The Principles of 2023
A yearly review of how yoga philosophy showed up in my life
A few years ago I started looking at how yoga philosophy can be taught through principles—universal concepts that can be applied to many different situations and contexts—to help guide life choices. Yoga philosophy is hard to understand because translations into English are often incomplete and lack cultural context and because the ideas from ancient cultures don’t always fit neatly into 2023 America. Universal concepts ring true throughout the ages and can adapt to fit new cultures and contexts while still holding on to some of the original intent.
Though I no longer focus every newsletter on yoga philosophy, it’s still a large part of my life and I thought it would be nice to review 2023 through the lens of how I utilized the principles of yoga to guide me through this past year. I hope this will inspire you to look at your year from this perspective too.
Surrender
Yoga Sutra 2.45: When you dedicate your life to Surrender and devotion to God, you will master samadhi.
God is a tricky and triggering concept for some (including me) so insert your own preference for that part of this sutra. I prefer looking at Sutra 2.45 as a reminder to let go and place faith in the mysterious ways of the universe. When you let go of trying to control the outcome of your life and instead trust that the Universe has your back, then you will open up to the infinite potential the universe has to offer. If instead you fight back against nature, you’ll forever be disappointed.
2023 started off with a huge disappointment for me. After working for months on a business plan to open a yoga studio, my business partner did me a huge favor and backed out at the eleventh hour. At the time I was so angry but upon reflection it was the right move. I never really wanted to open a yoga studio, I just needed a project to work on. I put my energy into the wrong project and it felt painful to admit the mistake. Letting the yoga studio project go felt like a complete waste of six months but it was important that I went through that experience to help me remember what I really want and care about in life.
Opening a yoga studio was about my ego but it wasn’t my dharma or my passion. I’ve said from the very beginning of my yoga teaching career that I never wanted to open a yoga studio. I have seen enough of the business back-end to understand how much work it takes and how little money it makes and I swept all of that under the rug to placate my ego, which was hurt and bruised and screaming for work after spending the last four years tending to the responsibilities of motherhood.
Without my business partner dropping out, I don’t know that I would have let the studio go on my own. I’m a bit bullheaded like that. I spent a lot of 2023 learning how to surrender to the universe and questioning my dharma and role in the world. I came really, really close to setting aside yoga teaching altogether. After therapy and a ton of reflection what remained was what has always been true for me. Writing. Before yoga ever entered the picture, I’ve always wanted to be a writer. Writing has influenced almost every decision in my life, from my college major to what type of job I wanted to have. Though it’s been hard to disentangle myself from it because my entire career has been centered on yoga, I’m just starting to see this career choice as a necessary diversion of sorts away from my true purpose and passion, which has always been writing. This is why I’m here on this Substack and why I’m so excited to continue building upon the community I’ve already created through my explorations in yoga.
Moving forward, I hope to integrate yoga with my passion for writing and build something even better and more true to what I’m on this Earth to do. This is my surrender to the universe. I’m finally saying fine, listening to my heart, and letting the universe guide me even though I don’t know what the path is or what it will look like next year.
Practice
Yoga Sutra 1.12: You can achieve the state of mind called yoga through practice and detachment
Yoga Sutra 1.13: Practice means applying continuous effort toward steadying the mind
In January 2023 I set a goal to climb a 14er. I started walking and followed a training plan. This was a personal project for me that connected me to my body through physical exercise, connected me to nature, and connected me to my family as my dad, sister, and I planned to do this hike together. It was a way to get me back to Colorado, one of my favorite places. I was excited about it, but it required commitment.
I’ve written a little bit lately about how I’ve become so disenchanted with asana practice. I wrote about Searching for Sadhana and redefining spiritual practice to keep me connected to yoga. But I also needed to stay connected to my body. Walking and hiking have always been really enjoyable ways for me to do that.
We climbed Quandary Peak in July. It was a really fun hike and a great family trip. It was also really hard. I hadn’t set a goal in a really long time and the whole process and commitment to practice was a good exercise for me. Routine has always been helpful in my life and having a goal to work toward helps motivate me to do the things I know I need to do or want to do.
In You Sutra 1.12, Patanjali says that to achieve the yogic state of mind you must practice and let go of your attachments (surrender). I needed to bring practice back into my life while also letting go of the fruits of that practice. At the beginning of the 14er my sister, dad, myself, and my husband agreed that if it ever got to the point where we couldn’t go on, it would be okay. The goal wasn’t to get to the top, it was to enjoy the views and the company. To be together and be present. At about 13,000 feet my dad and sister decided to turn back. My husband and I went on to the top. The whole experience was a great reminder to me about the benefits of practice and the importance of letting go.
Sangha
Community was a really important piece of my life in 2023. I spent some time this week going back through my calendar and looking at all the trips, appointments, and activities we planned. I also went through my photos on my phone and looked at what I felt mattered most to capture on camera. What I found was a focus on family. Big moments and small. I also spent a lot of time reconnecting with old friends, making new ones in my neighborhood and local community, and getting involved in my son’s school.
Community is such a huge part of yoga even though it’s an individual practice. Being in a supportive community and with loved ones is healing and was challenging for so many during the pandemic. As a moderately introverted person, I will almost always choose to be by myself reading a book over going “out.” But I also know that I need to be around my people to help heal my soul through true connection and companionship. In the book Mind Over Medicine, author Lissa Rankin describes her experience treating patients as an OB/GYN in both wealthy and impoverished neighborhoods and found that access to a strong community had a huge outcome on healing. Creating time in your life for the things that matter most is self-care (and costs nothing).
