Loading...
Yoga & the mind
The true self in yoga
What Atman means, and what your habits have to do with it.
Habits we did not choose
Long before we can question it, we learn what keeps parents, teachers and other people happy. Some of those habits stay with us.
Some are useful. Others are just old. Apologising before you've said anything. Saying yes to things you don't want to do. Keeping quiet in case you get it wrong. They don't feel like habits from the inside. They feel like you.
What Atman means
Atman is a Sanskrit word often translated as the self. Different yoga traditions explain it differently, so I would not pretend there is one neat definition.
The rough idea is that underneath the habits there's a you that was there first. You don't have to believe it. I've never taken well to dogma, and I treat this as a question worth asking, not a doctrine.
What you notice on the mat
A yoga class won't answer the question, but it will show you your habits. Hold a pose for a minute and watch what happens.
Some people brace, grip everything and fight the pose. Some spend the whole minute checking how the person on the next mat is doing. Some give up the moment they wobble, long before anything actually hurts.
None of that is wrong, and I'm not standing there judging it. It's just information. The habit you run in a pose is usually one you run somewhere else too.
Yoga is not therapy
I want to be straight about this, because plenty of yoga marketing blurs it.
Yoga and therapy can both help people notice patterns, but they are not the same. A therapist can help you explore where a pattern came from and whether it still helps. That is different work from a yoga class, and sometimes it is the right work.
If something heavy comes up, take it to someone trained for it. My job is the class.
A smaller question
"Who am I really?" is a big question. I've been practising for decades and I'm not sure I'd trust anyone who claims to have answered it.
You do not need to become a new person. Start by noticing which habits no longer fit.
That's a smaller question. It's also one you can actually do something with.
Start where you are
You don't have to understand any of this before your first class. Just bring yourself.