Struggling to Make a Decision? What the Yoga Sutras Teach About Finding Clarity

Should I quit my job, or stay? Should I say what I really think, or hold my tongue? Should I have the chocolate cake, or not? Big or small, we all know what it feels like to be stuck between two choices, unsure which one is right. In this episode of her Yoga and Real Life series, Rohini shows how a teaching from the Yoga Sutras speaks directly to this everyday confusion, and offers a simple practice for the next time you can't make up your mind.

The teaching: two kinds of thoughts

The fifth sutra of the first chapter of Patañjali's Yoga Sutras reads vṛttayaḥ pañcatayyaḥ kliṣṭākliṣṭāḥ (1.5). It says the fluctuations of the mind come in five varieties, and that every one of them is either kliṣṭa, troubling or binding, or akliṣṭa, not troubling. Some thoughts pull us deeper into confusion and suffering, and others don't.

This is what being stuck between two choices looks like from the inside: two thoughts arguing, each claiming to be the right one. Rohini's reading of the sutra is practical: don't get caught up in the fight between the thoughts. From inside the argument, you usually can't tell which thought is binding you and which is helping you. Taking sides only feeds it. This builds on the sutras just before it, which define yoga itself as the settling of these fluctuations of the mind. See Chitta Vritti Nirodha: What Yoga Really Means.

Step back and ask: what am I really avoiding?

Instead of picking a side, Rohini suggests stepping back, taking a moment in silence, and asking one honest question: "What am I really avoiding, or fighting, here?" The confusion on the surface usually has a deeper root. Once you see the root, the choice often becomes much simpler.

She illustrates this with two figures from the Mahabharata:

• Arjuna on the battlefield. At the start of the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna is torn: should he fight, or not? Rohini suggests that if he asked what he was really avoiding, the answer might be the possibility of fighting and losing, or of his name and fame not being the greatest. Something beneath the surface question was creating the confusion.
• Karna and his armour. Just before the war, Karna is asked to give away the divine armour he was born with, knowing it protects his life. He is torn. At the root, Rohini explains, was a different question: what would his name be in history, and would the world think him stingy if he refused? Once he understood this, the choice became easy for him, and he gave the armour away.

The same applies to our smaller decisions. Should I eat the cake? Go to the root and ask what actually defines your happiness. Is it the cake, or something else? Being truthfully honest with ourselves, Rohini says, only happens in quietness and awareness. When it does, clarity comes more easily, and so does the ability to make the right decision.

The path of yoga is not a path without conflict

It's easy to imagine that a yogic life should be calm and free of struggle. Rohini points out the opposite: every story she tells is a story of conflict, and every figure in our itihasa and puranas goes through it. Yoga is not about avoiding conflict. It is a path where you sit with the discomfort, watch the mind and observe it honestly, and let clarity come from there. It's the same skill a regular meditation practice builds: noticing thoughts without being carried away by them.

A practice for your next difficult decision

The next time a hard decision is in front of you, try this:

1. Don't rush. Resist the urge to decide immediately, or to keep arguing with yourself.
2. Sit quietly for a few moments. Let the breath settle and notice the two sides of the argument without joining either.
3. Ask: "What am I really avoiding?" You might also ask: what version of myself am I scared to see, whether I make this choice or don't?
4. Stay with the discomfort. Let the honest answer come from within rather than forcing one. We all have an intuitive voice that knows more than our arguing thoughts.
5. Then decide. Once you see the root, choose, and act.

Rohini's point is that this is how yoga transforms a life: we stop rushing through it, or being dragged through it by habit, and start living with presence. For another way to work with difficult thoughts, read Don't Let Your Thoughts Limit You: Hanuman and the Yoga Sutras, or learn about the kleshas, the causes of suffering.

A note

This practice is a tool for everyday decisions and self-reflection. If difficult decisions are connected to ongoing anxiety, low mood or a crisis, please talk to someone you trust or a qualified mental health professional.