Day 9: Self Inquiry

Hi. Welcome to Day 9 of the Yoga Anytime Self-Care Challenge. I’m so glad you’ve stuck with it! How are you feeling? Today we dive even deeper into svadhyaya, self-inquiry, which is what this whole immersion is about: getting to know the self, learning to love the self in order to ultimately get over ourselves and into the big work of our lives.

Get Free

As you’ve probably observed throughout this immersion and in your own practice, this work of deep self-study, the work of being truly honest about our attachments, our fears, our patterns can feel like the furthest location from bliss. And yet the result is bliss. Freeing ourselves from the patterns, from the lies, from the inefficient expenditures of our precious life force leads to the bliss without opposite, ananda. The bliss and the liberation from ourselves (kaivalya) where we can live free. But the only way there is through. And through involves the path of self-inquiry. In his book The Wisdom of the Yoga Sutras, Ravi Ravindra writes about the two facets of truthfulness: understanding truth and withstanding truth. The only way we can withstand truth is through the study of the self. Every practice we’ve undertaken here together is the practice of svadhyaya/ self-study. This work invites (and even requires) us to die a little every day to the old stories we have clung to about who we are in favor of the ever-evolving truth of our eternal nature. And so, here we circle back to the importance of those core practices we identified in our pre-immersion work: being honest with ourselves about ourselves, shattering illusions along the way, all of this takes dedication to your daily practices. They will anchor you as you shed more and more layers, revealing your essence. The old stories: what to do with them? The stories our ego tells us about who and what we are may deeply resent the svadhyaya. The ego may resist and fight. It can start a shame-spiral from this portal to liberation. Remember: you are not alone. The stories may have served some purpose up until now, but now that purpose has waned. Feel your feelings. Bless them. Release them. What comes up for you as you look deeply at your patterns and attachments? We hope you’ll share your journey through this Self-Care Challenge by commenting here or posting about it on social media. Tag us on Facebook and Instagram and use the hashtag #SelfCareChallenge. Join us for the 10 Day Self-Care Challenge with Kelly Sunrose.