Discipline leads to Liberation has been one of my biggest take always from the philosophy of yoga. This was a big part of my teacher training and the more we delved into the topics the more I became intrigued with the whole philosophy of yoga rather than just the asanas (postures). As I arrive home with my certificate in hand, I realise that discipline does lead to liberation.
The practice of yoga, meditation, chanting, pranayama, asana’s are just one part of being a yogi. The rest is about how you live your life, how you show up in the world and how you cultivate routines or rituals that are essential to your growth and spiritual journey.
Discipline has always been something I have ran away from – being told what to do or controlled through discipline brought resistance and a distaste to those who were trying to instil discipline upon me.
I now realise that discipline is a good thing because it gives you structure, it gives you a dristri- focus and it makes life easier- simpler because the routine or ritual that you’ve created for yourself actually frees you.
My relationship to discipline has changed, when I applied discipline to my teacher training, I was introduced to a new and easier Gillian, one that lent in rather than ran away. The one that found peace in the simplicity of a daily routine.
The regular practice of doing the same thing brought a deeper skill set, a deeper knowledge and a deeper connection to myself and the practice. At the start, this was hard and tiresome but as the days turned into weeks and the weeks into a month, I found everything became easier. My thoughts, emotions and energy flowed and my stress released.
Having discipline in your life does lead to liberation, to freedom and to peace. If you haven’t yet cultivated a daily routine or ritual then I invite you to do so. It will strip away the complexity, the incongruity and confusion you may be experiencing and instead it will simply give you peace of mind.
All you need to do is write down how you want to start your day and how you want to finish it and do it daily.
You will notice over time your stress, tension and anxiety will loosen, your mind will become clearer and your emotions will be lighter.
Remember you can create your own relationship with discipline it doesn’t have to be the way you’ve experienced it in the past.
I believe you deserve to be liberated and you’re the only one that can do that for yourself. Start today and see the difference in how you feel after a month.
If I can do this, I know you can too! Go on free yourself and live life with ease and grace!
