Satya. Putting Satya, or truthfulness, into practice is an exercise in humility. But humility has two sides: most of us have been told at one time or another “don’t get too big for your britches,” and we know exactly what that means. Humility is about letting go of the good results as well as bad. But there is another aspect to humility and that is about not playing small.

In yoga, just as we may strive on the mat for more than our bodies are ready for, we may also take the opposite tack, and play small. We back off and stay in the comfort zone, all our excuses at the ready: I have bad balance, bad knees, its too hot, I am too old, and on and on. We sell ourselves short.

Humility is the awareness that we cannot afford to play small. It is the aspect of satya that brings us into balance. Our postures become the embodiment of this exquisite balance between holding on and letting go, action and nonaction, ambition and restraint. What is required to achieve that balance is a commitment to humility, a commitment to the truth. – from Meditations from the Mat by Rolf Gates