For the final week of our ‘Wisdom from the Virtues Cards’ session, the card that I pulled from the deck was Truthfulness. Here’s a little of what it said:
“Truth is the bedrock of integrity on which we build all our other virtues. It’s an ongoing commitment to live by what is real, authentic and true for us…Our words and actions are trustworthy…We investigate the truth with our own eyes…we are not here to live another’s dream or to be all things to all people. We live by our own true nature.”
This is a great virtue to work with on our yoga mat. We cultivate Satya, or truth, each time we assess ourselves honestly and work at our own pace without need for apology, feeling like we have to keep up, or comparing ourselves with others. I personally have found it very liberating to do this on my yoga mat. A similar yogic term, Sat Nam, means ‘I am truth’ or ‘truth is my essence.’ We use our yoga practice to peel away the layers–the things we are defined by, our obligations, the social ‘masks’ we wear, the emotional baggage we carry with us, etc–letting all these things go, until we can connect to the core, our true self, who we really are. Ultimately, the question we need to ask ourselves is, ‘Am I being truthful with myself and living my most authentic life, being the person I am really meant to be?”
