three

THE SECOND LIMB: PERSONAL CODE OF CONDUCT

Personal transformation can and does have global effects.
As we go, so goes the world, for the world is us.
The revolution that will save the world is ultimately
a personal one.

Mary Catherine Bateson

 

THE NIYAMAS

By now, you have a sense of how interrelated the yamas truly are. Violating one yama inevitably involves negative action in another. Practicing one strengthens and supports the practice of the others. Ahimsa (non-violence) cannot be achieved without aparigraha (non-hoarding) and practicing aparigraha makes it impossible to violate asteya (non-stealing). Practicing satya (truth-telling) will help you honor asteya (non-stealing) and brahmacharya (managing vital energies).

Michelle Ryan, who owns a yoga studio in Florence, Massachusetts, says practicing the yamas informs every aspect of her business. “I try hard to incorporate ahimsa in what I do, compassion for students and where they might be in their lives. I also try hard to be truthful (satya). I am honest with students about what they can and can’t do physically, and also about what I do or do not know! I am conscious about not sharing others’ ideas as if they are my own, which is asteya. And I do not look at my students as dollar-signs walking through the door, aparigraha. From a business standpoint, that may not make much sense to some people. But I am not teaching for the money—although it’s nice when that manifests, too!”

This same symbiotic relationship exists within the niyamas, which outline a personal code of conduct. They are beneficial individually, and like pieces of a puzzle, they combine to create something wholesome that will help you be ethical, productive, and serene at work.

The five precepts are:

Saucha—cleanliness, purity

Santosha—contentment

Svadhyaya—self-study

Tapas—discipline, energy, zeal

Ishvara-pranidhana—surrender

Practicing these five powerful precepts will have subtle and profound effects on the way you see others, and the ways you approach work. The individual observances minimize the external distractions that become obstacles to developing your full potential, and block you from recognizing the potential in others. The niyamas will help you be present to your own life.

As Cat de Rham and Michèle Gill wrote in their beautiful book, The Spirit of Yoga, “When we work selflessly, the mind stays pure. While we are not indifferent to the result of our actions, we are not addicted to its fruits. Actionless action is a slow but important process of learning to rely on the strength and equanimity that comes from within. From the Self.”

 

PURITY (Saucha)

Cleanliness, unsullied

The only cure for materialism is the cleansing of
the six senses (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and
mind). If the senses are clogged, one’s perception
is stifled. … This creates disorder in the world,
and that is the greatest evil of all.

Morihei Ueshiba, founder of Aikido

Before Mary began teaching yoga full-time, she worked in a four-star restaurant in Phoenix that caters to the rich and the powerful. She was one of only two female servers in an environment awash in testosterone, starting from the chef on down to the dishwashers. Their female presence was tolerated, but they didn’t always feel welcomed or valued. Mary felt like she had to act tough to survive in this high-stress, male-dominated environment.

One day, as she was entering a studio for a yoga class, she was surprised to see her female coworker emerging from the previous class. “Wow! I didn’t know you did yoga!” Mary said. “When did you start practicing?”

Her coworker smiled. “Actually, I started doing yoga because of you.” Mary’s surprise deepened. She had never suggested her coworker try yoga.

“It’s true,” her coworker said. “I figured it was doing something for you, because you stopped swearing in the kitchen.”

Saucha is the precept of purity. At its most basic level, it speaks to hygiene: your body, your mind, and your environment. Keeping your body clean may seem like a nobrainer, until you stop to appreciate how this simple act affects so many things. The act of cleaning can be soothing and creates a sense of accomplishment. Bathing can calm and refresh you. Cleanliness protects you from disease and discomfort. Washing your hands might seem like a trivial example, but it prevents the spread of germs. Healthier people mean fewer sick days.

A friend once told me how she watched in amazement as one of her coworkers carefully wiped down the puddles on the bathroom sink counter at work, water that had been splashed by others who had washed their hands before her. “Why are you doing that?” my friend asked. “You didn’t make that mess, and anyway, we have a janitorial service.”

“I know,” her friend replied. “But it only takes a minute, and makes it nicer for the people who come in after me. It makes me feel better to wash my hands at a clean sink, and I imagine other people feel the same way.”

CLEANLINESS, HEALTH, AND WELL-BEING

Yoga speaks about purity on many levels. One of the purposes of an asana practice is to purify yourself internally. Pranayama (breath control) can aid in cleaning the lungs, and the physical practice builds tapas (heat), said to help cleanse the organs and muscles. Yoga asks you to be mindful about the kinds of foods you choose for nourishment—will they pollute your body or cleanse and strengthen it? Many yogis adopt a vegetarian or vegan diet as a way to practice both saucha and ahimsa (non-violence). These things could have a positive aspect on your work.

Stephanie, who has practiced yoga for many years, says committing to saucha connects her to well-being, energy, and health. “There was a time when I was overweight and sluggish, and pretty much caved in whenever I got cravings for food that I knew was bad for me. But yoga helped me realize, finally, that this is the only body I am going to get in this life. It sounds trite, but I did start seeing my body as my temple. When you look at it that way, it seems ridiculous not to take good care of it, to purify it, in a sense. That led to a change in how I ate, how I exercised, and how I felt. People at work have noticed that I have way more energy and focus.”

If you have an on-the-mat yoga practice, you may have noticed how it changes the way you see your physical being. For me, it’s been a wonderful discovery of my body’s ability to support me—it is capable of far more than I would have imagined. Like Stephanie, I’ve begun to realize the positive choices I make about the food I eat, and the exercise I get is a way of honoring my body for all it does for me. While I don’t consider myself a fanatic, I am far more attentive to what I put in my mouth—choosing water or tea over Dr Pepper, for instance. Jamie and I try to eat fresh, organic fruits and vegetables, in balanced portions. When we don’t, I can tell the difference. I am more easily fatigued, bleary, easily distracted. It’s much harder to concentrate on my work, and I am far less productive. We also do a master cleanse twice a year to rid our bodies of toxins, twelve days of forgoing all fermented foods, dairy, refined sugar and flour, and eating lots of fresh organic produce, whole grains, and fish. Jamie describes the resulting feeling: “Lighter, refreshed, and so energized.”

EMPTY THE GARBAGE IN YOUR BODY AND MIND

Yoga can help you create a mind-body awareness that helps you see and feel the consequences of eating food that isn’t good for you, or noticing your frame of mind after you let loose a string of angry curses. In that way, yoga becomes a better motivator than doctor’s orders or the advice dispensed in books or magazines, because it emanates from your own internal wisdom.

A clean mind is another aspect of saucha that will allow you to work more effectively and serenely. Judie, a journalist who has practiced yoga for more than a dozen years, says she thinks about “emptying the garbage in my head before I go into work.” She makes an effort to let go of petty resentments and clears her head of negative self-talk.

