SATYA
As we build in this series on the Yamas, we now begin to explore the second Yama of Satya (truthfulness). Just like Ahimsa, Satya calls you to look beyond the obvious of truth and lie to see the intention within your heart as you walk through life.
Good Doesn’t Mean Safe or Easy
Think about someone you know that commits their life to actions of good. Do you have someone that comes to mind? Maybe your friend who volunteers at the animal shelter or a coworker who always remembers and celebrates birthdays. Now these are undoubtedly good things, but they’re not always safe or easy.
The friend at the animal shelter has to find time in this busy life to spend volunteering, possibly waking up at hours they’d prefer to be sleeping and then they put themselves in potentially harmful situations with animals who may not yet know how to love on others. And the coworker who remembers to celebrate others most likely has to alter their work schedule to accommodate the celebration and maybe they even run the risk of displeasing or making things awkward.
Just like these examples, while truth is clearly good in nature, that doesn’t mean that it’s safe or easy. In fact, it’s typically always a bit of a risk to be completely honest because there is a constant fear of rejection in our society. Here are a few questions to ask yourself to see if you are living in truth or living in safety and ease:
Do you notice that your behavior varies depending on who you’re surrounded by?
Have you ever gone through with a plan when you needed a night to yourself?
Where do you find yourself holding back your voice in order to keep the peace?
Real vs. Nice
The Yama of Satya calls you to acknowledge when you’re being real versus when you’re simply being nice. Now right now you may be wondering; ‘isn’t being nice a good thing?’ For the purpose of this blog, let’s clear up the language here that you may get stuck on. Think about how being nice to someone is in effort to please them, while kindness is the action of being a force for good in their life. Such as how a swim on a hot day is pleasing and nice, but a friend noticing that you’re overheated and giving you some water is an act of kindness that targets the main issue.
Where in your life are you simply being nice rather than being truthful? Can you see how these two things are not possible to coincide with one another? The act of being nice is just that - an act. Nice is a facade that is worn in fear of what people would really think about you if you were completely real. Note here how you can be kind to others while living in truth and that this ‘nice’ is simply a character worn more for your sake than those around you.
In Satya, we are pulled from the world of masks and tasked to be completely ourselves rather than who we think we’re ‘supposed’ to be. Have you ever noticed that the moments that stick out in your relationships are not where someone held the door for you out of obligation, but the ones where someone looked at you and shared their real self? Maybe your parent told you that they don’t like to eat broccoli either, but they do it because they know it’s good for them. Now how is that for being real and creating a bond that goes deeper than the surface to create a sense of connection? Now you can feel like you truly understand your parent and their motives, and hey, maybe this broccoli thing isn’t so bad afterall.
What If…?
So what if in order to be completely truthful, you would have to tell someone something that would hurt them? Let’s go for an extreme example here and say that your grandma is really struggling with her health after years of eating terrible and never moving her body. Is it truth to say that her health problems could have been prevented with some lifestyle changes? Is it truth that she may have caused some of the issues that now make her life difficult? Maybe. But is it Ahimsa, nonviolence, to speak these things over her?
In all that you do with practicing the Yamas, you must check yourself on the Yama that comes before and after it. Notice where your truth, your version of the story, might just be judgement to someone else and cause more harm than good.
Of course, like we said at the beginning, this is not an easy process. That’s why these ethical practices are called just that - they are practices to try on every single day. Satya is about your integrity as well as your ability to walk through life as the real version of yourself, but never forgetting to operate in kindness.
It sounds complicated, right? It absolutely is! This is complex in nature because the way our lives are intertwined with all other living things is also complicated. You are on a journey and you will take a wrong turn or say the wrong thing, and that’s when you don’t give up. Instead you can return to the start and try again. As a tribe, we can all support and lift one another up throughout life. So don’t be intimidated by this, keep your mind open and curious and always lean on a another when you need it.
Intend to Shine,
The NuPower Tribe