I must admit, I’m a perfectionist. After a lifetime of studying myself, I only pinpointed that fact just a few years ago. To paint a full picture, I’m a perfectionist who uses her perfectionism–is that a word?–to procrastinate. Not the best for getting things done.
Maybe I should say I’m a recovering perfectionist, but that’s a whole other story.
In any case, I meant to post this on the first of the month, but you can see now, 10 days later, I did not. I had too much to say and I couldn’t figure out the perfect thing or things to focus on. I still feel that way, but I’m going to go with it and see what happens–see, recovering perfectionist; I’m trying!
So onward to what I want to talk about, or rather, what I want to ask you:
Who are you?
When I ask you that question, if you’re like me, different things start popping into your head. Mine sometimes sound something like, “I’m a yoga teacher, I’m a lomilomi practitioner. I’m a blue haired elf. I’m a recovering perfectionist.” Stuff like that.
But what if those things go away. What if I stop teaching yoga and doing lomilomi and making my hair blue? If actually stop being a perfectionist? Would I still be me? We’ll come back to this in a few.
A big part of the practice of yoga is studying ourselves. When we come to the mat, we are examining ourselves physically, seeing what feels tight, what we need to work on. We might also, on our mats, be studying ourselves emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.
One of my favorite yoga concepts–and my most favorite Sanskrit word–is Svadhyaya.
Svadhyaya is often classically translated as “the study of self and scripture.” Does that mean you need to sit for hours and study the Bible or the Bhagavad Gita? Not necessarily, though you can of course.
Svadhyaya–at least in my lineage of yogic understanding–studying yourself and studying everything around you with the idea of learning more about yourself to work towards growth and enlightenment.
That can mean studying a scripture, like the Bible, but it can also mean reading a fiction book and thinking about how the lessons the main character learned might apply to your life. It can mean showing up on your mat and learning where your body is tight. It could mean watching a movie and taking to heart what one of the characters said. It could mean starting to notice when you need to say, “no,” to that next weeknight invitation out and take some time at home for yourself. I think you get the idea.
There are many levels to this. The things we learn about ourselves in the physical plane like when we are doing yoga on our mat or that we are happier when everything in our house is put away. Then, of course, there are emotional and mental levels, maybe learning we can choose how we react when a strong emotion hits or finding the meditation that works for us to help us steady our mind.
And then there are the deeper levels of studying ourselves, getting in touch with our higher self and our connection to Source, or God, or Goddess, or however, you wish to think about the world in that way.
We are multidimensional beings and studying ourselves is multidimensional from what your favorite nail polish color is to who is the you who is aware that you are reading this right now?
To me, Svadhyaya is going on throughout every other aspect of our yoga practice, and remember, our yoga practice is so much more than just getting on our mats. Really, if we are of a yogic mindset, we can practice Svadhyaya every moment of every day–though take a break from analyzing yourself if you’re driving yourself crazy.
When we are really working with this practice of studying ourselves, meditation is one of the best ways to really go deep into who we are.
If you want a little taste of the practice of mediation, I have an online meditation course up right now. It’s really accessible, even if you’ve never meditated before.
If you want to talk more about this idea of Svadhyaya or have any questions, please reach out. I’m always happy to discuss. You can find me on all social media @yogawithgin or send me an email: gin@yogawithgin.com
Here’s to me not being a perfectionist and procrastinating the next post!
Aloha & Namaste!
-Gin
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