New Years Yoga and Ulysses' Pact

Written By Miri Gindin

Happy New Year, Friends.   

It would probably be hard to find someone who is not happy that 2020 is behind us.  

A global pandemic.  George Floyd and Breonna Taylor’s unthinkable deaths, and those of all the ones with names we don’t know or remember.  Raging bushfires.  Melting glaciers. The American administration’s cringey nonsense times a thousand.  To name, frankly, only a few of the ghastly things of 2020.    

2020 has given us some good things too.  Greater (appropriate!) appreciation for teachers and front line workers.  The epic force of the BLM movement, and the inspiring sight of those who joined in solidarity.   Support for small businesses.  The ability to see, with greater clarity, the way that our systems leave marginalized people behind. 

Improved creativity.  Increased biodiversity.  Animals taking back the streets! An unimaginable drop in fossil fuel consumption.  More time spent with family.  The embrace of simple hobbies.  Steps towards what could eventually become Universal Basic Income.  Seeing how, in a crisis, humans are able to work together and look after one another.  

All that said~it is a pleasure to bid this year adieu and to consider what is coming next.

Typically we do this thing around the New Year where we make vows to ourselves about the things we would like to change.  Then there is the issue of our statistical failure to do these things~ only 8% of us follow through.  

Yikes.   

Why is that?  We get excited, motivated to make change, to be better- and then we feel hungry, angry, lonely or tired-our guard goes down, and our good intentions & self-restraint go out the window.  It’s the most human thing ever.  

Well resolutions, or self-restraint: those are the Yoga tradition’s jam.  Patanjali, the early Yogic sage (circa 200 BCE-200 CE), called them yamas and niyamas.  They include expectations for the way we do life: for example, being honest and non-violent.   They also include the things we do to make life better.  For example, an orderly life and regular healthy practices like meditation.  According to the tradition, these are a few steps in the path to ...well...liberation.  Enlightenment, like.  

But how do we keep the promises to ourselves in times of weakness?  It turns out ancient Greece has an answer.  

The fun neuroscientist David Eagleman explains how this tool in behavioural psychology worked for Ulysses in Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey.   (This is all paraphrased):

Ulysses knows the legend of the siren song.   The sirens sing so seductively that mortals inevitably crash their ship into the rocks and die. He sees he’s going to pass the island of the sirens and he longs to hear them.   Thus, the Ulysses of present sound mind makes a bargain with his future irrational self.    “I know that guy will go off course when he hears the sirens.”  Ulysses ties himself to the mast and fills his men’s ears with beeswax.   “No matter what I do” he says to the men, “keep on rowing!”  It works.  And in that way Ulysses is able to hear the siren song AND to keep his crew and himself alive.  

Eagleman goes on to say it’s not enough to make a promise with good intentions- what is called in the Yoga tradition a sankalpa.  We need to chain ourselves to our proverbial mast in order to support our future, weaker self to follow through.  

What sorts of things can those of us, not descendants of Greek heroes, do to support our future, weaker selves?  

A friend once who was struggling with waking up on time asked me for a daily 7 am wake up call.  We could give those cookies to a neighbour before we surrender to eating every last one. We could start taking a new route to work to avoid the delicious five dollar latte at that cafe.    

Personally I schedule daily goals, even the tiny ones.   Write a thing.  Take vitamins.  Get a good night’s sleep.  (Seriously!)  

At one point I noticed my mood was better in the afternoon if I ran first thing in the morning.  I mean, First thing first thing!  Roll out of bed and out the door, like.  This is plainly not a desirable way to start the day and there are always 10 separate excuses not to do it.   

Accountability works wonders though and just adding that little task to my to do list put the pressure on (as well as being fed up with my 3 o’clock slump).    

For introverts like me, the accountability of a to-do list might be enough.  For you extroverts out there, though: you might need a lil help from your friends.  Agree to meet someone, or at least text a friend afterwards to say you completed the dreaded task.    The discomfort of  having to tuck the tail between the legs and admit failure will likely outweigh the aversion to completing it.  

And sure enough, the more we do these things, the easier they get.  The first day I woke up at 6 am to hit the pavement (grass if I’m honest.  These old knees can’t handle pavement),  I felt like I had slept under my car.  But after a few times, the body adjusted.  Soon I was out cold by 9:30 pm in anticipation of the early morning discipline, or tapas, as we say in the yoga tradition.    The other tapas- not to be confused with Spanish appetizers. 

Choose a fulcrum- a lever- that you can pull to stop your future self from even being in that neighbourhood where the bad choices are made- or at least from finding themselves alone there. Your future self will thank you.

Speaking of your future self, this is a great way to talk to kiddos about the same topic.   “Your future self will thank you” one of us might say to Z. when he resists getting ready for bed before the time of day where he is exhausted, cranky and hates doing anything.  “Yeah yeah, Ma,” he rolls his eyes.   But eventually he’s giving the same preachy advice to younger kids.  “Carry your own backpack Maddie,” I overheard him saying to a five year old in our strata recently.  “Your future self will appreciate how strong she is!”  

Which siren song are you hoping to bypass in 2021?  For me, I’m looking to avoid being so hard on myself.  I have discovered this habit is an energy “leak”-it prevents me from doing good stuff that I want to do.   In order to build better habits, I have promised to list three things that I did right each day.  The thought of doing this frankly fills me with dread but luckily (??) I have my guilt to keep me on the wagon.  

2020 is coming to an end, friends.  It’s been a wild year.  Cleaning up its messes and creating a world that is new & better is going to be an Odyssean task.  We will need all the willpower, all the resilience, and all the support that we can get.  

May your 2021 bring the brightest blessings to you, the world and all beings everywhere.  

PS: Looking for somewhere to start with those 2021 plans?  Check out The Yoga Buggy’s registration page for upcoming classes to help you and the kiddos in your life to build better habits.