Choosing her vocabulary carefully is another way Judie incorporates saucha. “I have become really careful about saying things like, ‘I hate going to those meetings’ or ‘I could have killed her for missing deadline.’ I guess that also is a way of paying attention to ahimsa (non-violence) but I also think it keeps my mind more pure because I’m not thinking about or using violent or hateful metaphors. I’m not perfect at it, but I think that being mindful about it makes me feel more peaceful and compassionate toward my coworkers.”

Like Mary, Judie has broken the habit of swearing when she is frustrated or angry—not an easy thing to do in a newsroom environment where profanity is often employed as verb, adjective, and punctuation. She takes a deep breath or two instead of responding in the heat of the moment, which helps break the samskara (habit) of swearing when things don’t go the way she wants them to. Judie says she started swearing to fit in—everyone did it, so it must be cool. But her yoga practice led her to think about what she was getting out of it and how it could make others around her feel. Sure, they were only words, but after committing herself to ahimsa and saucha, cursing felt like a violation.

At a mindfulness meditation retreat I attended in 2011, one of the teachers told the story of her friend who earned a living as a long-distance truck driver. He had chronic back pain, and the doctor recommended yoga as a form of physical therapy, for healing and to prevent further injury. He started doing it for his body, but soon found himself going deeper with more practice and study. After awhile, it began to influence his behavior on the road.

Being behind the wheel for days and nights at a time, the truck driver was witness to many a crazy maneuver and actions that ranged from rude to risky. Road rage was as common as the billboards that line the highways. Before yoga, his favorite response to drivers who aggravated him was to lay on the horn, swear angrily, and/or make an obscene gesture. After yoga, he began to notice that those reactions never made him feel better, they just amped up the emotion. He decided to break that habit and replace it with a more hygienic response. Now when he gets cut off in traffic, he takes a deep breath, smiles at the driver, and says out loud: “May you know happiness and deep well-being.” The teacher added that not only has her friend’s back healed, he no longer dreads being on the road. He enjoys looking for opportunities to wish others happiness, even if they are unaware of an anonymous truck driver’s blessing.

PURITY AT YOUR DESK

At work, the precept of saucha can be extended to your environment. A cluttered, disorganized workspace can be a recipe for distraction and inefficiency. A neat, clean, and well-organized workspace has aesthetic and practical appeal, and you can be more productive if you know where to find things when you need them. This was my mother’s theory, and I resisted it for years (sorry, Mom!). However, once I started to develop the habit of putting things back in the same place, cleaning up immediately after doing a project, and creating a filing system that allowed me to find information quickly, I had to admit Mom was right. Your mind is more likely to feel more spacious if your desk isn’t buried in detritus. Being organized is a habit that can help you save time and circumvent frustration. If you know where to find what you need, when you need it, you’ll save time and energy and keep frustration at bay.

You might even find yourself swearing less.

Five suggestions for practicing saucha

1. Do an inventory of your eating habits, keeping a journal if it is useful. Notice what makes you feel healthy and energized, and what makes you feel heavy or sluggish.

2. Consider honoring “your temple” by giving up for one week a food or drink that pollutes your body, such as soda or sugary foods. Notice how you feel. Slowly increase the number of days per week where you are committed to eating fresh, nutrient-rich food all day.

3. Make a list of the harsh, violent, or profane language you use, when you use it, and how others respond when you do. Notice how you feel. What do you stand to gain from eliminating this kind of language from your conversations? What do you stand to lose?

4. Decluttering and organizing your environment at work doesn’t have to become an all-day project. Choose one shelf, one drawer, one corner at a time. As you go through your belongings, useful questions to ask include, “When did I last use this? What is my plan for this? Might it be more useful to someone else? Is this something I need or just want?” This can help you make decisions about what you really need to keep.

5. Think about work situations that create negative energy. What is your contribution? What things hook you in a way that make you cave in to the negativity? Make a list of practices that could help you dispel negative energy more quickly.

 

CONTENTMENT (Santosha)

Fostering gratitude, non-attachment

There is no end of craving. Hence contentment
alone is the best way to happiness.
Therefore, acquire contentment.

Swami Sivananda

As people in the class settled their torsos over their thighs in paschimottanasana (seated forward bend), Michael shifted and squirmed, trying to perfect his pose. He wanted to lengthen his upper body a bit more, so he bent his knees to create space in his lower back. Then it bothered him that his legs were not straight, so he backed out of the pose a bit.

Glancing around at his neighbors in the class, he saw he was the only one who couldn’t reach his feet, so he pulled his belly a little tighter and began crawling his fingers toward his ankles. He circled his head, trying to release the tension in his neck.

From the front of the room, the teacher spoke softly but firmly: “Try to stop doing, and just be.”

He did not know if she was looking at him, but Michael felt she was speaking to him, and he got the message. Shushing the perfectionist chattering in his mind, he smiled as he relaxed into a perfectly acceptable paschimottanasana pose.

Contentment (santosha) is the niyama that asks you to be content with who you are, where you are, and with whatever you have. It is our true human condition, according to many sages and gurus, but gets buried under layers of ignorance, ego, and attachment.

Santosha has a close relationship with non-greed (aparigraha) and is key to the integration of all the benefits yoga offers us. Contentment is always within us to find, once we learn how to stop, breathe, and tap into it. In a world where titles, social status, money, and the material trappings of success are so emphasized, work environments offer lots of opportunities to develop your capacity for santosha. But that doesn’t make it easy.

When you focus on contentment, it’s much easier to devote your full attention to the tasks at hand, keeping in mind the purpose for which you show up to work each day: to develop your own potential and that of others. That gets derailed when you begin wishing for things to be other than they are. Why can’t the boss be more competent? Why are customers so difficult? Why are my colleagues so annoying? Try turning such questions on their head. What can I learn from the mistakes I see others make? How can I serve this difficult customer with compassion and kindness? How can I practice tolerance or be curious when others do or see things differently than I do?

“A cheerful mind is transparent. It allows you to see what is right and what is not right.… It will allow you to see that life is simple and very meaningful in and of itself,” says Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, spiritual director of the Himalayan Institute, an international non-profit organization dedicated to fostering yoga, holistic health, and other spiritual practices. A strong practice of santosha becomes a guiding signal, helping you know when you are taking right action, he says.

CHOOSING CONTENTMENT

In many of the organizations where Jamie and I have worked, people give us a big pushback on the notion of having the ability to choose your response to the circumstances in which you find yourself. While you might have an immediate or instinctual emotional response to disappointment or frustration, the decision about what to do with those feelings is all yours. Choosing optimism, accountability, and commitment in the face of fear and inevitable disappointment is not only possible, it is necessary for success. It breeds santosha.

