Tapas in yoga: the discipline that burns away old habits

Tapas in yoga: why your willpower runs out by Thursday

It's Thursday night and the house has finally gone quiet. You told yourself this week would be different. On Monday you meal-prepped, you made it to class twice, you said no to the biscuits at morning tea. Now you're standing at the open pantry with a block of chocolate in your hand, and you can't remember deciding to get up off the couch.

You know this feeling.

We tend to read it as a character flaw. Not enough discipline. Not enough willpower. Try harder next week.

Yoga reads it differently. In this week's episode of Beyond the Diet, Kristina teaches tapas, the third of the niyamas, and it offers a way of looking at discipline that has nothing to do with punishing yourself.

What tapas means

Tapas comes from the Sanskrit root tap, to burn. It's often translated as discipline or austerity, and some texts use the word penance. Kristina describes it as fiery enthusiasm, a burning desire that keeps you turning up for yourself day after day.

The niyamas are yoga's personal observances, the second of the eight limbs. Tapas sits third among them, after saucha (cleanliness) and santosha (contentment).

"In the showing up," Kristina says, "I'm burning away the stuff that's holding me back, and I'm building the stuff I need to take me forward into the person I'm becoming."

Why your willpower lives in your belly

Many yoga teachers link tapas to the third chakra, manipura, which sits just above your navel. In yoga it's the seat of personal will, the place you direct your energy and focus from.

In Ayurveda, the belly is also home to agni, your digestive fire. Building agni is central to how Kristina works with her clients: the fire in their digestion, the fire in their liver, the fire in their lives. Tapas is that same fire turned toward your spiritual practice.

Ten minutes counts

Because manipura sits in your core, tapas classes often lean strong. Core work, arm balances, a practice that leaves you sweating. Kristina sees that as one option among many.

Sometimes tapas is rolling out the mat for ten minutes of breathing or a few sun salutations. Sometimes it's sitting in silence for ten minutes, which for most of us is harder than any plank.

The ritual itself carries no special meaning. What matters is that you keep turning up.

Why yoga builds a bigger container

When you send your energy down through your feet and out through your fingertips in a pose, you're moving prana through the energy channels of your body, the nadis. Kristina compares it to sweeping a floor. Wherever your attention goes, the dust gets moved and cleared, which is part of why you feel so much better after class.

The discipline of practice also builds the container. "We need a strong body to hold a bigger life force," she says. "And the bigger your life force, the bigger your life can become."

Discipline was never about the food

On a five-day silent retreat, Kristina noticed two things. Most of what she had to say was meaningless. And most of what she ate wasn't nourishing her.

Silence on its own holds nothing special. A yogic fast has nothing to do with losing weight. Both train your will. They teach your body and mind that you can point your energy where you want it to go, and that's what burns away the old habits.

The three kinds of tapas

The Bhagavad Gita describes three ways of practising discipline, and you may recognise yourself in at least one.

Rajasic tapas is discipline for show. You train, meditate or diet to get something back, the result or the praise.

Tamasic tapas is severe self-denial, punishing yourself in the name of discipline. Think of every diet that left you hungry and quietly hating yourself.

Sattvic tapas asks for nothing and denies nothing. There's nothing to gain and nothing to suffer. You turn up with enthusiasm, endurance and acceptance, and the practice carries you.

If the Monday-to-Thursday cycle feels familiar, ask yourself which one you've been practising. Rajasic and tamasic discipline tend to burn out fast. Sattvic discipline tends to last.

Tapas for your body, your speech and your mind

Kristina describes three places to practise.

Tapas of the body looks like staying active, eating well, keeping yourself strong and building some mastery over your senses.

Tapas of speech is choosing when to speak and what to say. You speak your truth with kindness, in a way that brings calm to the people who hear you.

Tapas of the mind is the one that matters at 9pm. "Your brain is a pleasure-seeking missile," Kristina says. It's forever hunting for the next short-term hit.

The practice here is to stop and get curious. Before you reach for the glass of wine or the chocolate bar, sit for ten minutes and ask what you're really wanting to feel. Kristina is clear that this has nothing to do with denial. You're burning through the belief that you need chocolate to feel good, because the feeling you're after is already inside you.

The tipping point

Tapas is uncomfortable at first. Growth happens outside your comfort zone, and the Yoga Sutras call tapas "the difficult practice of beneficial change".

Then something shifts. There's a tipping point where the practice stops feeling hard and starts to burn inside you. Kristina remembers landing a handstand and thinking, what else is possible? Keep turning up, keep offering the old habits to the fire, and the willpower starts to look after itself.

Your friends may think you're mad when you tell them you're off on a five-day silent retreat. That's fine. Tapas often points in the opposite direction to everyone around you.

Try it this week

The episode closes with a 10-minute closed-eye meditation, tapas at its plainest. Sit down, close your eyes, and let whatever comes up come up and move on.

Next Thursday, when the house goes quiet and you feel the pull toward the pantry, you could be on your mat instead. Eyes closed, ten minutes in. The chocolate's still on the shelf, and you've found out what you were really hungry for.

Search Beyond the Diet on Spotify or YouTube to hear the full episode, and join the conversation in our Facebook group, Beyond the Diet: Weight, Wellness and Womanhood.