Principles of Yoga - Living Well with Truthfulness (Satya)

Let's All Tell The Truth!

The second in our series on learning about the principles of yoga, or the Yamas and Niyamas, today we  will talk about Satya, or truthfulness. Satya is the second of the Yamas, mentioned in many ancient Sanskrit texts, many dating before the Medieval period. The Yamas are known as the "restraints", or things you should or shouldn't do to be able to avoid internal and external disharmony. 

Many cultures, religions, belief systems, even more general morals and ethics have guidelines on truthfulness, and often encourage us to tell the truth. But there is more to this than meets the eye, when we look a little deeper. Satya is often translated to truthfulness in thought, word and deed.

Truthfulness sounds simple - you just don't lie. In reality, it's not always the easiest to implement. If someone puts on a new outfit they love, and asks you if they look good, what do you say? The "nice" thing would be to say, "Yes, of course you look good." But what if they don't? What if you really don't like their outfit, or you think it is not flattering? Do you tell them that? Or do you lie, because obviously they really like the outfit and you don't want to hurt their feelings? 

Does This Lighting Make My But Look Big?

Satya tells us to be truthful, and Ahimsa (our first post on the Yamas and Niyamas), tells us to be compassionate. So we should tell them in a compassionate way that perhaps it is not to our taste, but that we are happy they are so happy with their new outfit. Perhaps, we may even find something we DO like about it - how the colour helps their skin glow, or how their smile wearing it makes them seem a hundred feet tall. We can be truthful about our opinions, while also being compassionate of their feelings.

Or perhaps we can go deeper: do you lie to yourself? We all know that yes, we do. In some capacity we have all lied to ourselves. We have told ourselves that we didn't really want that job anyway, after being rejected. Perhaps we've told ourselves that a particular relationship is great when we know it's not. Maybe we've even said that the extra slice (or two!) of cake every day isn't going to hurt (it does, we know it does). Probably the most harmful is when we let ourselves off the hook for doing something we know we should to help ourselves in our lives, saying it will get done "tomorrow"; let's be honest, tomorrow never comes, and it is better to do today than put off to tomorrow. Yet, we tell ourselves this, and so much more, perhaps even on a daily basis.

Twisting Around, Praying the Lies Don't Bite Me

The effect? Lying to ourselves limits our productivity, our potential, and reduces our self-esteem and confidence. It minimizes ourselves and our lives immeasurably. Our subconscious is always the witness to our thoughts and actions and when we lie it knows. We are constantly hurting ourselves by being untruthful, constantly holding ourselves back from our greatest and most fulfilled life.

How do we stop?

We need to get still, even in the midst of situations, and listen to that still, small voice that tells us whether we are being truthful or not. And we need to follow it.

Yes, we must be compassionate. But we must also be truthful. This is how we can build trust with others, but more importantly, within our own selves. Truthfulness in our thoughts, words and deeds helps us build consistency, and integrity.

Satya - to thine own self be true!

In honesty,

HealthGirl