Illuminating Our True Nature: Yogic Practices for Personal and Collective Healing

by Michelle Cassandra Johnson

Dissolve hurtful patterns and emotional hardship through the five yogic points of suffering, or kleshas, with powerful and practical meditations, mantras, asanas, reflection questions, and more, to reduce our suffering—and the suffering of others.

We all get stuck in hurtful patterns that continue to create more suffering in our lives. In yoga philosophy, these patterns are known as the five kleshas. In this wise, practical guide, Michelle Cassandra Johnson offers us a path toward developing a deeper understanding of them and how they hijack us emotionally.
The five kleshas ignorance (avidya); overidentification with ego (asmita); attachment to desire or pleasure (raga); aversion or avoidance (dvesha); and fear of death or letting go (abhinivesha).
Each one leads us to create tendencies and karma that move us away from realizing and remembering our true nature and seeing ourselves as separate from one another and the planet. In yogic terms, this perpetuates a constant cycle of pain for us all.
Johnson offers us a way to find a sense of clarity, groundedness, and equanimity within ourselves by working through the kleshas one-by-one using asana, pranayama, mudra, mantra, reflection questions, and meditation.
Readers will learn
• deepen their connection with self and others;
• look at their relationship and attachment to pleasure and aversion to discomfort;
• notice more fully how their actions affect others;
• meet each moment as it arises and ride the waves of life as they come;
• and much more

Genres: Nonfiction

208 pages, Paperback

Published June 4, 2024

Reviews

[Kiana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed the insightful, reflective tone of "Illuminating Our True Nature." Johnson draws from yoga principles, personal experiences, and sutras to discuss aversion, attachment, power, privilege, inner peace, presence, adjusting perspective from "I" to "we" and letting go. Each section concludes with activities that provide differentiated ways the reader can get involved with these concepts about illuminating our true nature, such as yoga asanas, meditations, mantras, and reflection questions. These activities are great for finding what feels best for this moment, (maybe asana today, and maybe mantras tomorrow) and it's a practical way for the reader to use their senses to embody the mindfulness practices and make genuine text-to-self connections.

Here's my favorite quote from "Illuminating Our True Nature:" "The practice of yoga is intended to bring us back into a place of harmony in disharmonious world. It is meant to cool the inflammation in our system. It is meant to support us in creating a peaceful state for ourselves and, ultimately, others."

[Mariel Freeman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love all of Michelle Cassandra Johnson’s books — each one feels both timeless and urgently timely. In Illuminating Our True Nature, Michelle offers a profound reminder: as humans, none of us are immune to the root causes of suffering. We will suffer — and she names the reasons why with clarity and compassion.

But just as importantly, she reveals that we already hold within us everything we need to engage with these truths. Through this engagement, we can begin to liberate ourselves from suffering and move toward deeper connection, radiant presence, and true freedom. This book is a luminous guide to remembering who we are and what’s possible when we meet ourselves and each other with courage, care, and humanity.

[Kim Gunther]

Waiting excitedly to receive the book