Riding the Waves or Standing in Stillness?

Portugal offers many experiences, but one stands out: surfing. I had never tried surfing before moving here, and it brought with it an incredible sense of liberation. This led me to an important question: to what extent should we liberate ourselves?

A framework of discipline to channel powerful forces like liberation

If your nervous system is an overdriven one, life becomes too strong of a current for the wire. If you move to another country after a certain age, you meet a new version of your nervous system.

For me, this change led to a turning point. I returned to yoga and enrolled in teacher training to deepen my practice, calm my nervous system, and search for a new perspective. Yoga training is not the same as simply practicing; it provides a structured framework for internal discipline. Through this process, I began to integrate lessons from my life, business, and therapy into embodied knowledge. It is no surprise that Carl Jung was deeply fascinated by yoga.

Riding the wave of life’s forces or sitting in stillness to witness its essence, both reveal something unspeakable.

Surfing brought me to a world I couldn’t quite articulate. The thrill of liberation in catching a wave was intoxicating. During my first lesson, I managed to ride the second wave I tried, feeling exhilarated. But in my second lesson, I couldn’t stand on the board even once. Strangely, it was the first time I found joy in failing so completely, it felt freeing in its own way.

There’s a spontaneity to surfing that strips away thought and analysis. It draws you into the present, into a direct encounter with reality as it unfolds. Yoga, on the other hand, offers a quieter invitation: to sit with yourself and cultivate awareness. It’s a deliberate practice of stillness that lets you touch something deeper, beyond the distractions of what’s external.

I’ve come to see surfing and yoga as two sides of the same coin. Surfing connects me with the raw energy of reality, while yoga points me inward toward truth. Each has its place, not as opposites, but as complementary ways of experiencing life.

Reality vs. Truth

Life’s events shape your reality, but is reality the same as truth? Artificial realities can feel vivid and real, but does that make them true? The stories you tell yourself about your life might feel true, but aren’t they just shaped by how you see or feel things bounded by your perception?

Our mind and thoughts shape our perception of reality, creating the stories we live by. Yet, beyond these narratives lies our true essence, a timeless presence that is not defined by thought. Our being is the stillness beneath the noise, the pure awareness that connects us to the Now.

More to yoga than asanas

Nobody can access truth directly, truth reveals itself over time if you are open to connect with it.

Yogis often seek to transcend transient experiences and connect with universal understanding. Samadhi, the ultimate state of meditative absorption in yoga, is a union with the divine where the individual self dissolves into pure consciousness.

I spent considerable time reflecting on Patanjali’s second sutra: Yogas citta vritti nirodhah, or

“The restraints of the modifications of the mind-stuff is Yoga.”

Initially I struggled to grasp its meaning, but over time, I understood its significance. The entire world is our own projection. If our thought forms are not shaped by what’s external, then we are not constrained by reality, we can begin to connect with what’s true.

The truth may not always be pleasant, but it is always leads to growth.

Integration and Balance

I realize now that liberation doesn't mean abandoning all structure, nor does discipline mean losing freedom. Instead, true freedom arises when we find equilibrium between riding the waves and sitting in stillness. Fully experiencing reality while remaining open to deeper truths.