YOGASPIRITUS
  • Home
  • About
  • Services
    • Group Classes >
      • Schedule
      • Gentle Yoga
      • Yoga for Life
      • Gentle Chair Yoga
      • Slow Down to Move Well
    • Private Sessions >
      • Yoga as Therapy
      • Private Yoga Classes
      • Restorative Yoga
      • Meditation
    • Healing Reiki
    • Yoga Practices
    • FAQs
    • Guided Meditations >
      • Body Scan for Chronic Stress and Pain
      • Entering into Stillness - Pause Between Breaths Meditation
      • Calm the Body, Calm the Mind - Body Awareness and Alternate Nostril Breathing Visualizataion
      • Meditation for Self-Compassion - Metta Bhavana (Loving-Kindness)
      • Increase Happiness - Gratitude Meditation
  • Pricing
  • Blog & Resources
    • Meditation Courses
    • Recommended Yoga Books
    • Simple Yoga Practices
    • Resources >
      • Podcasts
      • Videos >
        • Chronic Pain
        • Spondylitis
  • Testimonials
  • Contact
  • Home
  • About
  • Services
    • Group Classes >
      • Schedule
      • Gentle Yoga
      • Yoga for Life
      • Gentle Chair Yoga
      • Slow Down to Move Well
    • Private Sessions >
      • Yoga as Therapy
      • Private Yoga Classes
      • Restorative Yoga
      • Meditation
    • Healing Reiki
    • Yoga Practices
    • FAQs
    • Guided Meditations >
      • Body Scan for Chronic Stress and Pain
      • Entering into Stillness - Pause Between Breaths Meditation
      • Calm the Body, Calm the Mind - Body Awareness and Alternate Nostril Breathing Visualizataion
      • Meditation for Self-Compassion - Metta Bhavana (Loving-Kindness)
      • Increase Happiness - Gratitude Meditation
  • Pricing
  • Blog & Resources
    • Meditation Courses
    • Recommended Yoga Books
    • Simple Yoga Practices
    • Resources >
      • Podcasts
      • Videos >
        • Chronic Pain
        • Spondylitis
  • Testimonials
  • Contact




 

Where There's a Will There's a Way

10/24/2017

0 Comments

 

The Way Forward

Those who eat too much or eat too little, who sleep too much or sleep too little, will not succeed in meditation. But those who are temperate in eating and sleeping, work and recreation, will come to the end of sorrow through meditation. ~ Bhagavad Gita
 
Picture this: you're staring at a heavenly scented cinnamon bun, dripping with gooey white icing, at a kiosk in the shopping mall. You're tired from last-minute shopping during the holiday season, and want a quick pick-me-up. Although you've promised yourself to cut out sweets because sugar is so bad for you, how do you resist that delicious piece of fragrant gooeyness?

Well, exactly. How do you resist? All my life I’ve struggled with eating – how much to eat, when to eat, what to eat. Some people wonder at this, as they look at me and say, “hey, you’re slim, you can’t possibly have any eating issues!” However, the truth often lies under the surface of what seems obvious. I was bulimic in my late teens and stopped only when I began to worry that this practice might eventually cause permanent damage to my health. I studied nutrition and got my undergraduate degree in that subject at university, and still struggled.  Over time, with practice, I’ve learned to discern when my body is truly hungry. I’ve learned when I need to eat and when I’m just eating to be sociable.

Even up to the present day, however, I can still find myself in situations where I completely lose control and munch away well beyond the point where my body is comfortable or I’m happy.

I’ve just returned from an 18-day vacation where there was so much food at every buffet that my willpower melted away like a puddle of butter on a hot sidewalk. I  gained only three pounds, but the slightness of that gain may have been due to my getting a cold halfway through vacation and eating only soup and toast for several days.

The advent of Thanksgiving heralds the beginning of several months of what can feel like nonstop eating and drinking, enough to test the willpower of any but the most stalwart among us.

Thanks to some sage advice from Kelly McGonigal in her book, The Willpower Instinct, however, there's hope if you want to make it through the upcoming holiday season and not have to lose pounds to get into your favourite pair of pants come January.

Here are some things to consider, according to Professor McGonigal, who is a health psychologist and  researcher at Stanford University.

Willpower is like a muscle, and is stronger in the morning. You have only so much of it, and if you spend it on one thing you will have less for something else.

There are five ways to increase your willpower – what Prof. McGonigal calls “small changes with big effects.”