“But we don’t have a choice!” people argue. This tells us that they do not feel in control of their work lives, and that is understandable. Jobs are constantly changing because of fluctuations in the marketplace, technology, reorganizations, and customer demands. As you watch colleagues get moved, demoted, or laid off, it’s only natural to become fearful that it could happen to you and feel helpless to do anything about it.

Many of my former newspaper colleagues have been caught up in that kind of marketplace change. One of them, Rae, told me that her yoga practice helped keep her sane as she watched the numbers in the newsroom dwindle in a series of layoffs. The people who survived each round were demoralized and wondered when their day would come. Some people coped through the use of prescription drugs for depression and anxiety. Rae says staying connected to breath helped her cope with the uneasiness. “It was a pretty stressful time. Everyone around me was afraid, and it created this negative pool of energy, which I could see was attracting similar energy in me. I figured it was just a matter of months before I was laid off myself. I think I got deeper in my practice because of what was going on, and it rewired me to think differently. I realized I had a choice about whether to eat from the negativity that other people were dishing out around me.”

She also worked to let go of judgment, because she understood people’s moods and actions were rooted in fear. “Working on being more compassionate helped me focus on the good in people,” Rae says. “And it kept me from freaking out when I watched things get blown out of proportion.”

Feelings of fear, disappointment, and helplessness at work are completely legitimate. No one has control over a fickle marketplace. No one can ensure your long-term prospects. You may not always fully grasp the reasoning behind the decisions top leaders are making.

Yet even in the face of all these things, you absolutely do have a choice about how you bring yourself to work. One of my yoga teachers, Mary Beth Markus, exemplifies santosha, and a recent story from her life is an example about the power of choice in the face of difficult circumstances. Mary Beth and her husband, Vince, have owned and operated Desert Song Yoga and Massage Center in Phoenix for thirty years. They’ve always rented studio space, but dreamed of owning something permanent. In the wake of the real estate collapse of 2008, the couple decided to buy and renovate a building even though it would be a strain on their financial resources. As I was doing the final revisions for this book, I received an email with distressing news. While doing renovations at the new studio, Vince had fallen from a 12-foot ladder, breaking his wrist, dislocating his shoulder, and shattering his cheekbone. He required surgery and would be out of commission while he healed, which meant time and money in a situation where they could ill afford it. That happened on a Saturday. The following Monday, Mary Beth’s mother, brother, and extended family, who live on the East Coast, hunkered down under the onslaught of Hurricane Sandy. Her brother lost his home, and many of her close relatives also suffered serious losses and damage to their possessions.

I frequently attend her Wednesday class, and in the wake of all that bad news, I did not expect to see her teaching that week. But when I walked into the studio, there she was, smiling, serene, and ready to teach. As she related the dramatic events to those in class, her composure and calm were unwavering, and she never once complained. Mary Beth spoke of gratitude—that Vince hadn’t been more seriously injured. She told us how he kept apologizing profusely as she rushed him to the hospital, and all she could tell him, again and again, was how much she loved him. She was thankful that her family members in New Jersey had all survived, alive and safe—stuff could be replaced. While the setback to the construction schedule on the new studio was a disappointment, Mary Beth smiled and said, “It will get done eventually.” She even rejoiced at the prospect of having found a few yoga recruits. “The people in trauma [at the hospital] were all asking me, ‘How are you staying so calm?’ I told them, ‘Yoga. It’s all about the yoga.’”

THE ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE

Santosha is a close companion of aparigraha. Actively taking an inventory of what you have, and feeling grateful for it, helps you stay connected to non-greed, which is one of the most effective ways to foster contentment. While many people think that more will make them content—more money, a nicer house, more frequent vacations—research shows that only a small percentage of our overall happiness can be ascribed to our circumstances. How we choose to view any given situation is far more likely to influence our level of santosha than the circumstances themselves. Viktor Frankl’s famous work around life and meaning, beautifully chronicled in Man’s Search for Meaning, illustrates this lesson, and had a profound influence on Jamie and his late partner Joel Henning as they began developing materials for their consulting business.

One freedom that can never be taken from people, Frankl realized in the misery of Nazi Germany’s concentration camps, is their choice about how to face the circumstances in which they find themselves. Frankl’s message of the power of choice also is exemplified by people such as Mahatma Gandhi of India, Martin Luther King Jr. of the United States, Nelson Mandela of South Africa, and Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar. They refused to let the most unjust and brutal circumstances douse their fires of contentment, and their optimism and serenity were catalysts for movements that altered history.

Attachment is something that can derail santosha lickety-split, and is one of the chief causes of disappointment, hurt, and anger. Swami Satchidananda, in his translation of Patanjali’s Sutras, observes that the mind “has a duty to desire”—life can’t be experienced without yearnings and attachment. What will trip you is to attach ego to your desires. “Pure, selfless desire has no expectation whatsoever, so it knows no disappointment no matter what the result.”

If you can channel desire into doing good work for its own sake, without attachment “for the resulting fruit of actions,” you’re far more likely to uncover santosha. The Bhagavad Gita says, “Do not consider yourself the creator of the fruits of your activities; neither allow yourself attachment to inactivity. Remaining immersed in union, perform all actions forsaking attachment to their fruits, being indifferent to success and failure. This mental evenness is termed ‘Yoga.’”

That is difficult advice to follow in the demanding modern workplace, to be sure. We are constantly told to be attached to the fruits of our labor, especially in a work world where the vernacular is peppered with phrases like “management by objective” and “measurable outcomes.” Neither is it realistic or necessary to think that you should not set goals or strive to achieve them—dedication to excellence is an admirable quality. It’s counterproductive to think that contentment translates to inactivity or passivity. The secret is to strive for excellence while recognizing that even if plans get upended and projects fall apart (as they surely will), you still can choose to practice santosha. As Rod Stryker writes in The Four Desires, “Attachment to desire, not desire itself, is the underlying cause of practically all of our pain and suffering.… [it] is the source of pain we experience when we fail to fulfill a particular desire. It also is the source of the anxiety we feel when we do fulfill a desire but fear we may lose what we have achieved.”

It is a logical way to live, if you think about it. In reality, even with the best intentions and hard work, we can never be in control of how things turn out. Consider two teams who are playing each other in a match. Both teams may be at their peak excellence and functioning at the highest level, yet they can’t truly control the outcome of the match. Too many other factors will influence the final result. That doesn’t mean they set aside their aspirations or stop giving their utmost effort. Nor does it mean they can’t choose to be content if the other team wins.

Banishing attachment takes great courage and persistence. You are, however, in control of your actions. Eventually my friend Rae was laid off, just as she expected. “I went through a major freak-out because it was the first time in my adult life I didn’t have job security or health insurance. Experiencing those emotions—disappointment, anger, fear—was only natural. I know that, and I don’t think yoga is about not having those feelings. Even so, my yoga practice helped me more quickly let go of the destructive aspects of those emotions. Anger and resentment and wishing things were otherwise were not going to bring me peace. Because of yoga, I think I have been able to more quickly focus on the ways losing my job might also be providing me opportunities.” In addition to becoming a yoga teacher, Rae has channeled her artistic creativity into starting her own business.

