Satya: सत्या

Satya: सत्या is the sanskrit term for truth.  Satya is one of the yamas which are the foundation for living a yogic lifestyle. It's not just about not telling lies it's about living your truth.  The hard part for most is living and speaking your truth while still practicing ahimsa (non-harming). 

There are those who use the truth as a baseball bat without ever considering how their words effect the person receiving them.  When it's brought to their attention they justify their hurtful words by saying that they are only telling the truth.  There are others who stifle their truth with cupcakes and cosmopolitans.  They feel anger or hurt but rather than standing up for themselves and speaking their truth they use food/alcohol to push the feelings down. But no matter how many cupcakes or cosmopolitans you have, the truth is still there. 

What the practice of yoga/meditation can do is to help you to step back into a state of witnessing.  It's from this place of the witness that you can clearly see your patterns.  Once you recognize a pattern that is no longer working for you, you can take the steps to change them.   Whether your truth is a baseball bat or it's buried under the cupcakes and cosmos it's a pattern that is no longer working.  What are you going to do to change it?

For years I've been in the cupcake/cosmo camp.  Whenever I would feel hurt or anger I would convince myself that if I expressed it that it would make things worse.  I didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings or get anyone mad at me so I didn't express myself.  Instead, I'd try to stuff those feelings by eating.  I thought that
it's better not to hurt anyone or make anyone angry than to express myself.  My feelings didn't matter anyway.   What I didn't realize was that this behavior did hurt someone.  It did make someone angry.  ME.   That realization was a ton of bricks on my head.  I did matter.  Hurting myself is also going against the principle of ahimsa. 

The dilemma is how do I express myself and do it in a way that causes the least amount of harm.   The truth of the matter is that sometimes the truth hurts but what's important is the intention.   Am I intentionally saying or doing something that I know will inflict harm? 

I'm just beginning to find my truth.  It's a process.  There is no quick fix.  Each day is a opportunity to practice.  The practice is to stay present and to pay attention to how you're feeling but from a place of witness.  Stepping back from the emotions means that you can respond rather than react. 

It takes strength and courage to look at our patterns honestly.  It takes even greater strength and courage to change those things in our life that are no longer working for us.   I invite you to take a look at how Satya shows up in your life today.  Take each challenge as an opportunity to practice yoga.