As I was roaming the online world this afternoon,
I came across that today is National Honesty Day.
If you look it up you'll discover that it was created in
1991 by a press secretary that wrote a book. I am not
going into any political realm or link for this one.
Well...my brain went straight to yoga honesty.
What does it mean to be honest on the mat?
Off the mat?
Is truthfulness, satya, the same as honesty?
What are we honest about to others, but what are we honest to ourselves about?
Or more, what aren't we honest about?
Am I honest about my fears, desire, hopes or do I trudge through trying to be honest and not allowing the time to listen?
What are my desires? I know every morning I desire to wake up in a happy mood, but understand that I don't wake up chipper. I wake up slowly to drink a cup of coffee I desire and then desire to sit on my living room mat. Delving into breathing, managing to work into childs pose and slowly move through spine work to down dog. Eventually my happiness begins to bubble and I do my best to choose happiness. But desires are huge and random. I desire a clean house. I desire love. I desire companionship. I desire stability. I desire the time to craft. I desire time to live calmly with my girls. I desire to teach more yoga and make yoga my "day" job. I desire clean sheets and happy dreams.
But I'm realistic that my desires are not always reality. My house is rarely clean and I don't have the time I desire, but so many of my other desires are attainable. And they are intuitive to my life. That offers hope. Creates less fear in my waking life.
I will continue to look into my desires this week, moving to hopes and fears...and be honest where I am today in those thoughts.
Om.
On Thursdays I teach a vinyasa 715 am, work 9-530, then teach beginners 730pm class.
It's tiring. Not the teaching, but the work day sandwiched between classes. My girls aren't thrilled
about me teaching an evening class, but the calling is there and I'm in the state of believing it will
work itself out.
Most weeks, as I grow in my practice, I try to find a word or something higher to bring into my class.
For me, I have a bigger fear in sharing my spiritual side than teaching asana, so I do my best to bring my
language in the forefront..at least in my mind.
This morning as I was glancing through Yoga Journal, I read their featured article on Tree Pose.
I liked how they brought Satya into the description.
Satya means truth.
Unchangeable truth.
So, as I spent my day running this word through my head, I discovered it was easier to speak about satya in the evening than the morning class. In the AM, I had just read the article. It needed time to marinade in my brain. By tonight I felt better in my sharing of the word. The concept.
I didn't get totally into it---I may soon, but I realized that the body is not satya.
The mind is not satya.
Only the spirit, connected to higher, is truth, unchangable truth--along with 'god'...whatever that may be.
I also began class asking them to think of something they are proud of within themselves.
We spend so much of our time trying to get better at this or that. Faster. Quicker. Skinnier.
When we already have so many things we are excellent at...what we are holding as truths to ourselves.
I liked that.
I like setting intentions too--but that sometimes points out the less than positive traits we think about within ourselves.
We're awesome people.
Maybe you rock at washing the dishes.
Maybe you sing in the shower beautifully.
There are qualities we should love about ourselves and share readily.
In satya.
love.
Om
