Satya: the fine line between truth and stories.

Satya, truth. Truthfulness. 'Non-falsehood'. A tricky little slope when you're trying to abide by the first Yama of non-harm. I find the most challenging and humbling piece of truth to be the fact that truth looks different to every single one of us, my truth from a particular event, or time, can be a completely different representation compared to the same event, in which you witnessed. Our truth is so subjective, that the more sure we are of it, the more likely we are to live by it, trust it, rarely question it, so much so, that we risk hurting those around us, because we are so confident of that story playing over and over in our heads.


I neared the edge with this slope of truthfulness in my last post of non-harm, quite humorous if you think about it. This realization had me truly look at my truth, my story, with a fine toothed comb, with the largest magnifying glass you can get.

So much of what we remember is biased due to our conditioning. And what I remember the most of my life is the challenge, the pain of being bigger than most people in my class growing up, the conversations held around my weight from those I loved, the struggle in fitting into a consistent size without wanting to crawl out of my skin and hide. All these things. They could have lasted 20 years, they could have last just brief momenets. But I'll never know that, because I've clung to these words, I've held this story so strongly in my hands, that I've allowed it to identify me, I've allowed it to consume me. Yet, if we think about our truth, we can re-write it, we can alter the story, and what we WANT to remember. For whatever reason, I'm chosing to remember the bad, the ugly, and cling to it, as if it was written in stone.

What I'm forgetting to remember is my happy childhood, having a bond with my 3 sisters that I'll never have with anyone, winning both the Orchestra and Wind Ensemble concerto competitions at the age of 17, a mother who was my rock, a father who taught me how to laugh and be light, a grandmother who taught me about fashion, 2 grandparents who taught me about unconditional love, a College career and friends I wouldn't give up for anything. All these moments, these make up who I am, not the static, not the murk. The lotus does not get stuck up in her truth, the fact that she was planted in the muck, the murky water, yet what she does is persistently makes her way to the top to show her true beauty, the essence of who she was born to be.

Ok, that's all great and hippy dippy, I get it. How does it apply to you? How doesn't it? We all have these stories. Our struggles that made us 'survivors'. But what about the greatness that allows us to appreciate the smallest of moments. What about that seed that's planted, that drives us to speak out, to do our best, whatever it is that we were born to do. All I'm saying is, we have the opportunity to re-write this story. They call it our truth for a reason. It's mine. I create it, I maintain it. And what I chose to maintain from this point on is beauty, is life, is love. Not regret, nor jealously.

To your truth. May you find it with peace and ease.

Till next time, Yogis.