Yoga Hero: All of Yoga Podcast – Episode 19

Control the controllables

You have a finite amount of time, mental bandwidth and energy -and being mindful of where you spend these valuable resources is incredibly important.

Put simply if you’re trying to control things that are outside of your control, you’re spending your valuable resources in a way that won’t give you any benefit at all.

There are just three things that you can control, which are your thoughts, your spoken words, and your physical deeds, your actions.

If a large portion of your valuable resources is being spent on uncontrollables, that’s going to be a big time suck, a big energy suck, a big mental bandwidth suck, or maybe all three!

So: how do you control the controllables?

Let’s start here.

When you find yourself worrying about something, just pause and take a deep breath and ask yourself; what about the situation that you’re worried about is within your control? If you have an interview next week, and you really worried about how it’ll go – that IS within your control – you can plan, you can prepare, you can practice. But if you’re worried about what the weather’s going to be like next month, that’s NOT within your control.

Good luck yogi, you’ve got this! 🙌

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Thank you, and happy listening!

Control the Controllables – Transcript

Hi, I’m Holly from Yoga Hero and I am really excited to take you through 10 days of yoga philosophy to help you live a more peaceful, more fruitful life. Today is all about controlling the controllables. But before we look at how you control the controllables, let’s talk about why this is a good idea.

You have a finite amount of time, mental bandwidth and energy. So being mindful of where you spend these valuable resources is incredibly important.

Put simply if you’re trying to control things that are outside of your control, you’re spending your valuable resources in a way that won’t give you any benefit at all.

In yoga history, there’s a school of yoga called karma yoga.

You’re probably familiar with the word karma already. And you might think about it as meaning retribution, or what goes around, comes around.

Karma is a Sanskrit word and it simply means action. Karma yoga asks you to be aware of the things that you can control, which are your thoughts, your spoken words, and your physical deeds, your actions.

Let me just reinforce this. These three things, your thoughts, words, and your actions are the only things that you have control over.

Oh! If a large portion of your valuable resources is being spent on uncontrollables, that’s going to be a big time suck, a big energy suck, a big mental bandwidth suck, or maybe all three, how do you control the controllables? Let’s start here. When you find yourself worrying about something. Just pause and take a deep breath and ask yourself; what about the situation that you’re worried about is within your control? If you have an interview next week, and you really worried about how it’ll go- that’s within your control.

You can plan, you can prepare, you can practice. But if you’re really worried about what the weather’s going to be like next month, that’s not within your control. What is within your control is how much you let yourself worry about it. Come back on day three, because we’re going to talk about the impact of thoughts.

Be kind to yourself. Implementing something like this is behavioral change, it takes time. And patience. Congratulate yourself on all wins, however small. And don’t give yourself a hard time when you back to worrying about things that aren’t in your control.

Just pause, take a deep breath and ask yourself what within this situation is within my control. We’d absolutely love to know how you’ve found this. Let us know in the comments good luck and see you tomorrow.