Caroline San Juan Czubaj – The Untethered Soul
Photography By Rick Cooper
“In case you haven’t noticed, you have a mental dialogue going on inside your head that never stops,” Michael Singer wrote in his opening paragraph of The Untethered Soul. “It just keeps going and going. Have you ever wondered why it talks in there? How does it decide what to say and when to say it? How much of what it says turns out to be true? And if right now you are hearing, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t have any voices inside my head!’—that’s the voice we’re talking about.”
I am a yoga instructor and find The Untethered Soul fascinating because its powerful content is timeless. According to ancient texts such as the Yoga Sutras, the goal of yoga is to quiet the mind’s unending dialogue. Fast-forward thousands of years to today, and we are still perplexed and controlled by the racing mind.
This voice and how to quiet its incessant chatter is a key focus in Singer’s New York Times No. 1 Best Seller. Published in 2007, its insightful, simply-stated words of wisdom are as impactful today as ever in taming our elusive monkey minds. I feel that all of us could use a little peace and quiet in our heads these days. Between the ding of an incoming text, the swoosh of a new email, the flash of a news headline (all while conversing with a spouse, child, friend or coworker)… many of us are chasing so many squirrels with our thoughts that we become physically uncomfortable sitting in silence. True? Just look around in any waiting room, airport or coffee shop these days and you will see what I mean.
With the sagacity and grace of a gentle, spiritual soul, Singer guides his reader through the steps of “realizing that you are not the voice of the mind – you are the one who hears it.” And that “eventually you will see that the real cause of problems is not life itself. It’s the commotion the mind makes about life that really causes problems.”
If the thought of life without catastrophizing, worrying about what may or may not happen, or judging and mentally narrating every situation appeals to you, read this book! You may find that, like me, you will read it repeatedly and buy copies for all your friends.
About Caroline San Juan Czubaj
Caroline San Juan Czubaj has a BS in Exercise Science and a Master’s in Business. She was the director of two hospital wellness centers in Florida, a columnist for The Miami Herald, and wellness lecturer, consultant, and television and radio personality before marrying an Air Force pilot and becoming a military spouse. Caroline returned to Panama City in 2011, with her husband and two daughters. She is a certified yoga instructor and the owner of Beyond The Pose Yoga.