How Svadhyaya can lead to self-love
Let’s close out this month’s focus in our practice of svadhyaya, which translates to self- reflection, self-study, self-witnessing. We’ve talked about in previous weeks that the yoga sutra 11.44 states, “study thy self, discover the divine.” So just thinking about what that means and how svadhyaya can get us a little deeper into our truer essence, our soul self, what is beyond this physical form… our thoughts… and our emotions that come up.
This week I thought I’d talk about a personal experience that made me laugh about svadhyaya. Friends came to stay with me recently. One of them is a 6 year old and she went around my whole house putting up signs that had these self-affirmations all over. I just loved that. I thought it was so lovely. And the one that really resonated with me said, “I heart me.” I thought that was so powerful coming from a 6 year old and how we can get back to that sense of really appreciating our “self,” ego-self, our physical form, our thoughts. How do we love that part of ourselves? I really think that’s through svadhyaya, “self”-study, “self”-learning. Every time we tune in and ask ourselves these questions and get a deeper sense of what “is,” what’s here, what’s coming up for me. We can really appreciate ourselves, what we’ve worked through, what we’ve been through. We can really address those things as much as we can. I came across this quote:
“Mind is a flexible mirror, adjust it, to see a better world.” ~ Amit Ray
So how do we go into this practice of svadhyaya, appreciate everything that comes up, and maybe need to adjust the mirror here or there, but really appreciate that we can see a better world for ourselves and others.
The questions that I’ll raise this week:
What do I need? (for the day or for my health and healing)
What do I see for myself in 2023?
What do I need to take out of my life?
Give yourself moments of pause throughout your day to just ask the questions. You might not get a clear answer and that’s ok. Sometimes just asking the question can be so helpful.
Sending so much love and gratitude!
