Is Yoga about letting go of who we where?

I'm NOT that guy anymore 🧐

Hang on..... which guy? This guy ↓

I sometimes feel like I’m still carrying an old version of myself around, and I notice it most when I practise yoga, because I can find myself comparing what I can do now with what I used to be able to do 8 years ago.

The funny thing is, mentally and spiritually, I’ve made peace with the fact that I’m not that guy anymore. I’ve grown up, I’ve loved and lost, and I’ve become Zaccy’s dad, and there are things about the Zahir sitting at that desk in Woking that I can hardly relate to now.

Although we’re both grumpy and misunderstood, so there’s still a bit of him in here 😏

I can look at old pics of myself and accept how much I’ve changed, but when it comes to my physical practice, I have mixed feelings, because I remember what I could do. Somehow I’m still using that body as the measure of what mine should be able to do today.

And I was reading a book on Kashmir Shaivism before bed last night, and it used the story of Shiva carrying the lifeless body of his wife, Sati, after her death. He carries her with him, unable and refusing to let go.

The interpretation I was reading connected this with the idea that Shiva and Sati (his divine power in the more religious reading) are inseparable (literally). So when I read it back, Shiva is really carrying a part of himself around. He is carrying a burning corpse, not knowing that he is burning himself in the process. So caught up is he in illusion (in Maya) that he has come to see Sati as separate from him, when in the Shaiva tradition they are one and the same. He is carrying his own dying energy around.

And we can do something similar with an older version of ourselves. We keep carrying that person around, comparing ourselves to them, wanting to be them again, until our attachment to who we were becomes a burden on who we are.

And it made me think that I really don’t need to be that guy anymore. I can appreciate what I could do (with a tear in my eye), but still embrace the person I am now, and the person I’m going to be tomorrow.

I imagine some of you need to hear that too. Especially if you’ve been thinking, “I used to be flexible, I used to practise all the time, and I know if I start again I’m going to be rubbish.” I feel you, fam 😤

But you would tell me to just get back to class. You’d tell me I don’t need to live up to Woking Zee (as great a guy as he was). That you turn up as you are, and practise the way your body allows you to practise today. You’d tell me to turn up, smile, enjoy the process, breathe, and let yoga do the rest. And then you’d throw that quote my way that everyone loves. Comparison is the thief of joy. Even though I don’t completely agree with it (of course I don’t 😏).

So think of the advice you’d give me. Now tell it to yourself.

I’ll see you back in class. Especially now it’s getting colder. If I see you there, I’ll be the one letting it go.

Namaskar

Zahir

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References 1. Goutham S, Bhargav H, Holla B, Mahadevan J, Nagendra RP, Jasti N, Narasimha VL, Mehta UM, Varambally S, Venkatasubramanian G, Chand P, Gangadhar BN, Hill KP, Keshavan M, Murthy P. Yoga for Opioid Withdrawal and Autonomic Regulation: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Psychiatry. Published online 7 January 2026. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2843424 Free full text (PubMed Central): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12780978/ (Study design, 59 participants, 30 yoga and 29 control, ten 45-minute sessions over 14 days, median recovery of 5 vs 9 days, improvements in heart rate variability, anxiety, sleep and pain.) 2. Powell A. Yoga can help cut severe, initial opioid-withdrawal period in half, study finds. Harvard Gazette, 24 February 2026. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2026/02/yoga-can-help-cut-severe-initial-opioid-withdrawal-period-in-half-study-finds/ (Group sessions, the specific practices used, and comments from the Harvard researchers.) 3. Yoga accelerates opioid withdrawal recovery. Healio, 23 January 2026. https://www.healio.com/news/psychiatry/20260123/yoga-accelerates-opioid-withdrawal-recovery (Parasympathetic activity accounting for 23% of the effect.) 4. Jha S. Drug withdrawal takes 9 days, yoga brings it down to 5: NIMHANS study. The South First, 16 February 2026. https://thesouthfirst.com/health/drug-withdrawal-takes-9-days-yoga-brings-it-down-to-5-nimhans-study/ (Stress markers rising briefly during breathing practice, then improving at rest by day 15.) 5. Gratzer D. Reading of the Week: Yoga for Opioid Withdrawal? The New JAMA Psych Paper. 29 January 2026. https://davidgratzer.com/reading-of-the-week/reading-of-the-week-yoga-for-opioid-withdrawal-the-new-jama-psych-paper-also-maois-history-and-ai-associated-psychosis/ (Average age of 25.6, and the study's limitations: small sample and no active control group.)