From the very beginning of my yoga journey as a teenager, I would hear my teachers say, “The purpose of yoga is self-realization.”
It was a phrase repeated often, almost like a mantra, yet its true meaning remained elusive to me. I understood it intellectually, but it took me years of practice, self-inquiry, and personal experiences to truly grasp what self-realization meant—not just as a concept, but as a lived truth.
For the longest time, I thought yoga was about mastering the body, controlling the mind, and striving for peace. I believed that if I was truly practicing yoga, I should be above frustration, immune to sadness, and never, ever angry.
So, I tried. I told myself that happiness was good, sadness was bad, and anger was not a good thing in my life. And for a while, I convinced myself it was working—until one day, in the middle of class, I found myself exhausted, frustrated, and on the verge of tears and angry at the same time.
Instead of fighting it, I let myself feel it all.
And in that moment, I understood yoga—not as a practice of perfection, but as a practice of presence.
What Does It Mean to Be Real?
Yoga is often defined as self-realization, but what does that actually mean? For me, it’s the process of becoming real. Not enlightened, not free from struggle—just fully, authentically, and unapologetically real.
Being real means embracing all the shades of who we are—the joy, the sadness, the anger, the love, the light, the darkness. It means allowing ourselves to feel—without labeling emotions as good or bad, without suppressing what makes us uncomfortable, without pretending to be someone we’re not.
Since childhood, we’ve been conditioned to label emotions:
Happiness is good.
Sadness is bad.
Anger is wrong.
But emotions aren’t moral; they’re messengers. Every feeling we experience has a purpose.
Too often, we try to push away the ones that make us uncomfortable. But what if self-realization isn’t about eliminating emotions, but about accepting all of them?
Yoga isn’t about removing anger, sadness, or frustration. It’s about being present with whatever arises.
The Sky and the Storm
Imagine yourself as the sky. Your emotions? They’re just the weather.
Some days, the sky is clear, warm, and bright. Other days, storm clouds roll in, the winds pick up, and the rain pours. But no matter what happens, the sky remains. It doesn’t fight the storm. It doesn’t cling to the sunshine. It simply holds space for it all.
That’s what yoga teaches us—to be the sky, not the storm. To allow everything to pass through us without resistance. To experience each moment fully—without judgment, without labels, without needing to fix or change anything.
Completion is Acceptance
In yoga, we often talk about completion—the full arc of a practice, from the first breath to the final Savasana. But real completion isn’t just about finishing something; it’s about fully accepting it.
To be real is to accept ourselves completely—the highs and the lows, the stillness and the movement, the clarity and the confusion. Not to change, not to fix—just to be.
Yoga is not about becoming someone new. It’s about remembering who you’ve been all along.
So, ask yourself:"What if I stopped fighting my emotions and started embracing them?"
Because nothing about you needs to be erased. Nothing needs to be rejected.
You are already whole. Yoga is simply the journey of remembering that.
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