Book: “How yoga works: An introduction to somatic yoga” by Eleanor Criswell-Hanna (1989)
Dr. Criswell-Hanna, a somatic psychologist, discussed the “yamas” – things to avoid in yoga practice. One of the yamas is to avoid untruthfulness.
As a psychologist, Dr. Criswell-Hanna pointed out the physiological effect of non-truthfulness: when most of we lie, there is body arousal or excitation (sympathetic nervous system activation). When we tell a tie, we have to maintain vigilant to pay attention to new stimulation (that could contradict our lies) and to come up more lies!
The untruthfulness leads to more untruthfulness. If we are not trustworthy, we will not be able to trust other people. Not being able to trust leads to not being able to surrender. Our bodies stay in constant tension. The lack of parasympathetic nervous system dominance will then link to many more physical issues (e.g., chronic inflammation, sleeping difficulties).
I chose to write down this yama, because it’s relevant to my recent post, “gaslight vs. reality distortion field,” and “the hurricane is not a poppet-master“. When someone starts to live in lies, the constant sympathetic nervous system arousal will make the body/mind lose ground.
Note: This website does not intend to provide any specific individually-tailored psychological advice/services to replace any medical and/or psychological treatment. If the readers are in need of medical or psychological attention, please seek appropriate services in your area.
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