Brahmacharya: Directing your Energy

Brahmacharya deals directly with sexual energy and external desires and invites you to elevate all of your relationships—especially the one with yourself—to the status of the divine. It literally means “moving with Brahma (another word for God).” The practice of brahmacharya encourages you to walk and live with God (the divine, krishna, goddess, higher power, love, something bigger than you...) instead of living in excess of loose energy. It reminds you to choose where you direct your energy so that you can act with a sense of holiness, wonder, and love.

The power of external desires can be overwhelming. I’m talking about desires that are great in the moment, but are ultimately fleeting. Undirected, unrestrained, and unharnessed, this loose energy can degrade and derail your path of creative power.

Mindful containment and direction of this energy can transmute untethered energy into focus and passion. Patanjali’s yoga sutra 11.30 states that once you’re established in brahmacharya, the powerful life force of desire is available for you to create the life you’ve always wanted. We can then recognize ourselves as divine beings and take creative action to choose where our energy goes!

Although traditionally translated as celibacy, brahmacharya is the right use of desire and energy. For example, I wasted a lot of my creative energy flirting. When I stopped flirting, I was surprised to find my creativity and imagination burning brightly and fueling the pursuit of all of my dreams. This wasn’t because flirting was bad or wrong, but because the energy I used to pursue that path was distracting me from my own. Every person has their own example of a use of energy that serves them fleetingly. Cue the senseless worrying (does everyone like me? am I pretty, thin, thick, fit enough? will people desire me more if I do this?).

When you find yourself in an unharnessed energy swirl, remember the sacredness of life and your ability to choose where you direct your energy and your desires. Remember that you are too a divine being and seek the things that light you up and make you feel full and powerful and creative. The practice of brahmacharya empowers you to treat your desires with careful love and attention.

By Zia Estrella; All Rights Reserved @2020