Satya: The Truth Alone won't set you Free

Satya is the second of the Yamas and means Truthfulness. (Learn about the Yamas, the first of the Eight Limbs of Yoga, in my previous blog post: Grow your Yoga Practice by Understanding the Eight Limbs of Yoga).

Deborah Adele lays out the relationship between the first and the second Yamas, Ahimsa (Non-Violence) and Satya (Truthfulness) in her book The Yamas & Niyamas: Exploring Yoga's Ethical Practice,

"The compassion of nonviolence keeps truthfulness from being a personal weapon… [when Ahimsa and Satya come together] their union is nothing short of love in its fullest expression."

As I've been diving deeper into my yoga practice, I have been focused on truly understanding the ethical and the inner practice of yoga. Understanding that my yogic path is not a path of perfection but a path to deeper understanding of self and how I fit into the larger world around me has been truly eye opening and has led to some big life changes.

I want to share a story about how Satya has helped me become more honest with myself. This practice of honesty and truthfulness has helped me gain a stronger understanding of myself and make decisions that are aligned with my inner truth. One of these decisions was the decision to change my job at the beginning of 2018.

Have you ever been stuck doing something you don't love or that your heart isn't into anymore? What happens when that thing you don't love is something that you worked so hard to attain or had dreamed about doing? Well, as it turns out, sometimes what you want and what you need changes. Realizing that our needs have changed requires us to be honest with ourselves and understand that at different times in our life the truth of what we want and what we need changes.

A few years ago, I landed my dream job after graduating from business school. When I first started the job, I loved the work, the people, and the culture. I didn't mind the long hours, the intense workload, the fast pace, or the time away from home. I also didn't realize or didn’t care that the job was impacting my social life, my family life, and my health and wellness. As time passed, however, I realized that as much as I loved the work and the people I worked with, I wasn't willing to do it at the expense of time spent with family and friends or at the expense of my body. With the long hours and high levels of stress, I found myself overindulging in unhealthy foods, forgoing workouts to catch up on much needed sleep, and beating myself up for being a bad daughter, wife, and friend on multiple occasions. As the job kept wearing on me, I started to enjoy the work less and less and felt less fulfillment each day. Instead the job began to feel like a grind and I found myself dreading going to work each day. The hardest part, however, was being honest with myself. At first, I didn’t want to accept the fact that what I wanted had changed and honestly, I was scared of what other people would think. Would they think I was a failure or a quitter if I decided to do something different? And how could I give up on something that I had worked so hard for? I found myself succumbing to the sunk cost fallacy and feeling powerless to change the situation.

Part of my issue was that I wasn't practicing Satya (Truthfulness) and Ahimsa (Non-Violence) together. While I knew that the truth of what I wanted had changed, I was unable to find the courage to make a change because I wasn't practicing Ahimsa in conjunction with the truth or Satya. Satya (Truthfulness) by itself was causing me pain and suffering because I felt trapped with the truth. I needed to practice Ahimsa (Non-Violence) not only to find the courage to make a change but to overcome the powerlessness I was feeling. My life was out of balance but I wasn't able to find the balance and the courage that I needed in my life because I wasn't practicing self-love or compassion for myself. I needed to listen to my inner voice of wisdom and make a change for myself rather than being afraid of what others would think or thinking of myself as a failure. It was only by practicing Ahimsa (Non-Violence) and Satya (Truthfulness) together, that I was able to finally find the courage to start looking for a new job that was better aligned with my true identity and my current truth. I continued to practice Satya as I looked for a new job. This focus on truthfulness allowed me to be honest with potential employers about what I was looking for in a job both in terms of challenging work and responsibility as well as the work life balance that my previous job was lacking.

In the end, because I practiced both Ahimsa and Satya together, I was able to love myself and make the change that I needed to make for myself. I'm now in a job that I love that allows me to be my true self and balance my need for a challenging and meaningful work life and my need to spend time with my family and friends and to pursue my passions and hobbies outside of work. As I continue to try to live my fullest and most authentic life, I know I will need to continue to practice Ahimsa and Satya together.

As you work towards living your own authentic life, I hope that you continue to focus on your own truths and remember to treat yourself with non-violence. The two together will allow you to love yourself in the truest sense. I wish you luck on your own journey of self.

Namaste.