I'm Asking You to Be Undisciplined
I have attended fewer than thirty yoga classes in four and a half years of living in Rishikesh.
This is not a confession I make with pride exactly.
But it's the honest starting point for something I've come to believe quite strongly.
Before you misunderstand me — I do have a practice.
It's just not built on force.
My Morning
I have a morning rhythm.
Chanting.
Coffee.
Some movement.
A slow beginning.
It's consistent.
But I didn't build it through discipline.
I built it through enjoyment.
Each element arrived because I genuinely wanted it. I kept what felt good. I dropped what felt heavy. Over time, the practice stopped being something I "did."
It became what morning is.
There's a quiet Vedic intelligence in that — life aligning when the senses are not fighting the experience. When you enjoy something deeply, it roots itself without effort.
The Weight
I tried to lose weight approximately twenty times through discipline.
Schedules.
Plans.
Willpower.
Guilt when I failed.
Renewed resolve.
More guilt.
Repeat.
Twenty kilos came off in Rishikesh.
Without a plan.
Without a programme.
Without a heroic decision.
Through the environment.
The food here is different.
The pace is different.
The attitude around life is different.
The sensory overload of urban living softens.
The social pressure around food and drink that accumulates invisibly in city life — gone.
I didn't decide to change my habits.
My habits changed because I was somewhere that made different habits natural.
The Problem With Discipline
Discipline for the sake of discipline has probably never worked long-term.
Discipline and guilt form a loop:
You commit.
You fail.
You feel bad.
You recommit harder.
You fail again — now with additional shame.
The guilt embeds in the subconscious not as motivation but as evidence:
"You are someone who fails at this."
Most wellness culture is built on this loop and calls it support.
But willpower is not the foundation of sustainable wellness.
Environment is.
Attitude is.
The quality of your senses is.
When the air feels lighter.
When the food feels cleaner.
When your nervous system isn't constantly on edge.
When your mornings don't start with pressure.
That's when change happens.
Not because you forced it.
Because you finally felt safe enough to breathe into it.
What I'm Actually Suggesting
I'm not suggesting you abandon structure.
I'm not suggesting you give up on change.
I'm asking you to question discipline as the primary tool.
Put yourself somewhere better and see what you naturally become.
Your habits are not a failure of character.
They are a logical response to the conditions you're living in.
Change the conditions.
Watch what changes.
Guilt is the real enemy.
Not lack of willpower.
This is not anti-yoga.
This is pro-alignment.
Because when you enjoy your practice, you don't need discipline.
You need presence.
And presence, when supported by the right environment, becomes sustainable.
That's the difference.
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