DETACH FROM YOUR STORIES

Santosha is often derailed by the stories you tell yourself. Seeing your stories as “truth” will lead to all kinds of difficulty. In our consulting work, for example, we advise people to be curious about and investigate what their coworkers’ facial expressions or actions mean, instead of getting agitated by what they think is going on. When emails go unanswered, instead of getting angry that your coworker is being rude, check it out. Maybe they’ve been out sick, are overwhelmed by the workload, or the emails were inadvertently sent to a spam folder. Don’t ruin your day by attaching yourself to a story about someone else’s motives and intentions. When you choose connection, and investigate what is going on, you might be surprised by what their stories reveal.

Jamie remembers getting frustrated with a new consulting client, an executive who, as he saw it, was “blowing off” training sessions that were required of the team that reported to this leader. After Jamie had juggled multiple schedules and finally settled on dates for two workshops for the team, he was chagrined and a little angry to discover their leader wasn’t going to be there due to “schedule conflicts.” The executive did, however, make himself available for a pre-workshop interview, and that is when Jamie discovered that the poor man was working two high-level jobs simultaneously. This executive was transitioning into his new role leading a reorganized division of a global company, while also keeping up with his old job as vice president of sales for one of the company’s subsidiaries until his replacement was hired. Once Jamie knew the executive’s story, the irritation vanished, replaced by feelings of compassion.

Lacey says that one of the biggest mental challenges in her law enforcement career has been learning to suspend judgment about the behavior of the people she deals with. It isn’t useful to see them as bad or evil, no matter how counterproductive or dangerous their actions are. People usually act in ways that make sense to them, she says, even if she doesn’t understand their motivation. Admittedly, it’s not easy to have compassion for the person who is firing a deadly weapon at you, but Lacey works hard to remind herself, “I don’t know their story. That gives me perspective and helps me not to take things personally. It helps me feel more peaceful, which makes me be more effective.”

Thomas, who supports people with disabilities, says remembering that all people are divine helps shift his mindset when his judgments get in the way of santosha. “Just because you don’t see the divine in people doesn’t mean it isn’t there. I have developed the habit of looking closer at people, looking deep into their eyes for that spark. When we help the world function better, we feel better about ourselves. And that generates contentment.”

Five suggestions for practicing santosha

1. Notice the times you start feeling agitated at work. Jot them down, including the time, place, and circumstances. Who was present when the agitation began? What were the circumstances? What do you notice after you’ve reflected on these events?

2. Think about a time you were angry with a colleague or disappointed by a decision that was made at work. What story did you tell yourself? What other stories might have been possible? What could you do to consider a different story as a way of practicing santosha? What is a story you are telling right now about a work experience?

3. In moments when you’re unable to find santosha, read through your gratitude journal if you have one or add to it. What changes?

4. Think about a time you were disappointed by results at work. What would you gain by letting go of your attachment to specific outcomes? What do you have to lose? What is compelling about thinking you can control how things turn out?

5. For a few days, notice what stories you tell yourself when things don’t go the way you want them to. Reframe those stories without changing the outcome. What do you notice?

 

DISCIPLINE (Tapas)

Energy, zeal

We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

Aristotle

I had shoulder surgery in 2008, and ever since, I wait for that moment in yoga class where we are directed to take our mats to the wall for an inversion pose. That is a cue to hold my breath and chant a silent mantra: “Please don’t let it be handstand. Please don’t let it be handstand.”

After physical rehabilitation and many months of exercise and yoga, my shoulder is strong again—in some ways stronger than before. I’ve regained the ability to do postures I once feared were lost to me. I pop up into a headstand (salamba sirusana) with relative ease, and I consistently rock a passable chattaranga (a form of push-up). With patience and perseverance, the forearm balance pincha myurasana is something I no longer dread.

But I have yet to get back my handstand (adho mukha vrksanana) without a significant assist from my teacher or a fellow yogi. I am frequently tempted to head for the ladies’ room when the time comes, or just give up trying altogether. And yet I do not want to be ruled by fear. Even if I never do another handstand in my life, persevering in the attempt is good practice.

So when the yogis around me drag their mats to the wall for handstand, I silence the negative mantra, and remind myself: It is not just about the destination. The journey is equally important, and practice is action.

I attempt a handstand.

The translation of the Sanskrit word tapas is heat. Swami Kripalu, an India-born guru who advanced the teachings of Kundalini Yoga in the Western world, likens this precept to the friction caused by “going against the grain,” which initially causes pain or discomfort. Developing self-discipline—practicing tapas—is about leaning into the distress that often accompanies an attempt to learn something new or the churning experienced when trying to change cherished but unproductive habits. Tapas helps you “burn off” the things that don’t serve you.

As with the other niyamas, tapas calls for presence. On the mat, this quality helps you hold a challenging pose, even as your muscles quiver and your mind begs for relief. Without the vital tools of self-awareness, self-discipline, and concentration, your potential remains untapped or underutilized. Pema Chodron, an American Buddhist nun and author of When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times, says tapas brings you back from “any form of potential escape from reality.” When you are reluctant to experience the pain of doing something you are unaccustomed to, tapas asks you to embrace the discomfort to foster growth. T. K. V. Desikachar says that tapas is what helps you move forward.

Christopher began practicing yoga soon after enrolling in college. It fostered a tapas that helped him cultivate the mental focus he lacked in his first few semesters. Once lackadaisical about schoolwork, he created study habits that improved his grades and a mental discipline that continues to be useful in his job. After taking up yoga, he made the dean’s list. “Yoga helped me commit to my studies. It really helped me sort everything out—not just my muscles and how I was feeling physically, but also my energy.”

Maureen Dolan, who teaches a class on yoga at DePaul University, defines tapas as the “enthusiastic discipline” that fuels follow-through and excellence. “It is the forgoing of immediate personal gratification for something larger and more worthwhile, and of benefit to more people.” Eknath Easwaran says that tapas is what makes “spontaneous excellence” possible and is an essential practice for training the mind for vigorous mental disciplines such as meditation. Anyone can learn, he says, if they are prepared to put in the effort.

CHANNELING THE FORCE

Zoe, who teaches first-graders at a public school, says she uses yoga techniques to help instill that “enthusiastic discipline” into her young students. They have a natural zeal for learning, but are short on self-discipline. She uses breathing techniques (pranayama, the topic of Chapter Five) to help her students harness and perpetuate their natural tapas.

“Kids are full of energy, so you want to keep that fire, enhance that fire, but not let it burn out of control,” says Zoe, who also teaches yoga to adults in the evenings. Myriad rules and regulations require her to adhere to a specific curriculum in the classroom. Because what she teaches is so prescribed—and how she is judged depends so heavily on how much students learn—helping the first-graders stay on task is essential.

