The Weekly Love: Pride and the Yoga Message
The Weekly Love: Pride and the Yoga Message
This week I have been doing some reflection on what makes the connection between yoga, love, and self-acceptance. For many reasons, people come to their mat wanting to see a change in their lives or at least a shift away from old patterns that may be holding them back. But the process of yoga transformation on and off the mat is one that will test you over and over again. It starts with defining what transformation will look like in your own life and sensing deeply what it will feel like to be a different person. Or perhaps more accurately, to feel like the same person with a different experiential view of life. Which begs the question does yoga seek to erase our identity or enhance it?
Shifting perspective of what change means can tie intricately to the process of self-love and self-acceptance. For in seeking change through yoga (union), we must part ways with pieces of our egoic identity and behavioral patterns that feel familiar. However, there is a big difference to recognize between wanting a change in your life experience (perception of reality) and wanting to transform your physical self. In western culture, we often confuse the two processes, i.e., physical transformation is the success criteria that indicates mental, emotional, and spiritual transformation. There could be nothing further from the truth and this confusion, or Maya (disillusion) causes suffering for those who need to enhance their self-love and self-acceptance. For if we attach our only metric for success on the physical transformation which we call the yoga asana practice, then we will lose what it means to love the person who shows up on the mat unconditionally, regardless of physical performance, shape, or appearance. The outward can serve perhaps as a catalyst to the self-discipline needed to look inwards, but it does not replace a sense of self-worth which yoga seeks to cultivate through aparigraha (letting go) and svadyaya (self-study).
In this Pride month (June), there is so much at stake for those coming back to what it means to celebrate who they are. Celebrating who you are means embracing certain unchanging characteristics that engender our being. They may be our kindness or our smile, or perhaps the way we observe mindfully or laugh with our families and friends. The characteristics could be a sense of stubbornness or loyalty. Even our cultural identity, although part of the ego, can inform parts of who we are. When we practice the eightfold path of yoga, we create union with our true self. And in doing so, we break down the barriers of self-love and self-acceptance. Barriers of understanding and wrapping our identities in things we have or bodies we possess or actions we do or don’t do can belittle our sense of love. By creating true practice or Abhyasa, we harness our lifestyle, actions, speech, and thoughts to align with our highest self. And in doing so, we radiate light and love to ourselves and others to be exactly as we are with no conditions attached. In this Pride, we break down barriers to self-acceptance, honor the self with positive affirmations, and celebrate healthy transformation while preserving the unchanging aspects of our identity which we seek to enhance. Light and love always – Namaste!
