Strengthening the Self

When I speak during a yoga class, my intention is not simply to guide movement.

My intention is to strengthen the Self.

Not the self that depends on achievement...Not the self that depends on appearance...Not the self that depends on recognition...

But the deeper Self.

The part of you that often feels like nothing at all.

Silent.

Present.

Aware.

Most confidence in our society is built upon temporary things.

Beauty.

Youth.

Physical strength.

Money.

Status.

Relationships.

Material security.

From a very young age, we are taught to believe that our value comes from what we have, what we achieve, or how others perceive us.

We slowly begin to build ourselves from the outside in.

But there is a paradox.

The more your sense of self depends on things... the less powerful you become.

Because everything you depend on can change.

Beauty fades.

Strength weakens.

Money comes and goes.

Success rises and falls.

People's opinions change.

If your confidence rests upon what is temporary...

...then your confidence will always be temporary.

This is why so many saints and great spiritual teachers owned so little.

Not because poverty itself gives wisdom...

But because their greatest investment was never in what they possessed.

It was in who they were.

Their security did not come from possessions.

Their peace did not come from status.

Their strength did not come from the approval of others.

It came from something that could not be taken away.

I am not asking you to reject the material world.

We all live in it.

We enjoy it.

We care for it.

There is nothing wrong with that.

But while you still have these things...

Shift your attention.

Because where your attention goes...

...your life follows.

Instead of constantly strengthening what you own...

Strengthen the one who owns it.

Instead of investing only in your body...

Invest in the awareness that inhabits your body.

Instead of protecting only your image...

Strengthen the one who exists even without the image.

Instead of building only your external life...

Begin building the one place that no circumstance can destroy.

Your inner world.

Your presence.

Your Self.

Most of what we call identity...

...is borrowed.

We borrow our definition of beauty from fashion.

We borrow our definition of success from society.

We borrow our beliefs from our families.

We borrow our fears from our experiences.

We borrow our worth from the opinions of others.

Little by little...

we become strangers to ourselves.

But beneath every role...

Beneath every label...

Beneath every success...

Beneath every failure...

There is still you.

The one who was present before every title.

The one who remains after every loss.

The one who quietly witnesses every thought, every emotion, every experience.

That is the Self I hope you begin to recognize.

This is why i chose authenticity...

Not because I believe I have all the answers.

But because authenticity gives others permission to become authentic too.

I cannot help you find your own voice...

...by asking you to become more like me.

My role is not to give you another identity.

It is to help you remove the ones that never truly belonged to you.

So that your own voice...

...can finally be heard.

If these classes leave you stronger...

I hope it is not only because your muscles became stronger.

I hope it is because...

the one living inside your body...

remembered its own strength.

Because that strength...

was never something you had to create.

Only something you had to remember.

The goal is not to become someone else.

It is to become less dependent on everything you are not.

And in doing so...

to discover that everything you have been searching for...

has been quietly waiting...

within you.