Brahmacharya: the wise use of your energy
Sep 11, 2026
Brahmacharya: the wise use of your energy
You open the packet of biscuits meaning to have one. Twenty minutes later it's empty, and you're not entirely sure how that happened.
That's not a willpower problem. That's Brahmacharya.
We're up to the fourth yama in our series, and this one used to be translated as celibacy, back when yoga belonged mostly to monks and nuns channelling their sexual energy onto the path to enlightenment. Most of us aren't monks or nuns. We're householders, raising families, running businesses, showing up to work on Monday. So Brahmacharya gets reinterpreted for what Buddha called the middle path: not renunciation, not indulgence, but the wise use of energy.
Brahman means the divine. Charya means the path. Brahmacharya is the path of the divine, and the practice is simple to state and hard to live: pay attention to where your energy actually goes.
We all get the same 24 hours. Some of that difference in energy comes down to constitution, a vata person running fast and scattered, a kapha person moving slower and needing more rest. But underneath constitution, there's the energy we lose to distraction. Scrolling. Repressing how we really feel instead of saying it. Biting our tongue instead of speaking up. None of that looks dramatic in the moment. All of it drains the tank.
You know that anyone who has built something worthwhile has done it by directing their energy and their desire towards that outcome, instead of towards every simple pleasure on offer. That's not about giving up pleasure. It's about noticing when a pleasure has stopped being a pleasure and started being a distraction.
Here's what you need to know about the biscuit packet. The person who eats the whole thing usually isn't more indulgent, they're less present. They're not really tasting biscuit four through twelve. They're just moving through a script until the packet's empty, and then they feel agitated and guilty about it.
The practice isn't going cold turkey on the biscuits. We'd never recommend that. It's setting a limit, and then being fully present with what's inside that limit. One biscuit, properly tasted, with actual enjoyment, is worth more than twelve eaten on autopilot. That's the moderation Brahmacharya is asking for, not restriction, not guilt, just presence with a limit.
This is where the yoga practice of witnessing comes in. You notice yourself mid-packet. You notice yourself mid-scroll. Not to shame yourself out of it, but to give your mind the chance to choose again. Stop at one. Stop at six. Whatever the number is, the witnessing is what makes the choice possible.
We closed this class with Nadi Shodhana, alternate nostril breathing, and a short meditation using your own hands to gently withdraw the senses, eyes, ears and mouth, so the mind can rest from all the stimulation it takes in during an ordinary day. It's a physical practice of the same principle: pulling energy back inward, on purpose, so there's more of it left for what actually matters to you.
So the question worth sitting with this week isn't what are you giving up. It's simpler than that. What is the outcome you actually want, and is the way you're spending your energy today taking you towards it or away from it?
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