercise. This plan must also be based on factors like age, health condition, lifestyle, season of the year etc. A well integrated yoga routine consisting of asana (physical postures), pranayama (breathing exercises) and meditation will provide a nice workout at all levels – physical, physiological and mental.

Ishwara Pranidhana (Surrender to higher Self)

Setting an intention, making a plan of action and using a strong willpower to carry out the plan diligently is all in our hands. What is not in our hands is to “dictate” the outcome of our endeavors. If our goal to lose 10 lbs in a certain period of time is not met, we don’t want the ego to impose self-judgment, self-criticism, feelings of inadequacy, feelings of guilt etc. Whatever is the outcome, we must accept it gracefully. Maybe our goals were unrealistic to begin with, or, maybe something was lacking in our understanding and approach. All we need to do is to re-calibrate our plans and continue with the endeavor without feeling upset or disheartened.

Meditation – key to mind control

As mentioned earlier, willpower is a function of the mind. The practice of yoga is all about controlling and stilling the mind. The definition of yoga according to Patanjali is “yogash-chitta-vritti-nirodhaH” – yoga is the ability to subdue the fluctuations of the mind (sutra 1.2). As we said, ego tries its best to derail the mind from its resolve. The resulting wavering of the willpower is a fluctuation of the mind. It is through the practice of the eight limbs of yoga that we can still the mind. As per Patanjali, meditation is the most important of these limbs of yoga and is the key to stilling the mind. So, in order to develop a strong, unwavering willpower it is important to allocate a certain amount of time for meditation on a daily basis.

The key to success is to establish a regular, preferably daily, yoga routine that consists of asana, pranayama and meditation. Patanjali, in sutra 1.14, states that practice becomes firmly established when carried out for a long time, uninterrupted and with a sense of devotion and trust.

I hope you will find this article helpful in developing a strong willpower that will help you achieve your desired goals in life. I would love to get your feedback.