“Kids in a small classroom feed off of each other, especially after lunch or recess when their energy is very high. You have to find a way to contain that and even bring it down, so they can find the discipline to focus on their work,” Zoe says. She doesn’t call it yoga—she calls it “deskercize.”

The children like it so much they promise to be on their best behavior if Zoe will please, please, please let them do it. Using breathing techniques, meditation, or physical poses, she can generate energy when it is waning or lower the levels when the kids are wired.

“For instance, I might dim the lights, and have them close their eyes, and put their hands on their bellies. Then I tell them to see if they can blow up their bellies like a balloon, and see if they can deflate the balloon very slowly by breathing out through their noses. Slow inhale, slow exhale. After a minute or two, the whole energy has changed. They are ready to settle down and get to work.” They’ve tapped into tapas.

REGENERATION TO RESTORE THE FIRE

The paradox of tapas is that generating the heat and energy also requires conservation and renewal. Rest is essential. Those 12-hour days you’re putting in might seem essential for meeting deadlines and getting the work done, but how does it ultimately serve you or the workplace if you become exhausted? When you show up feeling physically stressed, mentally tired, or emotionally resentful about sacrificing important parts of your life, you suffer, and so does your work.

Time is a finite resource. Until someone discovers a way to manufacture more of it, the humble and the mighty all get twenty-four hours per day. Time management might help you pack more activity into your day (if packing more activity into your day really enriches your life), but it won’t give you twenty-five hours.

Going slow in order to go fast will serve you far better than getting stuck in energy-sapping overdrive. Taking time out for reflection and introspection helps keep the flame of tapas going. I love the story told in a yoga class that makes this point:

A student went to a sage with this question: “Master, if I stay with you and study to deeply understand your tradition, how long will it take?” The sage thought for a moment and replied, “Ten years.” Dismayed, the student said, “But what if I work very hard, and study day and night without ceasing? Then how long will it take?” Again the sage reflected before he answered, “Twenty years.”

Happily, you have at your disposal a resource to help you be more effective and feel better, and it’s completely renewable—energy. As Kevin Cashman writes in Leadership from the Inside Out: Becoming a Leader for Life, “Although each day brings almost impossible demands on our time, with too many meetings, obligations, and 24/7 connectivity in a global marketplace, it is our energy and resiliency that are stressed daily, not the clock.”

What sounds more realistic, squeezing more time out of the day or investing in strategies that will increase your energy? What do you notice about your choices, your environment, and your productivity levels when you are feeling strong and energetic? What can you do to manage your energy in a way that allows you to maximize your contribution at work? If you are feeling beat up and drained at the end of your work day, what needs to change to get your fire burning again?

No matter how much you love your work, too much of it can throw your energy, and your life, out of whack. Lots of simple strategies can help restore it. A walk around the block. Five minutes of meditating. A yoga class after work. Listening to music. Or, like Zoe’s first-graders, maybe you just need to reconnect to your breath. Restoring your energy will help banish resentment, clear your mind, and make you more effective at work. (We offer some breathing techniques at the end of Chapter Five.)

Tapas is an internal fire and can only be lit from within. In a world of work riddled with motivational literature and seminars promising to teach you how to “motivate others,” it’s easy to get sucked into the notion that someone else should incentivize you to action.

Understanding tapas means accepting that you are in charge of your own motivation and morale. Tapas—like motivation—only works when it is intrinsic. By its very nature, it must be self-generated. The support and encouragement you receive from others is a wonderful gift, but ultimately you make the choices about the quest for learning, the quality of your work, and whether to push the limit of perseverance or pause for energy renewal.

You tend the fire.

Five suggestions for practicing tapas

1. Developing self-discipline requires self-awareness. Commit to a day of jotting down the times you think you should be doing something (studying, working out, reading) but don’t. How many of these things are tied to your goals or values? How do you end up deciding what to do?

2. If you’re having a hard time feeling enthusiastic about your job, make a list of things that would help you feel more motivated and instill discipline. What do you notice? How many of the things on your list are dependent on the actions of others? How many are within your control?

3. Make a list of your typical daily activities, and then draw two columns next to the list. On one column, write “Energy Draining” and on the other “Energy Restoring.” Go down the list and put check marks in one of the columns next to each activity. What do you notice?

4. Next time you hear yourself saying: “I can’t do this because …” change the wording to “I choose not to do this because …” What do you notice?

5. Choose a long-term desire you want to satisfy or must stretch to obtain (i.e., paying off a credit card, getting a promotion, or extending an aspect of your yoga practice). Make a list of what you might have to give up to achieve the desire. Make a list of what you would gain.

 

SELF-STUDY (Svadhyaya)

Reflection, introspection, self-awareness

To find out who you truly are, you have to inquire.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Los Angeles offers a smorgasbord of yoga practices, teachers, studios, and styles. Susana, who works as a film director, likes to partake of the buffet. In a given week, she can do hot yoga in downtown L.A., Shabbat yoga on the beach, drum circle yoga in the hills, or a gentle class in her neighborhood. When she rolled up her mat at the end of each class, she would find herself thinking, “This is exactly the class I needed.”

While reflecting one day on her eclectic practice and the positive influence yoga has had on her life, Susana had a surprising insight about her practice. “It’s not that there is some sort of ‘yoga angel’ directing me to the right classes based on what I need. What I now realize is my inner spirit knows that wherever I am practicing, that is where I am meant to be. Even when I feel annoyed by the practice, or I don’t like the sound of the teacher’s voice, or someone next to me makes strange noises every time he’s in downward dog, I remember: “Be humble. I am in yoga class! I am grateful. I am alive.”

Consciously cultivating increased self-awareness is a practice of svadhyaya, the fourth niyama. It asks us to incorporate self-study as a regular practice, with an intention of assessing ourselves both lovingly and critically. This will help you develop the clarity needed to make mindful, positive changes in your life.

How is self-awareness cultivated? Reflection, introspection, and consistent study are the building blocks of svadhyaya. Barclay Hudson, my professor and mentor, says the best way to start this practice is by stopping: Stop doing and invest some time in being.

You can’t practice svadhyaya without making a conscious choice to step off of life’s treadmill—at least for a little while—to catch your breath, gaze into your internal mirror, and do personal inventories. Too often, work demands keep people excessively engaged in external activities. And don’t count on your boss or coworkers to urge you to slow down or take an hour or two away from the office for self-reflection. You’re tied to a perpetual to-do list that never seems to get shorter. How is it possible to take stock of who you are and create intentions about who you want to become when you’re constantly running, trying to catch up to your life?

Yet self-study is imperative if you mean to spark your light to ever-increasing brightness. You can’t fully develop your potential without awareness—of faulty assumptions, your contribution to a difficult issue, or habits that do not serve you. Such awareness, combined with yearning for a more desirable state, is the provenance of positive change.

