Who Are You?

Happy Halloween, all Hallows Eve, and welcome to the end of October. Been a lot of soul searching going on the past few months. Clearing out the old, restructuring and making way for the new. Being open to change and asking that age old question: "Who am I?"

When you ask yourself, "Who am I," do you always get an answer you like? Do you always get an answer. I understand that the answer can change or there can be many. How do we sort out the labels from the truth? And can we ever really know who we are? It's kind of an interesting question to ask on a day like today when so many people are donning masks and running around pretending to be someone else. 

But how many of us have strapped on a metaphorical mask attached to some label we've given ourselves and thought that to be who we were until waking up one day and discovering that perhaps it's not who we really want to be? Or that we've outgrown that identity and want to be something else? Or maybe we've lost sight of who it is we wanted to be and got tangled up in the weeds of the struggle and became someone else entirely?

I remember when I was teaching yoga. I loved the practice. I loved the lifestyle. I loved being a teacher. When I seriously injured my neck and could no longer practice, never mind teach, I had a wee identity crisis. People would come to me with questions about yoga or their practice and I didn't know how to respond. Instead of coming from the heart, I used my head and simply redirected them to someone else, I was no longer a "Yogini". It took years for me to realize that one can practice yoga without ever stepping foot upon an asana mat. We practice through quieting our minds, or selfless service, or devotion, the paths are many, it's the label that gets things muddled up.

As I flipped the calendar from October to November, I wondered what I could choose for this month's virtue. I've really enjoyed working on having "good-timing" in October and in fact hope I can continue to be aware of those moments when my timing is exceptional. I'd like to stick with working on things that improve the quality of my life and the lives of those around me, rather than sticking to a more traditional virtue (like patience) for the sake of having something to work on. This is not static work, nor is it arbitrary. 

Asking: "Who am I?" and clearing space and making time for silence so that the answers can come is all part of this process. So when I flipped the calendar and saw this...

 
I had my answer. Sort of. This coming month, I'd like to work on fully embodying who I am, whoever that is. How can we parlay that into a virtue? What would that be called? I began to think of all the people that I loved and admired, one at a time, asking myself: "What do these people have in common?"

They are all truly who they are, they seem to know themselves even when they grow and change they somehow manage to stay the same. They're authentic. That was the answer. Authenticity. In any and all situations, be yourself. Weather meeting the Queen of England, giving a dollar to a homeless guy, walking in to pitch the head of a TV network, tickling a baby, petting a dog, or taking a class with Tracy Anderson... be yourself. 

But we can only do that by asking the question... "Who am I?" "Who are you?"

I look forward to knowing you and to taking this journey of self-discovery with you this month should you choose to join me!

Big hugs.
Shan