How can I change my bad habits through yoga?
You mind naturally gravitates towards changing your bad habit when you start to become aware of its negative impact. Yoga helps you do that by improving your power of observation to notice subtle differences in life.
When you are able to “feel the pain” as the result of your bad habit action, your mind becomes miserable. No mind wants to feel miserable. So a “seed” is planted in your mind to initiate change in your actions. But change takes time. At first, maybe you can stop yourself from your bad habit 1 out of 10 times. That’s a great start.
As you keep practicing yoga, your power of observation increases. So your sensitivity to the negative impact of your bad habits increases too. You will “feel the pain” a little bit more. Your mind will feel a bit more miserable when you commit the bad habit. So your mind will naturally gravitate towards not doing it more.
Over weeks, maybe you’ll be able to stop yourself 3 out of 10 times. Over months, maybe 6 out of 10 times. Over years, you may cut it off completely. Sometimes it really take years. But that’s okay. You’ll feel a little bit better every week. When you notice the change, you feel rewarded — passage of time won’t feel like a dread.