Svadhyaya contributes to creativity, self-awareness, emotional intelligence—essential qualities for a satisfying and successful work experience. William George, former Medtronics CEO and co-author of True North, says it is a practice that helps people get connected with their authentic selves. In an article published by the Harvard Business School, George writes: “Authenticity is developed by … understanding one’s life story and the impact of one’s crucibles, and reflecting on how these contribute to motivations and behaviors. As people come to accept the less-favored parts of themselves that they do not like or have rejected, as well as learning from failures and negative experiences, they gain compassion for themselves and authenticity in relating to the world around them.”

INTERNAL FOCUS, OUTWARD GAZE

Laura Karet became the CEO of her family’s multi-billion grocery business in 2011, succeeding her father, David Shapira. “He was incredibly successful. It is a daunting thing when you’re following big shoes.” In addition, her father remains chairman of the Giant Eagle board, so he’s not just her dad—he’s her boss. “It’s truly a wonderful thing,” she says, “but it can also be frustrating.”

A longtime yoga practice has inspired her vision for the company, Karet says, and its practices help her stay grounded. She often uses connection to breath to inspire “mini-sessions” of svadhyaya when she finds herself responding instinctually to situations instead of taking mindful action. Karet recalls an incident where such a session helped her glean an important insight about not letting her emotions rule. She was on her way to give a speech to a group of business people when her assistant called to announce that her boss/dad had scheduled a board meeting at the same time she was slated to deliver her presentation. “I was mad! He knew I couldn’t be there, and I started fuming. If I had been a CEO hired from the outside, he never would have done that. How could I be a CEO who isn’t at a board meeting?” She called her dad, who apologized, but she continued to fume. Then she reminded herself to take a deep breath and think clearly. Was this who she wanted to be? “I realized he didn’t intend this to be an affront to me, and the topic of the meeting wasn’t even something I really needed to be there for.” While she was happy to have the insight, Karet said she’s committed to continuing svadhyaya to develop a self-awareness so keen that she can check her emotions before they cloud her perspective. “Having the ability to be conscious of where you are, what you are good at, and what you’re not so good at—and being okay with it—is a big part of being a good leader.”

The Yoga Sutras say that “study, when it is developed to the highest degree, brings one close to higher forces that promote understanding of the most complex.” Finding sources of inspiration, whether it is studying the effectiveness of leaders or coworkers, reading inspirational texts, or seeking knowledge that helps us stretch our abilities, are also practices of svadhyaya.

Susana says she receives abundant edification from her yoga teachers that inform her work. “In a place like Los Angeles, yoga is a great way to keep your ego in check. They never hand out trophies at the end of class,” Susana says. “The other thing is that even though my favorite teachers are very different, the one thing they have in common is that they are the truest versions of themselves.

“As an artist and human being, I find this really inspiring in my own work. When I am directing, there is a natural inclination to want to do everything myself. Really, my job is to help the crew to realize maximum creative potential. My favorite yoga teachers have helped me realize that in order to be a real influencer, you must allow yourself to be influenced. This muscle of adaptation has really been developed through my yoga practice.”

Sometimes a simple observation, if you are mindful, can become an opportunity for profound reflection. As I was writing this chapter, a friend emailed me a copy of a blog post by Peter Bregman, author of 18 Minutes. The blog post was about an experience of witnessing a father speaking sharply and unkindly to his son, after which the boy turned to his sister and hit her. That inspired Bregman to wonder about misdirected anger, and he began to think about the times he had done that himself.

“After seeing that boy hit his sister, I began to watch myself more closely. What do I direct at one person that’s meant for another?” Bregman wrote. “It’s hard to see that kind of behavior in yourself. At first, I didn’t notice anything. But I kept looking. … A pattern began to emerge, one I’m embarrassed about, but that became hard to ignore: I do and say things specifically to impress people, even people I don’t know.”

Bregman went even deeper as he gazed into his internal mirror. Did he really care what complete strangers thought of him? And whom was he really trying to impress? His reflection revealed a childish wish to please his mother. With this insight, he was able to begin changing his habitual reactions. Svadhyaya helped him notice and understand a nonproductive behavior, which helped him choose to make a positive change.

THE SEEDS OF CERTAINTY

Self-awareness helps you to deconstruct the myths that have been sold to you as truth. What are you certain about? And why? Have you held up to the light your beliefs and philosophies, or stood them on end to consider a different perspective? People tend to cling to certainty because they think the opposite is uncertainty. In reality, the opposite of certainty is curiosity, openness, and willingness to see something in a fresh way. Svadhyaya asks you to find a child’s mind, and examine what you have seen a thousand times before as if it were a brand-new discovery. Does that mean you have to give up skepticism or thinking about things critically? Absolutely not. Study requires the duality of openness and skepticism, as the great scientist Carl Sagan pointed out in an essay published in 1987: “It seems to me what is called for is an exquisite balance between two conflicting needs: the most skeptical scrutiny of all hypotheses served up to us and at the same time a great openness to new ideas. Obviously those two modes of thought are in some tension. But if you are able to exercise only one of these modes, whichever one it is, you’re in deep trouble.”

Leigh Ann, who has practiced yoga for twelve years, credits svadhyaya with helping her process work feedback in a way that leads to a higher quality of contribution in the office. She doesn’t always see things the way her managers and coworkers do, but she makes a point to examine their feedback, and her reaction to the feedback, before she responds.

She contrasts that habit to the instinctual response she had after her first personnel review at a company specializing in relocation services. “I got an ‘average’ rating, and I took it very personally. I was angry and hurt. My attitude towards the company totally changed, and I didn’t last long after that. Looking back, a lot of that feedback could have been useful if I had just stopped to think about it for awhile.” Yoga has helped her be less self-centered, Leigh Ann says, and now she considers feedback in terms of how it can help her, and the company, perform better. “I’m not sure if my impulse to question authority will ever disappear, but I process constructive criticism much differently now. I’ve developed an attitude of curiosity and gratitude, which has brought me more respect at work. My coworkers call me the Zen master.”

Reflection, introspection, and clarifying your intentions about who you want to be and what you want to create at work are all about svadhyaya. This practice helps you bring your authentic self to work. Too often, clarity around intention gets overlooked in the rush to answer the question “How?”

How do I work more efficiently? How do I make the team perform better? How do I motivate others? How can I get the promotion? How can I make more money? Such questions are not unimportant, but they can be answered in a more meaningful context if you’ve first wrestled with questions about who you want to be in the world. What do you want to contribute? What would you like your legacy to be? As clear answers emerge, it is easier to choose the attitudes and actions that support your intentions. Self-awareness will help you understand how your beliefs and behaviors connect to the enterprise you are serving.

