Beyond the Diet

It's July and you're already worried about something that might happen in February. You've run the scenarios. You've made the plan. You've made the backup plan. This one is for the recovering control freak. We finish the Niyamas with the fifth and final observance, Ishvara pranidhana, surrender to the highest. Patanjali says that if you get this one, you don't need the other four. I've spent most of my life living by "I must have the plan and my will be done", so I can tell you it's simpler to say than to live. In this episode, we explore: What Ishvara pranidhana means, and why the highest includes you Why every outcome you chase is really a chase for the feeling of "this is enough" Ishta devata, the personal relationship each of us has with the divine What B.K.S. Iyengar, and Tony Robbins of all people, say about grace A ten-minute Hamsa mantra meditation to finish Underneath it all is a question about trust. What could open up if you let February sort itself out and noticed what's right in front of you today? Practise with us at yogatotransform.com

Two minutes into meditation and your mind is already arguing that the timer must be about to go off. It isn't. That's the mind running an old habit, and in this episode we start studying it. Kristina teaches the fourth niyama, Svadhyaya, which translates as study of the self. Ayurveda's word for perfect health, svastha, starts in the same place. Sva. Self. To be well is to be anchored in who you really are. In this episode, we explore: What sva and adhyaya mean, and the difference between the little self and the big Self Samskara, the grooves in the mind that keep us repeating the same reactions in different situations Why a pattern has to be seen before it can be changed Journaling, meditation, honest conversations and the yoga mat as ways to study yourself A question from one of Kristina's teachers: where do your thoughts come from, and where do they go? A short seated meditation with the mantra sat nam, I am that Underneath it all is a simple invitation. Next time you sit down and your mind insists the timer must be nearly done, stay. That restless voice is the first thing worth studying. Practise with us at yogatotransform.com

Monday you were all in. By Thursday the wine's poured, the chocolate's open, and you're wondering where your willpower went. This week Kristina teaches tapas, the third niyama. Tapas means to burn. It's the fiery discipline and burning enthusiasm that keeps you turning up for yourself, and it's the same fire Ayurveda calls agni. Most of us were taught discipline as punishment. Yoga sees it differently. In this episode, we explore: • Tapas, the third chakra and why your willpower sits in your belly • Why rolling out your mat for ten minutes is real practice • How a strong body holds a bigger life force, and a bigger life • Rajasic, tamasic and sattvic tapas, and the one that tends to last • Kristina's five-day silent retreat and what it showed her about food • The mind as a pleasure-seeking missile, and what to do at 9pm • A 10-minute closed-eye meditation to close Underneath the chocolate is a feeling you're looking for. Tapas is the practice of sitting still long enough to find out what it is. Join the conversation in our Facebook group, Beyond the Diet: Weight, Wellness and Womanhood.

How many pairs of jeans are sitting on your wardrobe shelf right now? And how many do you actually wear? This week we reach the fifth and final yama, aparigraha. It translates as non-grasping, non-greed or non-attachment, and it asks a simple question that turns out to be quite hard to answer. What are you holding on to, and why? Kristina moves from the Bhagavad Gita to the shoe pile on the wardrobe floor, from the pavlova that might crack to the leftovers going off in the fridge. It's a practical, honest look at how grasping shows up for women in their 30s and 40s, and what letting go could feel like. In this episode, we explore: The meaning of aparigraha and the Sanskrit behind it Krishna's teaching to Arjuna on action and the fruits of action Why chasing the outcome (including the number on the scale) can steal from the process Fear of failing as its own form of attachment Grasping, lack and the urge to fill an empty feeling with shopping or food The Ayurvedic approach to eating until you're around three-quarters full Conscious consumerism, food waste and fast fashion Holding on to memories, painful and happy The 24-hour rule and a set of journal prompts to take into your week Underneath all of it sits the real practice: letting things arrive when they arrive, and letting them go when it's time. Yoga to Transform: https://yogatotransform.com

We're up to the fourth yama, and this one gets a rewrite for anyone who isn't a monk or a nun. Brahmacharya used to mean celibacy, a way for renunciates to conserve their energy for the path to enlightenment. For the rest of us, living what Buddha called the middle path, it becomes something more useful: the wise use of your energy. Not restriction. Not indulgence. The practice of noticing where your energy actually goes, and choosing again. This episode uses the humble packet of biscuits to make the whole yama concrete, and closes with a guided pranayama and meditation practice you can do right along with the class. In this episode, we explore: What Brahmacharya actually means once you take celibacy out of the equation Why distraction, not lack of willpower, is what drains most of our energy The difference between constitutional energy and energy lost to avoidance or repression Why going cold turkey rarely works, and what moderation looks like instead The practice of witnessing yourself mid-habit, and how it creates the pause where change becomes possible A guided Nadi Shodhana (alternate nostril breathing) practice A short sense-withdrawal meditation to close the practice Underneath all of it is a simple question this yama keeps asking: not what should you give up, but what do you actually want, and is the way you're spending your energy today moving you towards it.

