Pattern Disruption

When patterns are broken, new worlds emerge. - Tuli Kupferberg

October 1, 2025

Greetings yogis,

Gazing out the picture window, I watch waves repeatedly bash the coastline of our little cove—sets of four that are growing in size as the swell picks up. The patterns happen over and over: four waves and then a pause. Each set carries a repetitive energy, unleashing pure power onto the rocky beach in explosions of foamy whitewater.

The variegated Dracaena plant next to me spirals out its striped, narrow leaves in a helix-like fashion, spindling its way upward to the light. The lowest leaves brown and wither while the youngest lime-colored leaves lead the charge, following a divinely orchestrated pattern that spirals out and up infinitely in perfection. I notice it all.

We humans also consist of patterns. They form the very fabric and tapestry of our identities—individually and collectively. They have been systematically, often without question, woven into everything we do and how we perceive our surroundings. We are culturally conditioned into the thought forms that create our reality. Some of them may have once served, but many no longer do.

Most patterns carry heavy loads of "should" with them. We've let them conform us into all our choices, consciously and unconsciously. I should get married by a certain age, I should eat breakfast at 8 a.m., I should work a job and save for retirement, I should work out, I should have this political belief… We are so patterned by our culture and community that we no longer remember our divine nature, our svarūpa. Our true essence is clouded by the layers of patterns we operate from.

And the longer we are driven by our patterns without questioning and disrupting them, the more strength and grip they amass. Yogis of old called these looping patterns samskaras—thought formations that reinforce themselves over time if not rooted out with dedicated practice: asana, pranayama, and meditation.

Yoga is the ultimate pattern disruptor that says, "Strip it all away and wake up to the miracle of THIS moment, without any of the habitual ways you've been seeing it."

Of course, there are many ways to disrupt patterns. Travel is a potent option. Being in Italy and Croatia for nearly four weeks let me step off my own hamster wheel of limiting belief structures and reimagine. New conversations were had, new foods were tasted, dazzling new waters were swum in, new languages, words, and communication styles were learned. A total reset.

But yoga is a consistent, reliable, and accessible approach that gives us the space and tools to reconsider our stagnant narratives. The poses stretch the body in new dimensions, pranayama anchors us in the present moment of our aliveness, and meditation gives us the mirror to reflect back our thoughts and then question their validity. However you do it, I hope you do. Question your loops, disrupt your patterns, get free.

As we move into fall, wishing you a joyful upheaval of what no longer serves.

Nat K

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti