We’ve been back in the yoga studio for two weeks, and how wonderful to step on the mats and practice yoga with my gorgeous students. And one of the themes we will pursue in yoga class this year is that of authenticity and living an authentic life. I was inspired by a book on famous artists and their creativity and how their creativity and eventually their fame stemmed from their authentic, unique vision of how they wanted to paint Life. And despite the fact that many of them only gained fame and fortune after their deaths, their authentic message shone through in their art, and ordinary people, who craved the energy of these “real” pieces were willing to pay small fortunes for them. O’Keeffe and her landscapes, Picasso and his dismembered bodies, Seurat and the light play from his pointillism, just a few artists who were unashamedly authentic in their message.

It got me thinking of how much we, ordinary people, love to be in the presence of authentic others. We’ve all experienced it. In the presence of insecure, inauthentic people, the personal exchange is quite hollow. They are constantly checking their phones, they don’t listen, their eyes often slide past you looking for a more sparkly conquest and they ooze insecurity and a desperate need to fit in and conform to whatever the current societal standards are. And then you drop into the presence of an authentic person. Often not very glamorous, but always real, and always unapologetic in their realness. There is an energy and groundedness about them, a sort of calmness and truth that charges anyone in their presence. Carl Jung defined authenticity as “the unconscious influence of one being on another.” What Jung speaks to is the fact that the energy of being real has more power than outright persuasion, debate, or force of will. He suggests that being who we are always releases an extraordinary power that, without intent or design, affects the people who come in contact with such realness.
In yoga we talk of energy as prana and in Tantra yoga we compare that prana or life force to light. How much light does your body hold, how much light does your heart shine forth? Prana is the extraordinary power residing in a person or an object, a sort of spiritual truth or realness. When we strive to live our authentic lives we glow with this energy, this prana. Without any intent to shape others, we simply have to be authentic, and a sense of prana will emanate from our very souls. Our authenticity allows others to grow, not towards us, but towards the light that moves through us. In being authentic, in staying devoted to this energy of realness, we help each other grow toward the one vital light.
Margot Wagner
Yoga Under the Bodhi Tree
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