POSE OF THE SAGE VASISTHAThere’s an astrologer online a lot of people look
up to, and somebody told me recently, “My
friend once saw him standing in front of a soda
machine and kicking it.” You hear that, and your
heart is broken into pieces. People get really
thrown off if they see one of their idols behaving
like a human.
I know what it’s like to idolize people. In my
early years of yoga, the teachers who resonated
with me were gods in my mind. I wanted to dress
like them, think like them, be like them. Every-
thing about them was so perfect: They’d walk into
class and have the perfect thing to say. They did
the practice perfectly.
Eventually I got to know them and could see
little schisms or downfalls. I’d notice they had
some issues or see them gossiping. My heart
was shattered, but I did get over it. I have come
to see my teachers as human but still feel they
have something meaningful to teach me. A really
important spiritual step is to see a person you’ve
idealized fall from the throne and to still love
them, but with clarity, not illusions.
Now I’m a teacher and have a sense some-
times that people idealize my life. That especially
happens if you’re living the kind of yoga/travel/
retreat/beach life I’ve created for myself.
The whole idea of idealism becomes humorous
when someone idealizes you. I am a completely
normal, sassy, expressive woman. I am traveling
and doing yoga and posting photos of myself,
but as much as my life looks like an easy, every-
thing-falls-into-place situation from the outside,
I know my own backstory, my day-to-day human-
ness, and how much I’m working and striving. I’m
experiencing myself from the inside, which is full
of all sorts of self-judgments, insecurities, and
comparisons—flaws anybody could have.
No matter who you are, even if you’re the
most beautiful, richest person in the world,
you’re still going to experience those feelings
because you’re human. The point of yoga is to
develop compassion for yourself. That will help
you develop compassion for others. Yoga builds
self-esteem in a humble way, reminding us of our
sameness, not our differences.