Svadhyaya can also help you develop confidence in the strengths that you already possess. Not just your knowledge, skills, and techniques (although they are certainly important) but also the essence of who you are. Larry Dressler, author of Standing in the Fire, asserts that knowing and understanding your “way of being” can make the difference between competence and mastery: “It is a specific kind of presence that others experience as fully engaged, open, authentic, relaxed, and grounded in purpose.” Svadhyaya helps you find that core of integrity and presence so you can call it forth in complex, heated, and demanding situations.

Dawna, a physician who started out working in emergency rooms, says this precept of yoga helped her face a crisis early in her career. She considered herself a rookie at the time, but “at least I had enough experience that my nightmares about making a bad decision and killing someone had gone away.”

The ER where she was working required that patients wait no more than thirty minutes after arrival to be seen by a caregiver. Depending on the number of patients demanding attention, the seriousness of their maladies, and the number of caregivers working, that could be tricky.

One day, things were so crazed that Dawna ended up with three patients in a row, all complicated, high-stress cases. The first patient was on dialysis and had below-the-knee amputations due to complications from severe diabetes. She had a fever and was vomiting. She spoke only Spanish, which required Dawna to get a translator on the phone. As the patient began to explain her symptoms to the translator, she threw up all over the phone.

Excusing herself and promising to return, Dawna went to the next examining room, where a five-year-old boy had a fever of 105 degrees and, between sobs, kept screaming that his stomach hurt. He also was vomiting, and his mother spoke only Spanish. Another translator would be needed.

Dawna walked out of the examining room, knowing the clock was ticking and she had yet to see the third patient. “I started freaking out. I kept thinking, ‘I can’t do this—it is too overwhelming. I am in over my head!’” She managed to get through the shift, but soon after was notified by a medical committee that some of her patients had filed complaints. She would have to appear before the committee to address the issue.

“I had already done a lot of thinking about that day,” says Dawna, who has practiced yoga for more than a decade. “Although I always considered myself really approachable, for the first time I could see that when I get overwhelmed, I start snapping at people. I’m not always so nice at a time when people need a calm and compassionate response. And I also realized when I got that stressed out, I didn’t take very good care of myself, which just made everything worse.”

She went to her meeting with the committee, feeling embarrassed and humble instead of defensive. She acknowledged that the patients who complained had cause, and she apologized for the way she had treated them. “I was honest about that, and I also apologized for wasting their time. I told them that I hadn’t been taking care of myself, but that I was committed to doing things differently. I promised to make sure that I eat during my shift, and also drink plenty of water.” But she didn’t stop there. Dawna mustered up the courage to tell the committee that in order to do her job effectively, she would not be able to consistently comply with the demand to see patients within thirty minutes. Sometimes that just didn’t serve the patients, she told the committee.

Svadhyaya practice helped Dawna see how she was contributing to a difficult situation and own it publicly. At the same time, she wanted the medical committee to understand that the hospital’s rules were unrealistic, which gave her the courage to practice satya by speaking truth to power. “I wanted them to understand the real-life impact of their demands on us. I told them, ‘I intend to address this on my own, and as an organization, I think you should consider addressing this as well.’”

Dawna’s story has a happy ending. The response from the committee was favorable, and she has never received another patient complaint. “Honestly, I didn’t need anyone to tell me what I had done wrong or how to fix it. Through my practice of svadhyaya, I figured it out myself. And by having the courage to be direct with the members of that committee, I was showing them a human face that revealed the real impact of their demands. It made a difference.”

Five suggestions for practicing svadhyaya

1. Use this niyama to reflect on this book so far, and see what you are learning about yourself.

2. Write down three things you believe are true at work. Identify the assumptions in your statements. Spend a few minutes asking yourself, “What if it weren’t true? Is there a different story I could tell?” How many other stories are possible?

3. Make a list of all the labels you associate with yourself or which other people have used about you (husband, mother, worker, American, immigrant, hard worker, difficult to get along with, etc.). What are some of the inherent assumptions of those labels? How do they influence the way you engage work and the people you work with? Are there labels you wish to add or to shed? Which ones and why?

4. Ask a few close and trusted friends or coworkers to give you feedback when they see you resorting to bad habits or taking actions that don’t reflect who you want to be. Set aside a specific time for periodic conversations to get feedback. When you receive it, don’t justify your actions, just say “Thank you.” What do you notice?

5. Make a list of your core values. Where did they come from? Are they still relevant? Now think about examples where these influenced your actions. Have there been times when you failed to align your actions with your values? Why?

 

SURRENDER (Ishvara-pranidhana)

Connecting to something larger than Self

Don’t push the river. It flows by itself.

Robin Caasdan

When her yoga teachers invite her to set an intention for practice, Jessica’s routine is to silently recite a standard list:

1. Clear and peaceful mind

2. Authentic loving speech

3. Open compassionate heart

4. Powerful inspired intuition

5. I am that I am

During a period of transition that had left her feeling confused and off balance, she decided one day to let go of her customary mantra and invite something beyond herself to reveal a new intention. The word that emerged in her mind was expansion.

“It was so clear,” Jessica says. “I had this profound realization that I need to expand.” Surrendering to her subconscious, she noticed the intention created a subtle shift in her attitude and movements throughout the asana practice. “We did Warrior II, and I felt the energy expanding from finger to finger rather than just a sensation of lifting my arms. Every pose I did felt physically expansive. This intention also inspired me to think about the metaphor of expansion and what it meant to my life, what it was I wanted to do next. It was wonderful. Once I surrendered my need to recite the same intention, something spoke to me, and I got an important insight into something about my life that needed attention.”

Ishvara-pranidhana is often translated as “offering the fruits of one’s actions to the divine.” This niyama is about surrendering to the life force or the supreme, which we interpret to mean our higher selves—the perfect, constant light that resides within you. It shines always, waiting to be uncovered as you open yourself to the possibilities of endless expansion.

Surrender is not an easy precept to embrace, especially in Western culture. The word can send shivers of apprehension up the spine. From the time we are born, we are immersed in a world of competition and superlatives: Be the smartest, the fastest, the brightest, the prettiest, the most accomplished. Know all the answers. Messages about the importance of winning are constantly flooding your senses, in both concrete and subtle ways. When you don’t get your way, when your desire is thwarted, when you’re passed over for a raise or a promotion, it feels like a loss, drenched in discouragement or humiliation. No wonder people back away from the concept of surrender—it has become synonymous with defeat, failure, and loss of control.

Ishvara-pranidhana practice means devoting yourself to doing your very best—without being attached to outcomes—and recognizing that you are part of something larger than yourself and embracing that expanded reality. “When people surrender, they stop sweating the small stuff and see the big picture,” says Maureen Dolan. “A sense of freedom expands in body, mind, and spirit. The sense of our interconnectedness becomes more profoundly realized.”

