Poem 40: Self-Study

 A short yoga primer today to go along with the poem. Svadhyaya, the sankrit term for self-study, is a niyama, a positive observance or duty to cultivate in oneself as described in Patanjali's yoga sutras. It's just one helpful step outlined on the path to living your best life and it's something I've been thinking about a lot lately. My husband and I are re watching the entire Harry Potter series and finished the Order of the Phoenix recently in which Harry is punished by Professor Umbridge and has to write "I must not tell lies" with a special quill that marks the words into the flesh on the back of his hands. Now, Umbridge is horrible and I by no means advocate corporal punishment, however, she had the right idea about the lies - even if she was the one telling them. The thing is, I think we can fall into a habit of lying to ourselves everyday. We can lie to ourselves that we like to do something when we clearly don't or that something doesn't hurt when it really does. Or we can say we don't think we are worth something or we don't look like what we think we should look like. Svadhyaya, to me, encourages that deep gaze in the mirror. The time to ask what lies have I been etching into my own skin, leaving a scar?  I think the yoga asana practice gives space and time to start that work - to start shutting out the noise so you can hear the sound of your own inner voice. I tried to capture that in today's poem. Hope you enjoy.