Week 4 of the Yamas was Brahmacharya: Non-excess. This is often understood as conserving sexual energy via abstinence or celibacy. However, to broaden the perspective it can be conserving energy in any way. The Yamas & Niyamas book explains that this Yama “calls us to leave greed and excess behind and walk in this world with wonder and awe, practicing nonexcess and attending to each moment as holy.” Let’s go over my summary from the book that helped guide me through the week.
Brahmacharya/Non-excess:
- Enter each day and each action with awareness, respect, holiness – rather than indulgence (or overindulgence)
- Can you enjoy pleasure without excess? Find the line of “just enough” and stay there
- Fasting, celibacy, abstinence (of anything) are strong practices to pull in the reins and find our center, recalibrate, cleanse and bring more awareness to our tendencies of excess
- Viewing all things and relationship with things as sacred can balance us, rooting us back to earth – when gratitude and wonder wit in the heart, there is no need for excess
- Eat, work, sleep, etc. to the point of increased energy – before lethargy of excess sets in
- The point of life is to know what is enough – Practice pleasure without excess
My biggest challenge during this week was overindulging in sweets. During the holiday season, of course, sweets are everywhere. And the more you eat sweets, the more you crave sweets. I was on a viscous cycle – eating too many sugary treats and not even a basic amount of vegetables. In order to combat this overindulgence, I decided to start small. I started taking a probiotic here and there when I had the sweet-tooth cravings. The reason one would have these cravings are because the bad bacteria in your gut feeds on this – it’s how they stay alive. If you take the sweets away, they’ll die off. And adding the good bacteria in only helps the process. Along with the probiotic, I began also taking a green powder drink 1-2 times a day.
Without awareness of what is going on in my body, I wouldn’t have even realized I was overindulging in the first place. It’s still a struggle as the holidays continue, but now that I’m conscious of it, it’s hard to indulge as much as I have been.
Is there something that you’ve been indulging (or overindulging) in that you can become more aware of?
Raising LeBar 