How To Be Your True Self

See through your thought patterns and perceptions, and discover the freedom to just be your Self.

- Sally Kempton

LAUREN, A LOS ANGELES yoga teacher, slipped in a lunge while teaching and injured her ankle. Because she’s a practice-through-the-pain kind of yogi, she didn’t even stop to assess the injury before continuing her class. When she finally got to the doctor, she discovered she would have to stay off the ankle for at least a month. 

For Lauren, this triggered an identity crisis. Since her teens, her strong body has been the source of her well being, her self-esteem, and, in adulthood, her income. She can still teach, and her injury may even deepen her understanding of alignment. But because the “me” she has always felt herself to be is so tied to her physicality, the accident has left her disoriented. Of course, she tells me impatiently, she knows she’s not her body. But knowing that doesn’t cure her feelings of self-doubt and fear. 

George has a different issue. His wife told him she’s involved with another man and wants an open marriage. George feels shocked, abandoned, and insecure, which leads him to thoughts like “I’m not good at relationships” and “I’m not lovable.” Essentially, he feels the same disorientation that Lauren does. “I don’t know who I am when the person I love doesn’t want me,” he says.

Both these people have suffered a wound to their sense of self. A psychologist might say that the external blow cracked open some of the fissures in the fabric of their identity, bringing up feelings that probably stem from their childhoods. But from a yogic point of view, this feeling of groundlessness is actually an invitation to each of them to look seriously at the question “Who do I think I am?”