Pearls of Wisdom

August 1, 2025

Greetings yogis,

Here we are, rolling into August, feeling autumn's imminent approach, and Aum rings through it all like a massive gong, humming and thrumming. I notice my attachment to time itself—fingernails dug in and clinging to bygone summer days, scrambling to pump the brakes in an attempt to slow down 2025. Tiny moments call out to me, scream out to me, and beg not to be missed.

I stop in my tracks, pause, breathe, and take a wide-eyed look around. In between the travel, teaching, and hustle and bustle of life, I crouch down low and examine a mussel with my nephew in one of the tide pools below our place. He asks if there's a pearl in there. I keep it simple and tell him there's not—but in truth there is, metaphorically.

There's a pearl in every moment. Pearls are born from an irritant, like a piece of sand, entering an oyster or mollusk. The oyster senses the irritation and then creates a smooth surface around it so it no longer bothers the inner workings of the oyster. We ourselves constantly have the opportunity to look at what agitates us and then decide how to respond. Do we try to push it away? Stay agitated? Or see what teachings it carries and how we can evolve our own internal landscape so we don't become so... ruffled?

A popular saying from the Hoffman Process is, "Never waste a good trigger." When something is edgy and irritating, it's got something to say—and it's worth listening to. And yoga gives us the space to pause and receive that information before reacting. When we can take in the stimulus without the story, then we can smooth out the edges, soften the irritated response, and transform our inner workings in the process.

Life seems to be throwing a lot of irritants around these days, and pearls of wisdom can be gleaned everywhere when we aren't constantly at the whim of our knee jerk reactivity. Discernment and discipline are key for cutting through the noise. From there, we get to ask if we want to be run by our agitation or transformed by it as we build the capacity to be with all the curveballs life throws at us. I'll take the latter.

Wishing you all peace, and the tools to create that experience when the inevitable challenges arise.

Nat K

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti