Reflection as Storytelling: Reflection as Samsara

By Kelley DeVine

The mapping of memory, which happens anytime we reflect on our life experiences, clearly centers and shapes our sense of self. Whether it’s in one massive volume or through countless mini poems, we are often in the process of forming, recalling, and editing our story of the past. We know that stories hold power, and where we fit ourselves into our own narrative, the story we tell about ourselves, to ourselves, holds the history of our heart. It is the lived experience of our fears, dreams, delights and disappointments. In this past year, which moments do I regret? Which make me feel full? What takes center stage in my memory, when other details blur in the passage of time? Who am I?!

Storytelling can be a tool of political and personal resistance, a way to (re)claim agency when the narrative is often wielded for us. It is the external world, the opinions of our loved ones, the expectations (demands) of society, that dictate many conditions of our internal story. We are social sponges. We’re human! And, what could be more human than critical thinking? Can we then also examine the underlying assumptions imbued in our memories, and reframe who we are in our story? Can we recognize when we have made ourselves the villain, or the joker, or the victim, and can we approach those moments from a different perspective?

If that sounds like a mental tangle of epic proportions, you’re not wrong. In yogic tradition, this battleground of the mind, the holding and revisiting of the past, might be best aligned with the concept of samsara. Yes, it IS human, and it is ALSO a source of suffering. We do mental gymnastics, revisiting the past, imagining the future, and along the way, we risk bypassing the present completely.

Here is the invitation. Think about the best end to a yoga practice— savasana. Rather than reflect and reform the events of this year, we let go. We give the storybook away, choose unattachment, release judgment, and seek samadhi. We connect whole-heartedly to the moment of now, no matter where that falls on the calendar. We forgive ourselves, and others, too. It may not be easy, but when has that ever stopped us?