How to Practice Sincere Effort Rather Than Perfection in Your Recovery
The yoga philosophy of tapas, or right action, is the third of the five niyamas. Translated as ‘discipline’, tapas is a call to action to follow through on the words, actions, and activities that align with eating disorder recovery each and every day - even when we don't want to.
Tapas implores us to prioritize our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health.
When we are struggling with an eating disorder, we often misunderstand discipline to mean perfection. Practicing tapas, however, means giving our most sincere effort in taking the steps that we need to take every day that align with our recovery values. Its doing the things we don’t want to do, like showing up to therapy, following meal plans, and doing self-care, and doing them anyway because we know deep down they support our whole being wellness.
Rather than focus on a “perfect” outcome, sincere effort is about paying attention to our experience and doing our best as we perfrom a task. Ultimately, tapas asks us to be sincere and steady in our commitment to our efforts for recovery, healing, and health. When we show up as fully as possible, the things we don’t want to do start to get easier.
Reflect on Tapas in your recovery
Maria Sorbara Mora, contributor to the book Yoga and Eating Disorders, shared her wisdom on the Yoga for Eating Disorders Community Facebook Group about what tapas is and is not, and offered some really great concrete examples of how to apply this yoga philosophy to eating disorder recovery. Watch her short video.
I also invite you to reflect on these questions to explore tapas in your life:
What is a yoga pose you avoid or think is too challenging? Why? What might it be like to slowly work towards that pose, focusing on the experience of learning versus an outcome of perfection or an ideal?
Who in your life would you describe as courageous? What struggles did she/he/they face? How did she/he/they move through them?
What is your greatest fear right now? What would it be like to see this fear through the frame of love or compassion?
What would be nourishing to you in your life right now? What is one step you commit to taking to bringing that nourishment into your life today?
What is one step you commit to taking today to help increase your motivation for recovery?
A Yoga Practice and Guided Meditations for Practicing Sincere Effort
I invite you to join me for a short yoga practice exploring how to bring sincere effort to our yoga poses and actions in recovery. All you need is a mat and any props you like - blocks, bolsters, chairs, blankets - whatever makes you comfortable.
Consider ending the practice with a guided meditation on tapas to practice discipline without perfection:
I’d love to hear how you focus on sincere effort in your recovery. Please feel free to share in the comments. And if you are looking for support on your recovery journey, please don’t hesitate to reach out.