Most of us hear "non-stealing" and assume we've already got it sorted. We don't take bikes. We don't lift wallets. But asteya, the third of the yamas, goes a lot further than the obvious. It asks where else we take more than we need, more than our share, more than the moment freely gives us. In this class, we explore: Why hoarding, lateness and over-consuming all sit inside asteya The line Gandhi drew between physical theft and "man's greed and craving for artificial needs" Comparison and jealousy as quiet forms of stealing from someone else's joy, and our own Staying in your comfort zone as stealing from the person you're capable of becoming How a bad mood can steal someone else's peace of mind without a word being said The illusion underneath it all: the belief that we're separate and not enough A guided abundance meditation to close the practice Underneath all of it is one idea worth sitting with: the things we reach for outside ourselves are rarely the thing we're actually missing. This class is an invitation to notice the reaching, and to start trusting that you already have enough. Part of our ongoing Yamas and Niyamas series. New episodes drop as we work through the full eight limbs together.

We're talking truth this week. Not the dinner table kind, the kind yoga philosophy has been pointing to for thousands of years. Satya, the second Yama, sits right after Ahimsa in the yoga sutras, and that order matters more than most people realise. This episode looks at what truthfulness actually means once you go past "don't lie," and why the sutras say that perfecting Satya changes what your words are capable of. We get into the Sanskrit root sat, the difference between the truth that changes day to day and the truth that doesn't, and why sometimes the most truthful thing you can do is stay quiet. In this episode, we explore: What Satya really means, beyond honesty in conversation The root sat and its place in sat-chit-ananda Why Yoga Sutra 2.36 says truthfulness gives your words the power to manifest Byron Katie's four questions for working with a thought that's causing you suffering Why Ahimsa still outranks honesty when the two are in conflict A guided meditation on the space between two objects, and why it's the whole practice in miniature Underneath all of it is a simple question worth sitting with. How much of what you call true is actually just conditioning, and what's still there once you look past it. Beyond the Diet is hosted by Kristina Wischnowsky, part of Yoga to Transform.

You judge your body every time you step onto the mat. The wobble in tree pose. The foot that will not reach behind your head. This week on Beyond the Diet, we unpack ahimsa, the first of the yamas in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, and why non-violence starts with the thoughts you have about yourself before it ever reaches anyone else. We talk about the difference between intention and action, why self-criticism and gossip count as violence too, and the research showing happiness is genuinely contagious (you are 25% more likely to feel happy when someone close to you does). We close with a loving-kindness meditation you can practise right where you are sitting. In this episode: What ahimsa means in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras and why it is the most important of the yamas How ahimsa shows up in thought, word and deed, not just physical action Why judging your practice on the mat is a form of self-harm The science behind why happiness, and negative thinking, both spread The Anusara three A's, attitude, alignment, action, and how they connect to ahimsa A closing loving-kindness meditation for someone who is currently challenging you If this lands, come find us on the mat at Yoga to Transform in Christchurch. Follow Beyond the Diet for real talk on weight, wellness and womanhood, at the intersection of yoga philosophy, Ayurveda and modern science. yogatotransform.com

We've just started the Niyamas in our Yamas and Niyamas series, and this episode is on the second one: Santosha, contentment. We open with a couple of favourite teachings on contentment, Lao Tzu and the Bhagavad Gita, before getting into the real question underneath Santosha. Why do so many of us live by the "I'll be happy when" mindset, and what does it actually cost us to keep pausing our peace until the next goal arrives? In this episode, we explore: Why desire and goals aren't the problem, but making your peace conditional on them is The nervous system wiring behind why we struggle to rest until an urge is satisfied Why anchoring contentment in temporary things (a house, a relationship, a body) keeps happiness out of reach Gratitude as the most direct path back into contentment The Anusara philosophy principle of "look for the good" A guided sensory reflection through breath, sound, sight, smell and touch to close the episode Underneath all of it is a simple, hard practice: learning to stay content with what is, even while you keep moving towards what's next.

You have done the work. The therapy. The books. The self-development. You understand, intellectually, where your patterns come from. And some of them are still there. In this episode I talk about why that happens, and what shifts when healing goes below the level of conscious understanding into the body, the subconscious, and the deeper layers where patterns actually live. In this episode we explore: How chronic fatigue in my early twenties became the doorway into yoga, Ayurveda and a 30-year healing path Why cardio and gym training gave me fitness but not a relationship with my body, and what changed that The Anusara yoga method and why the philosophical dimension matters as much as the physical What personal training, Ayurveda and Core Energetics body psychotherapy have in common Why the subconscious cannot be changed by intellectual understanding alone What hypnotherapy actually feels like, and how it connects dots the conscious mind never could Samskara, the visor, and the Ayurvedic idea that you are already whole Ancestral and generational patterns, and the science behind why we carry them What enlightenment actually means when you take it out of the spiritual abstract and into a real woman's week The difference between trying to fix something broken and removing what is obscuring what was always there Underneath all of it is one question: what becomes possible when you stop working against your body and start listening to what it already knows? Connect with Kristina at yogatotransform.com Follow on Instagram: @yogatotransform Listen to the Beyond the Diet podcast: yogatotransform.com/podcast Yoga to Transform is a women's wellness studio based in Christchurch, New Zealand, offering yoga, personal training and Ayurveda wellness coaching for women who are ready to come home to their bodies.