Mastering Your Mind is Your Superpower

Personal growth and development have always been a major part of my adult life. I desire to learn and grow as a person constantly; I believe that our ability to evolve and improve is a gift not to be squandered. 

Because we all continuously create our own reality within our ego minds based on our upbringing, conditioning, experiences, and preferences, we can also choose to change our beliefs and thoughts to have more positive outcomes. 

I cringe when I hear someone declare, “That’s just the way I am.” Whether it’s said in a defeatist or defensive manner, it makes me recoil. As I wrote in my new book Brain Bitch: How I Quiet My Inner Mean Girl, my desire for lasting positive changes within myself became not just a want but a need as my anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem hit rock bottom.

It wasn't until I started practicing yoga that I learned how key it was to growth and healing. Specifically, being introduced to the 8 Limbs of Yoga led to lasting change. 

In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, I discovered a deep practice of self-study that shows me new layers of myself and my psyche, uncovering my neurosis and challenging my ways of thinking.  Although at times the process of self-study can be emotionally draining and mentally exhausting, the results can be life-altering and, in my case, life-saving.

The 8 Limbs of Yoga are thought to be a path to enlightenment. I think of them as a roadmap for navigating and improving the quality of your life and finding liberation. 

Within the 8 Limbs are the Yamas and Niyamas (the first two limbs), which I find transformational when combined with deep introspection and willingness to be fully honest with ourselves. 

The Yamas are morals and restraints, and the Niyamas are personal duties and observances. On the surface they may appear simple and easily dismissed, but when we look at them on more subtle levels, we find they’re profound in their ability to illuminate areas within our hearts and minds that are no longer serving us well — or maybe never did. 

Here are the Yamas and Niyamas: 

Yamas  - Restraints/Morals

·      Non-Violence

·      Truthfulness

·      Non-Stealing

·      Non-Excess

·      Non-Possessiveness

Niyamas – Observances/Positive Duties

·      Purity

·      Contentment

·      Self Discipline

·      Self Study

·      Surrender

Over the next few blog posts, I’ll share a few of my personal experiences of working with the Yamas and Niyamas as instruments for personal growth and development. 

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