We've all experienced patterned behaviors and situations, many so familiar we can't help but ask, "Why does this always happen to me?"

Patterns are simply signs from the Universe to pay attention, because there are unfinished lessons at hand. What is the pattern? How does it make you feel? Do you like the feeling, or do you want to change it?

Every experience we have creates a groove and a story in our psyche, a belief about ourself, another person, or a situation. And the more experiences we have that reinforce the story, the deeper the groove becomes, until we don't even realize the pattern is the result of a story at all - we simply accept the belief or behavior as truth. In yoga, our stories, our scars, are called "Samskaras". Samskaras are deep wounds - and they don't have to be the result of something traumatic or even wrong, but they certainly can be and often are.

Samskaras are formed when we associate a belief about ourselves or the world based on an action or outcome.

I have a story that when someone is upset, it's my fault. Sometimes I might be in the wrong, but the problem with the Samskara is that I apply this belief to every situation, even if the fault is not mine to carry. To shine light on this personal scar, I pause before I react. I stay curious and observing. My feelings of being at fault are simply a reaction to the Samskara, the pattern, and don't necessarily reflect the current situation. If I notice the pattern, and make a different choice, I form a new groove, and lessen the power of the original wound.

That's how we heal and change - by shining light on the story, looking at it, remaining open, and watching for the answer and the truth to emerge. It's not always my fault. 

I am not responsible for everyone else's stories.

But I am responsible for my own.

We owe it to ourselves, and to others, to shine a light on our scars. We owe it to the world to bring our beliefs and actions into awareness and questioning, even under a bright spotlight, and even when it is painful. Shining light on the scar is the first step to healing, and the first step to forming a new belief and action.

Samskaras can be personal as well as collective, or a combination of both. As a woman I carry my individual experience as well as the collective scars of society's beliefs and representations of all women. We are a combination of personal wounds, as well as shared ones.

We are experiencing the collective wound of a deeply traversed Samskara now, as our nation squirms under the blinding light of racism and oppression, under the light of unresolved discrimination, and under the light of denial. We each have individual experience with racism in addition to the collective, which means we are each responsible for our individual healing, even when it comes to large, societal issues. 

What would it mean to admit white privilege? To ourselves and to our fellow humans? What would it mean to admit racism? Are we reacting to a scar or do we believe something is fundamentally wrong with this pattern? What would it look like to illuminate the collective scar so we can finally be free of it?

Would it look like empathy?

Would it look like understanding?

Would it look like change?

At least an admission that the scar exists is a good start. Nothing will heal until we bring the wound into awareness.