LETTING GO OF ATTACHMENT TO OUTCOMES

Detachment from outcome is about channeling your highest intentions, consistently choosing to align your actions with those intentions, and then surrendering to the knowledge that events, circumstances, and outcomes will always be out of your control. Getting attached to a certain result only causes agitation and suffering. Even if you get what you want, worry sets in that you might lose it.

Letting go is a concept Jessica has learned to find useful in her work as a coach and educator. She describes her work as helping adults, mostly working professionals, “transform themselves to higher levels of maturity and self-awareness.” Consequently, she also constantly seeks ways to raise her own level of awareness.

As part of her “expansion,” she recently took a class that centers on ways to create self-awareness, evoke collective insights, and spur positive action in large groups. In the final session of class, the teachers asked students to engage in “conversational painting” by doodling during a conversation to see what emerged.

Jessica chose to use watercolor pencil because it is harder to control, and she wanted a media that would foster an organic and intuitive experience—a kind of surrender. “As I doodled, I decided to trust. I didn’t decide or think about what would come out of it. I let go to see what would emerge.” She scribbled as she listened to people, then smeared the scribbles with a few drops of water. As the water and pencil markings blended, she thought, “Oh my goodness, this is someone in a Warrior II pose!”

She began wondering why that image was emerging, so she did a search for “yoga warrior” on her laptop. The answer she got: A spiritual warrior who bravely does battle with the universal enemy of self-ignorance and ego, the ultimate source of all our suffering. The metaphor was powerful.

“That’s one of the things I try to help people do when I work with them. From working on myself, I’ve learned that I need to let go. I need to learn to surrender to the larger purpose of the group I’m working with,” Jessica says. “At the same time, I realize that doesn’t mean I can slack off or have a lack of accountability. I’m still required to do intense preparation so I can bring the best of myself.”

But after preparation is done and she goes to work, “I know I have to walk into the space and release the need to control. Processes have a life of their own. My work is to stay present with them, to use my professional skills to shape [the process] while realizing something bigger is going on. And I have let go of an attachment to the outcome.”

The practice of ishvara-pranidhana helps dissolve ego. Surrender sets the stage for uniting with your higher self in a way that generates inner peace, compassion for others, clarity, and freedom. Getting yourself disentangled from the emotional hook of “wanting what you want” will help you be ready to learn the lessons imbedded in whatever life hands you. And when life hands you a setback or a disappointment, in that moment, you have the opportunity to choose how to face those circumstances, instead of falling into counterproductive cycles of blame, cynicism, and helplessness. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna advises Arjuna to remain dispassionate: “The ones I love … stand above the sway of elation, competition, and fear. They are detached, pure, efficient, impartial, never anxious, selfless in all their undertakings.” Krishna also extols the virtue and benefit of surrender: “Better is surrender of attachment to results, because there follows immediate peace.”

SURRENDERING TO RESISTANCE

An important aspect of yoga concerns overcoming resistance. Ishvara-pranidhana is one expression of that. Work gives you abundant opportunities to practice, because success depends on everyone surrendering their selfish desires to a vision of doing what is best for the whole. Surrendering to “that which is greater” means aligning your actions with what is best for the enterprise, instead of making decisions focused only on what is good for your career, your team, your department. Practicing ishvara-pranidhana helps you take responsibility for understanding the big picture. It becomes an imperative to connect your work contribution to the mission of the business.

One way to “surrender” your desires to the good of the whole is to become deeply informed about your workplace. What is the marketplace you serve, and who are its customers? What is the vision of the enterprise where you work? What are the interdependencies with other departments? What kind of relationship with your customers and stakeholders needs to be created to be successful?

Shifting your perspective from what you want to what the whole needs is a different way of looking at accountability. Instead of only asking, “Did I complete the tasks of my job assignment?” the question expands to “Did I do my best to serve the whole business?” Instead of asking, “How do we hold them accountable?” recognize the power in asking “How am I choosing to be accountable to the whole?” If you’re acting on purely selfish desires, it becomes a violation of aparigraha (non-greed).

As you become devoted to this practice, the persistent voice of “What about me?” recedes. You discover ways to unite your actions with the higher purpose of service as a means of fulfillment.

Two yoga teachers that I study with regularly, who have decades of experience between them, often share stories about their experiences with resistance. They talk about the times they developed an urgent need to go to the bathroom, or take a water break, when it was time to do a posture they didn’t like. For them, the reward for surrendering to resistance is learning to love the offerings of the pose. Such stories make me smile, because I have often resisted in similar ways in yoga class and in life. Instead of opening myself up to a new experience that looks hard or scary, when things get tough I sometimes look for ways to disappear. I don’t say, “I’m too frightened to attempt this,” or “I am worried about failing and looking foolish.” Instead, I do something else—procrastinate, make excuses, organize a closet—and rob myself of discovery.

My yoga teachers say frequently that achieving a perfect posture or learning to enjoy a pose is not the point. This aspect of yoga is about acknowledging fear, discomfort, or reluctance and overcoming ego as you surrender to something new and expansive. Even if my teachers had never achieved the poses they disliked, they knew they would learn something about themselves if they stayed present during the attempt.

It is no different at work. How often does your fear of change lead you down the path of resistance, sometimes without even realizing it? What do you do when you really don’t want to surrender to another, to the wishes of the project team, or to a demand from the marketplace? Instead of relinquishing your fears or selfish desires, how do you behave? Maybe you don’t show up for meetings. Maybe you “forget” to answer emails. Maybe you question others’ credentials or knowledge about the task at hand. Maybe you change the subject, or go for the cheap laugh. Everyone has his or her favorites.

What would change at work if you acknowledged your fear or hesitation directly, then committed to surrendering to something new? At work, you may discover that surrender is not a dirty word—it requires courage and great strength.

In yoga class, you might end up in a handstand.

Five suggestions for practicing ishvara-pranidhana

1. Make a list of the meanings and associated feelings evoked by the word “surrender.” Do you see it as positive, negative, or dependent on the situation? How does your view affect the actions you take?

2. List the gains you would get by practicing ishvara-pranidhana. What are the associated losses?

3. Remember a time when you refused to surrender at work. How did it turn out? If you see the results as a loss, think about what might have changed if you had surrendered. If you perceive a gain, can you see a hidden loss? Bring to mind a time you surrendered—willingly or unwillingly. What differences do you observe in each of these cases?

4. What things, people, roles, or outcomes are you attached to? Make a list and think about the reasons you are attached. Is a person or job role central to your sense of worth? How would cultivating a healthy detachment change the way you see yourself? How would it influence your work?

5. Invest time in noticing how you feel when you begin to attach yourself to an outcome—anxious, irritable, fearful, agitated? When those emotions begin to surface, what can you do to stay in the present? Consider developing a mantra that can help you keep non-productive fretting at bay, such as “I am doing the best I can. The outcome will be what it will be. I can let go.”