A Mindful Yoga Approach to Weight Loss

The Spiritual path – is simply the journey of living our lives. Everyone is on a spiritual path; most just don’t know it.


- Marianne Williamson

I sometimes get a little overzealous in reminding people that yoga is a spiritual discipline. When I am asked about subjects such as weight loss, I often tell people that they need to seek elsewhere. If the extent of your interest in yoga is physical, there are other forms of exercise, dietary disciplines or psychological interventions. Yoga is about realizing our true nature as beings of consciousness. It is about the union of the individual soul, jivatman, with the universal soul, Paramatman. However, I’ve been rethinking my position.

You don’t have to have a lofty spiritual goal to practice yoga. You certainly don’t have to subscribe to a belief system. However, you need to be aware that the yoga path may awaken a deeper awareness within you. It will challenge your habitual ways of thinking about yourself. Some yoga teachers have tried to take the spiritual elements out of their yoga classes. Some have dispensed with Om chanting for instance. The popular emphasis seems to be on the physical postures, the asanas of hatha yoga. Traditionally, however, these are preparatory practices for the deeper levels if inner yoga. Asanas are meant to take us beyond the body. Meditation takes us beyond the mind.

A Mindful Yoga approach to weight loss incorporates all aspects of our beings: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. Just as psychological symptoms, life threatening disease, or other life crises can open us to a deeper perspective on our lives, a weight problem might be an invitation to look more deeply into whom we are and the meaning of our lives.

Then again maybe not . . . It’s up to you whether you are willing to inquire more deeply into yourself. First of all yoga will teach you that you are not your body. The body is the material vehicle through which the conscious soul experiences this life. It is a temporary flawed expression of your innate timeless perfection. As such it is also perfect. Mindfulness begins with a loving acceptance of what is. If you hate your body and you identify with your body then this is where you start: by going deeper and finding the compassionate awareness of your soul.

The next thing that yoga will teach you is that you are not your emotions. You are not the victim of your emotions either. Through the practice of mindful awareness you become aware of emotions as energy which moves through you. You don’t have to react to negative emotions like anger and resentment, guilt and shame. You can simply let them be present in your awareness. This is where we move deeper into the inner witnessing awareness. I wish I could tell you that this is easy. I can tell you that it gets better with practice.

Yoga will also teach you that you are not your thoughts. Just as we are aware of bodily sensations and the world of the five senses, of emotional energy which we might express or suppress, we are also aware of thoughts as they pass through our minds. Although it might be easy to understand that we are not bodies – we tend to say “I have a body.” It is harder to not identify with our emotions – we tend to say “I am angry.” It is harder still not to identify with our habitual thought patterns.

When you say something like, “I am too fat.” Who are you referring to? The “real you” is not too fat, not too skinny but just right. The real you is “loving awareness,” to quote Ram Das. Be as you truly are. Recognize yourself as the pure awareness beyond this seeming space-time matrix. Then if you still feel the need to work on your weight:

1. Become more physically active. Do dynamic hatha yoga practices as prescribed in Asana, Pranayama, Mudra, Bandha. Take walks, run if you are able. Dance! Do “laughter yoga!”

2. Become more aware of your eating habits. Pay attention to your energy levels. What foods make you feel truly nourished, truly healthy and attuned to your inner being? Fast one meal per week and pay attention to your thoughts and emotions. Forget fast food. Limit sweets.

3. Focus yourself mentally on spiritual goals, on meaning and purpose in your life, on God or Enlightenment. Practice meditation on a daily basis.  Specifically the practice of Yoga Nidra with a carefully formulated sankalpa will be helpful.  (Refer to my earlier post Yoga Nidra and the Importance of Relaxation

for more information.)