 1. Train your willpower physiology. This includes:
  • Sleep – Less than 6 hours is sub-optimal; your prefrontal cortex, the thinking brain, needs more to remember long-term goals and values.
  • Meditation – Boosts both your ability to sleep and your willpower.  Meditation increases the size of your thinking brain and makes it better connected to the regions it controls. Only 10 minutes a day for a few months makes a huge difference.
  • Exercise – Has the same effect as meditation.
  • Eating - Big spikes in blood sugar levels mess with how the brain uses energy.  The brain needs to be an energy-efficient machine.  And a plant-based diet is better for brain function.
  • Not doing these makes it harder to begin. Everything that these take in terms of willpower gives back way more in terms of willpower.  Everything feeds into the other.  E.g., exercising makes it easier to eat right, not to procrastinate, not to spend so much, etc.
2. Forgive yourself.
  • The harder you are on yourself when you have a willpower failure, the more likely you are to have the same failure again, and the bigger it’s going to be. 
  • Practice Self-Compassion: follow these three steps.
              a. Be mindful of what you are thinking and feeling.
              b. Understand your common humanity – we all have failures.
              c. Give yourself encouragement instead of criticism. 
3. Make friends with your future self.
  • Protect your future self by making better choices today.
  • Small goals work better than big ones.
4. Predict your willpower failures.
  • Imagine everything that can go wrong and imagine how you are going to deal with it.
5. Surf the urge. Distress tolerance – how much distress can you stand? This is biggest predictor of achieving goals.
  • Pay attention to physical discomfort of wanting something. 
  • Wait with patience. 
  • Breathe and wait. 
  • The urge will pass.
 
Here is a simple way to apply this:
  1. Mindfulness – feel what you are feeling and think what you are thinking.  Notice what it feels like in body. 
  2. Breathe it out.  Use your breath as a source of stability.
  3. Now, look for the first opportunity to recommit to your goal.



For the past week, I’ve been practising “surfing the urge.” Every time I have an impulse to reach for food – breakfast, lunch, dinner or snacks – I notice the impulse, stop, and take six slow breaths. Then, sometimes I will eat, and sometimes I’ll forego it. In that time, I’ve lost the three pounds I gained over my holidays. And can reach for my favourite jeans instead.

If you’re ready to increase your willpower, I invite you to try this willpower challenge. For the next week, each time you want to reach for a snack, notice the impulse, stop and take six slow breaths. Notice if the urge changes. And then make a conscious choice – not one based on habit or impulse – to eat or not to eat.

If you're keen to learn more, discover fascinating facts about your digestion and how to live healthfully and enjoy it, join Milka Milicevic, Holistic Nutritionist and me for a fun afternoon to Stoke Your Inner Fire on Sunday, November 12 from 1-4 pm. It's an afternoon of discovery, to:


  • Strengthen the core, the seat of your digestion, with yoga;
  • Learn more about your digestion, cravings and willpower;
  • Eat healthy and delicious snacks; and
  • Round off the afternoon with some delightful restorative yoga to help your body and mind “rest, digest and heal.”

Check out Milka’s blog post on digestion here. Space is limited for this workshop and there are only three spots left, so register early!

And now, I’d love to hear from you. What are your willpower challenges? If you had the willpower, what would you like to accomplish?

I look forward to meeting you on the mat!

Namaste,
Donna xo

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Get Wellness Tips

    Blog

    Author

    Donna offers a holistic perspective on the relationship and healing of physical and emotional pain.

    Categories

    All
    A Strong Core And Healthy Gut
    Balancing Steadiness And Ease
    Breath By Breath
    Core Stability
    Creating A Sustainable Home Practice
    Enjoying Gratitude
    Evolving Through The Chakras
    Finding Your Inner Voice
    Gaining Clarity
    Getting Grounded For Health
    Healing Persistent Pain
    Healing The Heart
    How To Have More Energy
    How Yoga Can Help You
    Keys To A Therapeutic Yoga Practice
    Less Is More
    Mindfulness
    Motion Is Lotion
    Physical And Emotional Pain
    Practise What You Want To Strengthen
    Reflections On Healing - The Placebo Effect
    Resolution Or Intention
    Rest Relax Restore
    The Relaxation Response
    The Value Of Resilience
    Training Your Willpower
    Where There's A Will There's A Way
    Yoga Is For Everybody

    Archives

    May 2021
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    April 2019
    January 2019
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013

    RSS Feed

Copyright © 2015