The most important thing the yogis teach is knowing who you are. Yogi Ramacharaka put it as plainly as anyone has when he wrote:
“You are a soul, and have a body. Not that you are a body having a soul, as most people think and act upon.”
You have a mind, too. The yogis taught that your thoughts and moods are tools the real you uses, the same way it uses your hands. Your mind does the thinking, and you can step back and watch it work.
Today, remember who you are.
You don’t control the gray hair or the back that aches when you get out of bed. You don’t control the thought that wakes you at 3 a.m. to tell you you’re falling behind. You don’t control the bad mood that shows up after a rough night of sleep.
All of that happens to your body and your mind. The one watching it all stays out of reach.
What you control is where you stand. When the thought says “I’m a failure,” you can notice that a thought showed up, the way you’d notice a car going by outside. You can catch yourself saying “I’m angry” and say “anger is here” instead.
This can sound like a word game. Try the alternative. If you are your body, every wrinkle is a little death. If you are your thoughts, the worst one you have gets to tell you who you are. You end up defending a mood as if your life depended on it, and you act from it, because you think the mood is you.
Yogi Ramacharaka promised that once you feel the difference, “Fear will drop from you like a discarded cloak.” He meant fear of getting sick and getting old, of money running out, of failing at work, of losing someone you love, and of dying. Each one belongs to your body or your mind, and none of them can reach the one watching.
If your body hurts or your mind starts talking, step back and watch. Let them do their jobs. You are a soul, and you have a body and a mind. Act like the owner.
