We had the third meeting of our Willpower Instinct Meditation Book Group at Yoga Bliss yesterday.   We came together for gentle yoga practice, meditation and discussion of the second, third and fourth chapters in the Willpower Instinct:  I Will, I Won’t, I Want:  What Willpower Is, and Why It Matters.

In these chapters author Kelly McGonigal explores willpower as a biological instinct.  She suggests ways of choosing and framing our challenges in ways that truly motivate us to choose wisely.  She cautions us against viewing our challenges as measures of moral worth.  She observes that we often reward ourselves for doing something “good” with an indulgence of doing something “bad”.  She asks us to consider how we identify ourselves:  Are we the person who needs to be controlled? Are we the person who is inspired and dedicated to pursuing a goal?  Our perceived identity informs our choices for better or worse.

These observations made me reflect on my own identity.  This prompted me to consider yoga’s “anatomy of the mind” which offers a good way to explore identity and motivation.  I offered Dr. Rolf Sovik’s description of yoga’s mind anatomy and we used it in our gentle movement and meditation practices.

In the yogic anatomy of mind we have different capacities:  The first of which is Manas, our everyday conscious mind, the coordinator of the senses and the mental screen on which thoughts and images occur.  In movement and stillness we simply sensed physical feelings, sight, sound, taste and touch.  We allowed arising thoughts to register in awareness without holding on or pushing away.

As Manas, our everyday conscious mind, is calmed, a more discerning dimension of the mind, the Buddhi, awakens. The Buddhi assigns meaning and value to experience.  Mostly through the practice of stillness, the Buddhi witnesses mental activity, and a sense of equanimity arises.

As we grow in self-awareness we see the effects of Chitta, our unconscious storehouse of past thoughts and experiences—the bed of memory. These impressions and memories manifest in the form of habitual behaviors or desires. They can form as a fantasy, a distracting thought, a simple desire, or a powerful emotional urge.  We noticed these fluctuations of mind while breathing, moving and being still.

Finally, the mind as Ahamkara is the maker of an “I.” The identity we construct within the mind itself. With its lesser side, we cling to a limited self—we grasp the ego and the things with which it identifies.  Yet in Yoga’s philosophy each of us is also a manifestation of a vast field of pure consciousness, our true Self.  Perhaps this is the place from which life-enhancing motivation arises.  Perhaps we can find our “want power” here.

We used our practices of somatic movement and meditation to slow everything down to shift our orientation from doing to a way of being.

We allowed some time for contemplation and journaling while considering Kelly’s questions about how we frame our willpower challenges and how we see ourselves:  Do you tell yourself you’ve been good when you succeed at a willpower challenge?  If so, do you reward yourself with permission to be bad?  When you think of your willpower challenge which part of you feels like the “real” you?  Is it the part that pursues your goals or is it the part that needs to be controlled?

Our discussion touched on compassion, joy and what we find truly nourishing.  One student found herself questioning her motivation to build healthier bones through exercise.  Why do this when she’s got sedentary relatives that live into their nineties?  Good question.  She found that her true motivation is to garden.  An inner joy seemed to animate her description of the heartfelt desire to be able to garden into her nineties. Kelly observes that we resist rules imposed by others for our own good.  We do what we want to do.

Another student shared her observations about her eating choices that seemed to suffer from lack of planning.  It is interesting that many of us as caregivers and/or mothers devote lots of our time planning for the subjects of our care – yet we fail to include ourselves in those plans!  Our willpower reserves draw down as the day wears on – leaving us vulnerable to snack on whatever is available not necessarily finding what is truly nourishing.  How can we create the conditions under which our “pause and plan” response arise?  We seem to find this clear “heartedness” for others – why can’t we find it for ourselves?

Another student found inspiration in Kelly’s work with the Stanford Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education.  In her wonderful talk, The Power of Compassion, Kelly describes a “happiness intervention” experiment conducted to study the effects of how we talk to ourselves.  In this experiment, participants were asked to reflect on the worst thing that happened to them in a day every day for a week.  Some participants were asked to write themselves a letter offering empathy and encouragement.  Others found themselves talking and thinking of themselves in negative terms.  Kelly describes how this kind of “self talk” generates either responsive or reactive modes of behavior.  Thinking and acting either responsively or reactively actually affects different areas of the brain.  Using effective “happiness interventions” can change our brains!

This takes me back to where we started – the yoga anatomy of mind.  I believe we can use our different faculties of mind – Manas, Buddhi, Chitta and Ahamkara, in ways to enhance our wellbeing.  I’m curious about how the seeds of past experience grow into future behaviors.  I feel a sense of urgency about awakening compassion for myself and others – particularly as I live with friends and family who are ageing, living with illness, injury and just the awareness of the state of our world.

Next week’s homework is outlined at:

The Willpower Instinct Meditation Book Group Meeting 3 Homework.

For extra credit you can watch Dr. James Doty’s 10 minute inspirational TEDx Talk about his own experience with adversity and kindess:

http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/TEDxGoldenGateED-James-Doty-2

Good luck with your challenges this week!  Let’s remember Kelly’s advice:

“. . . moving beyond traps of moral licensing requires knowing who we are is the self that wants the best for us.”