Unbecoming to Become

As a therapist and yoga teacher I naturally read a lot about yoga psychology. One of the main beliefs in yoga psychology is that we are at our core whole, healthy, and functional beings. The practice of yoga is to support us in witnessing all the things that keep us from this truth.

I recently saw the word unbecoming – that’s it, just a single word and it struck me like a cosmic flick to the forehead. Has that ever happened, you see the same word over and over and then, bam, one day it’s a game a changer?

I believe we are all magnificent, whole, and extraordinary individuals. It is through society and life experiences that we begin to add dimensions to our character. These dimensions are inferences that help us navigate life; sometimes they are helpful (temporarily) and sometimes they are not (ever).

Back to my cosmic flick in the forehead and redefining un-becoming…

Goals and desires are often framed as becoming something, becoming a better person, becoming wiser, becoming more emotionally stable, becoming more active, ultimately becoming more than we think we are.

I wonder what would happen if we re-framed our focus and rather than trying to become something we allowed ourselves to ‘un-become’ all the things that we really aren’t – un-intelligent, un-worthy, or un-fortunate. You get the point.

Think about that for a moment, this first requires realizing and then releasing all the limits the world and more importantly the limitations you’ve placed on yourself.

You are not other people’s perceptions of you; you are not other people’s expectations; you are not the worlds or your own misconceptions.

You are in your truest form -at your core- already who you desire to be.

Free yourself from the limits of becoming and open up the astonishing journey of unbecoming the untruths placed on you. Be who you really are, who you are without the layers of social construction, misjudgments, and false narratives. You are that person and always have been. You just need to remember.

Instead of a News Year’s Resolution which adds one more thing to be, to do, or to become. Make 2016 about dropping something that no longer serves you. Take some pressure off, allow space and you may find that this space allows for the unfolding of something innately wondrous.

Unbecome so that you may actually become.