A student asked me to write about how to overcome inertia in order to begin better habits.

Luckily, I know something about training animals, and people are animals. It boils down to this: only positive reinforcement or no reinforcement at all (I’ve blogged that before!). Praise yourself for any small success. Reward progress. Celebrate whenever you move in the right direction.*

But my student’s problem was inertia — no movement and no direction, producing no behavior to ignore or reinforce. So forward momentum is the first thing. It doesn’t have to be correct or skillful, but there must be movement. Then, training can begin.

Patanjali’s yoga sutras are said to present the royal path, a clearly defined way toward enlightenment. Its heart is the eight limbs of yoga. If you know them, you can see where you’re stuck. Inertia mostly happens early in the journey, so look to the yamas and niyamas (the first two of the eight limbs).

If you lack motivation for making an effort (tapas in Sanskrit), you are probably deficient in the previous skill of contentment (santosa).

It might seem odd to begin the effort toward change by practicing contentment. But without contentment, we can’t settle and understand our current circumstances.

The heart chakra (anahata) is the energetic center for love as well as forward momentum. When you’re suffering from inertia you don’t have the heart for it. Chest opening poses, like supported backbends, can be life-altering, simple as they are. As you open your chest, be sure to allow your breath to have an easy, swinging, forward momentum. Does a physical practice like this change your attitude? At all? Carry that feeling forward to maintain momentum in your life off the yoga mat. Don’t get too stuck on doing the right thing, just keep doing things, observing, adjusting and rewarding to make them right as you go along.

Of course, you may discover difficulties with being content. Then you must look to the skill just preceding: cleanliness (saucha). But I’ll talk about that next time.

*This funny and informative essay about using animal training techniques on people first came out in 2006, but it’s always rewarding to revisit. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/11/style/modern-love-what-shamu-taught-me-happy-marriage.html