Trust Your Choice: A Vedanta Perspective

In both Advaita Vedanta and the Yoga Sutras, suffering begins in a simple but powerful mistake: we think we are our thoughts.

A wave of anxiety comes — “I’m anxious.”A story of rejection appears — “I’m unlovable.”A surge of grief rises — “I’m broken.”

But the teachings say something radical and contradictory to this. In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, were taught:

“Yogaś citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ” — Yoga is the stilling of the fluctuations of the mind. 

And then: “Tadā draṣṭuḥ svarūpe avasthānam” — Then the Seer abides in its true nature.

In plain language? When the mind settles, we remember who we actually are.

Last week I shared about being in a low lunge in yoga class. My hip flexor is feeling it, not in pain but in sensation. I started subtly rocking back and forth, trying to negotiate with the sensation. Trying to soften it. Escape it. Adjust it away.

And the teacher said, “Find stillness. Trust your choice.”

Oof.

In that moment I saw it clearly: the rocking wasn’t about my hip. It was about discomfort. It was the same movement my mind makes all day long.

We rock:

• Toward distraction.

• Toward reassurance.

• Toward control.

• Toward fixing.

  
  

Anything to not just be with what’s here.

Vedanta would gently ask: Who is uncomfortable?

The body feels sensation.The mind labels it “too much” or “not good.” or “great don’t stop” “I want more”.But the awareness noticing all of that? It doesn't need anything to change or be different..

That awareness — the simple knowing of experience — remains unchanged.

That is what Vedanta calls the Self and ironically also what Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS)  calls the Self. 

So “trust your choice” doesn’t mean grit your teeth and endure. It doesn’t mean override your body. It doesn’t mean pretend you’re calm.

It means trusting that you can pause the rocking long enough to notice:

Awareness of discomfort.But I am not the discomfort.

In Vedanta, real trust isn’t confidence in your personality getting everything right.

It’s trust in the deeper ground of Being — the part of you that can witness sensation, thought, and emotion without collapsing into them without creating a story, an ego around them. 

And that shift changes everything.

So trusting your choice isn’t about forcing certainty. It’s about trusting the awareness that is here before the doubt, during the doubt, and after the doubt. When we rest as that awareness, the rocking of the mind can finally settle — and we remember we were never the waves to begin with.

If this all sounds a little heady, I get it. These teachings are really embodied practices, and trying to put them into words can sometimes feel impossible… or a little ridiculous. Like trying to explain the taste of chocolate using a PowerPoint.

But my hope is that putting language to it might shine a light of connection and understanding to something you may have or are experiencing. 

So, for the sake of keeping this grounded in real life and not just ancient Sanskrit philosophy, here’s a very relatable example from my week…

A few days ago I sent a message that made me feel exposed.

Nothing dramatic. Just honest.

After I hit send, the mind started rocking.

Did I say too much? They haven’t responded yet… maybe they’re uncomfortable. Why did I say it like that? I should have worded it differently.

You know the movement.

The mind rewrites the conversation. Imagines the other person’s reaction. Tries to travel backward in time to fix what has already happened.

Rocking.

In that moment, anxiety rises in the body — a tightening in the chest, a restlessness in the stomach. I always get an image of a horse tied to a pole trying to escape... I'm sure a symbol of panic

And the thought appears: I wish I hadn't said that…

But Vedanta asks a very quiet question:

Who notices the anxiety?

The mind is spinning stories. The body is feeling sensation.

But something is simply aware of both.

When I paused and noticed the parts of me that were truly out of control with anxiousness, something softened.

The anxiety didn’t magically disappear but there was a seeing of the thoughts and sensations a slight separation... a much-needed space

I even caught myself thinking, “Wow… look at the anxiety. I must really like this guy if these parts of me are this worked up. Good to know I care.” - side note: yes — it’s important to notice if you’re constantly activated with a partner and what that might mean. But this was just a small, human moment of vulnerability.

Trusting my choice, in that moment, didn’t mean convincing myself the message was perfect.

It meant letting the message exist as it was… and trusting the awareness that was here to hold and be with my experience. I could settle into the safety and stillness that is my observant Self.