My Takeaways from “Inner Enginnering: A Yogi’s Guide to Joy”

This past winter break, I traveled to many beautiful places such as Nevada and Arizona. Dwelling amongst vast natural beauty and spending time away from “regular life” stirred my novel experiences. I began questioning who I was aside from my school, family, social, and personal life. My sense of self began expanding beyond my daily life: a daughter, a student, a friend, an explorer.

Loosening these labels lightened the following weeks of life. I felt as if I was floating and buoyant in the world. My work, thoughts, and circumstances didn’t seem to carry as much weight. They are still vital to me; however, they didn’t constrict me like they used to.

In a slight panic but little eagerness, I reached a book that I passed by every day in my house. A thin film of dust already seemed to accumulate on the book cover. It felt right to pick it up—Inner Engineering: A Yogi’s Guide to Joy by Sadhguru.

I became so immersed in the playful and eye-opening manner of Sadhguru’s writing that I completed the whole book within less than 24 hours. The reading content felt like it explained and mirrored what I had been experiencing in the past few weeks. After more pondering and introspection, my key takeaways became clear:

1. I am not the body or the mind.

My body and mind are vehicles that navigate this world and deal with the environment logically. However, who I truly am is my unwavering consciousness or awareness. Thoughts, experiences, or emotions do not impact this calm and neutral awareness. This awareness never suffers or feels like a victim of stress. It simply registers the present moment as it is. It has been there all my life, just observing my life experiences. It is formless and faceless. The more I realize that this is the essence of who I  am, I no longer get negatively caught up, identified, or consumed by emotions, people, or work.

2. Be involved in life, but not identified with it.

To me, this meant dropping the stories, past, and connotations from people, places, and objects. Everyone and everything began to be “as is.” Nothing more. A place is just a place. I no longer identify it as a place where I was hurt. Even an argument is just words. This way, I live without being anchored down by the past or old stories that may prevent a pleasant present experience. It’s not seeing people or things as lifeless; instead, I enjoy the true nature of things around me. It instills a sense of gratitude and contentment in me.

3. Responsibility is what sets you free.

This book redefined responsibility for me. From this book’s perspective, responsibility doesn’t mean taking on burdens or guilting myself for every mistake I’ve made. It means “response-ability”; my ability to respond. I became aware that my response to everything creates my life experience. If I continue to react habitually to negative behavior patterns, I will be in vicious cycles. For example, if I get annoyed or reactive every time my parents say or do something I don’t like, I am getting in my way of creating good experiences with them. I would be feeding into old patterns of responding. But when I become indifferent towards undesirable behavior, I am no longer emotionally dependent on their good behavior to be happy—similarly, my ability to respond in other life areas either anchors or liberates me. The choice is mine.

My favorite part about this book is Sadhguru’s insistence on taking what resonates and zeroing in on those topics. It makes the reading experience more personalized, which is excellent considering how abstract some concepts are.

I highly recommend everyone give this book a chance. You don’t have to understand every word or every idea. Again, just take what resonates. I can guarantee that you will find a gem to take home amongst all the pages.

Will you give this book a try? Let me know in the comments below!