Community is a central theme in much of yoga mythology because connection is the ultimate goal—connection to the One universal consciousness. Through connection comes unity. I’m a strong believer that connecting with others, especially those who have different experiences than your own, help us learn that we are more alike than different. Community is a strong theme in the Bhagavad Gita, even though honoring Truth and Dharma and doing the right thing sometimes means fighting against friends, family, and teachers. Certainly towards the end of this year, I felt the need to speak up and out about the war in Gaza even though many in the yoga community and in my own chosen circle of friends, family, and colleagues chose to be silent instead.
I don’t have a “studio community,” much of an active “student community,” or even a strong relationship with any one teacher right now, but I’m okay with that. I’ve got my family, my kids, my closest friends. I’ve started to wander outside the yoga community proper, which is a bit of a bubble, and instead explore the wider world. I was pleasantly surprised to be reminded that I spent so much time with my kids, family, and friends this year. Family is one of my core values and I was happy to see that I lived in alignment with my values on that front. Sometimes I can get down on myself because I live far away from family, all of my best friends are scattered across the country, and I’ve never really been able to create strong relationships with people since graduating high school. But I’ve tried to put myself out there and that intention is bearing fruit in small ways. Community is important to me and I will continue to build it here online and in person.
Mother nature and energy
Towards the latter half of the year I really started to reconnect with Mother Nature and feminine energy. The 14er climb and my preparation for it set the tone for getting me outside and reminding me of the powerful effect being in nature has on my mind and personal energy. Beyond that, my experience with an ovarian cyst rupture put me on a path toward exploring women’s health issues from a more holistic place. This felt intuitively right because my own relationship to Motherhood has felt so fraught. I’ve never been into Goddess energy or woo-woo feminism but I now feel the call to explore this more deeply because I think my repression of it has caused suffering.
I’m excited to explore the lunar cycle and invite in feminine energies into my life that I’ve mostly eschewed since I was a little girl. I think sometimes, in trying to take down the patriarchy, I lose sight of the strength and power inherent in the feminine. By trying to succeed in a male-dominated society I’ve disqualified my natural powers and set aside my strengths in order to “fit in” the way “society” wants me to. Though a lot of this is new terrain for me and still very uncomfortable I’m excited to learn more about it, integrate it, and explore these themes in my writing and teaching.
Mother Nature has always been so important to me, so much so that when choosing where to live, access to nature is one of my top priorities. I need the grounding energy of the trees, the expanse of the sky, the calmness of the waters, and the warmth of the sun in my life. I grew up on a lake, moved to the mountains, and ended up near a river with a little oasis of trees in my backyard. This year we got to witness baby cardinals hatch in the tree right outside our kitchen window. I saw mountain goats at the top of Quandary Peak. I started tracking the moon cycle and my own observations of the nature around me with a phenology wheel. I’m excited to see what Mother Nature has in store for me this year (🤞🏻 for lots of snow ❄️).
Play
Finally play has shown up in my life this year in small ways and is an important reminder for me to invite in my life. My kids ask me to play with them every day. I’m one of those moms that doesn’t love playing with my kids. It sounds so horrible to say but having to play trains, fire truck, restaurant, or any of the made-up games of 4- and 2-year-old imaginations is really hard for me to get into. I feel so guilty for not wanting to do these things and I’m trying to say yes more than I say no. I’m trying to stay present with my kids as much as possible. But I’m also trying to honor my own needs and add play into my life in ways that fulfill me.
wWe started the year at the Enchant light display in DC, I went to a comedy show, saw Moulin Rouge at the Kennedy Center, and went to Hershey Park and rode Thomas the Tank Engine with family and friends. I jumped at a Trampoline Park. I tried to brew Kombucha. I played some golf. Dressed up for a Harry Potter party (I’d be in Ravenclaw). Went strawberry picking. Went to my first Pakistani wedding. Rode in a horse-drawn carriage. Played in the snow.
Trying new things and having little adventures all bring joy, presence, and connection into my life and I need to make time for more play. Taking life so seriously does nothing to help me enjoy the day-to-day more. Being playful and light helps me connect to my True Self and feel more connected to the world around me.
In Sanskrit, the word for play is lila. According to Jacob Kyle, founder of Embodied Philosophy, lila can be described from both a dualistic and a non-dualistic point of view. In the dualistic camp, play is a way to interact with the divine. In an article on Lila, Kyle explains: “In the Kṛṣṇa-bhakti tradition, there is no higher realization than to be in perpetual relationship with the divine…” This relationship is meant to be playful rather than serious. In non-dual traditions, play is a natural part of existence. Kyle says: “…the ephemeral nature of existence is to be understood as the spontaneous play of reality itself.”
Whether you want to invite play into your relationships or experience play as your daily reality, more play brings more joy. It’s easy to get swept away by the seriousness of the world’s problems and the mundane necessities of daily life. Play reminds us that true joy comes from spontaneity, silliness, and imagination.
How to use the principles in your New Year reflections
Above all, when reflecting on this year, I’ve found the overarching principle of contentment to be a good catch-all for 2023. I’m content with what transpired. There were ups and down, pain and joy, and I’m content with it all. It was a good year. It was a bad year. It was an okay year. It was a year. I’m content with where I’m at and with whatever may come my way in 2024.
There are several ways you can use yoga philosophy and the principles to help you in this New Year season. You can think of yoga principles like “words of the year” and choose one principle to focus on. If you set New Year’s Resolutions, use principles to help guide your goal-setting. And if you’re not one to look ahead, you can do some reflection and find the over-arching themes that guided your 2023 through the lens of yogic principles. However you choose to interact with yoga philosophy and its principles know that it can be a nice form of practice that keeps you on the yogic path sans asana.
Here’s to joy, love, connection, play, and whatever other principles you want to focus on in 2024!
I’d love for you to share with me the principles that have showed up for you this past year or the ones you want to focus on in 2024. Please comment below to let me know.
Happy New Year 🙂