Show Up – Open Up – Serve Truth – Accept What Is
In a holistic process meant to integrate the human with the spirit, these four developmental stages build that capacity. Our willingness to Show Up each moment brings awareness of our inner experience. Releasing defensiveness and embracing what has shown up requires softening and expanding who we are, rather than contracting or holding rigidly to what was. Receiving what is present with courage and vulnerability allows us to Open Up to the truth. The truth is not perception, not opinion or interpretation, not past conditioning. All of these external filters are subject to change. The truth is that which does not change, no matter what. So, if what is “our there” is not the truth, how do we get to the truth? And how can we then serve truth with integrity?
Yoga and other transformational philosophies teach that the path to truth begins within each of us. Making a commitment to discover one’s inner truth, to know oneself, is an inside job. This inner practice is about becoming intimate (in-to-me-see) with who you are. As a starting point, you might ask yourself, “Is who I am and how I engage with life fulfilling me?” Answering this question necessitates honesty without pretension. Our ego is likely to have much to say. However, truth isn’t spoken through ego’s filter (consider Donald Trump). Moving ego aside and entering the stillness of one’s inner being allows for all questions to be answered with integrity.
Here is where you begin to perceive reality more clearly — your patterns, motivations, fears, and the stories you tell yourself. This is the insight stage: the moment when illusions fall away, and you recognize what is actually happening rather than what you wish were happening. There is a shift from unconscious to conscious awareness of habitual reactions, of the difference between thoughts and facts, and of seeing how your conditioning shapes your experience.
If you are wondering where to start, meditate on any one of the questions below. The answers will arise.
- How do I want to show up today?
- What part of me needs more attention?
- What are my values?
- How can I counterbalance a tendency to self-isolate?
- Do I contribute to my feelings of loneliness? Are they justified?
- In which moments could I speak up more?
- What makes me feel connected to myself?
Discovering one’s truth is a lifelong journey. It is what you discover and serve when you show up, open up, and commit to stillness. My poem below illustrates this process.
One Sweet Step
This is a one-step-at-a-time universe.
Foolhardy past days full of multitasking
merely gave fear a free license.
Fear of not being good enough, fear of
trusting intuition’s mysterious voice,
fear of barriers to overcome.
Only curiosity and courage recognize and
accept the universal truth of being led forward.
In this life, there is none unworthy.
Each next step naturally unfolds, unscripted.
And while many tender hands hold us up,
we need only to sweetly stride forward.
For more yoga actions and teachings, click here. Namaste.