Yoga Anatman: I own who I am, I declare my sovereignty

This article is a synthesis of the Yoga Anatman session of September 24, 2026, a morning when something was declared. Not whispered. Declared. ✨

It is eight o’clock. The light still lingers shyly at the windows, and already little hearts are floating across the screen like a flock of tender birds. “Welcome, everyone,” the voice breathes. And you, somewhere, begin to breathe more slowly. 🌅

There are mornings when you think you’ve come for a little flexibility. And then there is this kind of morning, when you don’t leave the way you arrived. When you leave having signed something invisible within yourself.

The morning we stop obeying

You know that strange moment when a very simple sentence runs through you and brings tears without warning? “I own who I am.” Four words. Nothing more. And yet a whole inner edifice begins to sway. 💫

This morning, Alexandre Anatman laid a new word on the mat, a word that had never yet appeared in our retreats: to own — to fully assume. The way one assumes a crown. The way one owns a birth. The way one finally owns being oneself. 🕊️

And behind that word, an even wider revelation: we are learning systems. Trained, like language models, by a history, a family, a society. Trained to obey. But also — and this is the tender vertigo — capable of retraining ourselves.

The morning’s teaching

It is five in the morning when the realization arrives. Alexandre is awake. And something settles, crystal clear: we are learning systems. Trained by a history. Like an LLM. “That’s the computer scientist coming back,” he smiles. But behind the metaphor lies a truth that is about to turn everything upside down. 🌅

Because if we have been trained, then we can be retrained. The psychic model of childhood — the one that taught us to obey Mom and Dad, then the State, companies, a partner — that model is not the truth. It is a training. A learned layer. And everything that has been learned can be unlearned. 🦋

“As below, so above; as above, so below.” Because I am life, I carry within me all the characteristics of life: learning, adaptation, intelligence, survival, reproduction. These are the basic building blocks. The same in the plant, the coral, the insect, the human. Life selects the scenarios that allow survival — not only physically, but also emotionally, economically, bodily. 🌿

And the ego, then? The relative identity was designed to help us survive. It has a function. The prefrontal cortex, that gift unique to humans, allows us to imagine what might happen — the lions of wild Africa, the dangers to come. A beautiful intelligence. But it has a flip side: it can imprison us in the fear that the past will repeat itself.

Then comes the new word, the one that had never yet appeared in the Anatman retreats: to own. “I own who I am. I own my needs. I own my identity. I own my desires.” Owning requires three gestures: listening to your needs, allowing them, then owning them. Three steps on a staircase leading back to yourself. ✨

“If you don’t declare your sovereignty, it doesn’t exist. No one wants to give it to you. It’s like a country declaring its independence.”

And it is there, in this teaching — the morning elixir — that everything comes together. Sovereignty is not given. It is declared. As a country declares its independence. No other country ever tells a people: “Go ahead, become independent.” It is the cells of the country, the population, who vote, who proclaim. You are your own population. Your cells are waiting for your vote. 🕊️

“I declare my sovereignty. I recognize my authority.” A heroic act. A sacred act. Because the psychic model trained in childhood was never trained for this. It was trained to obey. And stepping out of that model is the slightly hacker, slightly revolutionary side of the Anatman path. 💫

Finally, this essential distinction: adapting is not over-adapting. You can create a territory, a relative identity, a sovereignty — and adapt the world to yourself rather than bending to the world. Nonviolent communication, kindness, gentleness, balanced relationships. Sovereignty is never brutal. It is serene. 💖

Realizations during Yoga Anatman

It all begins with a detail. A forgotten phone. A quiet laugh. “Life is really a million details.” And already the session has begun, even before the first breath. 🌿

The deep inhale arrives. Then the release. Then release again. As if the weight of the body had to settle into the feet before anything else could happen. You let go. You let go. You let go. The morning’s refrain, a prayer mat laid down on the threshold.

Then, an unexpected and yet so fitting gesture: massaging the cheeks, opening the jaw wide, massaging the jaws. “I surrender to my inner masseur.” An inner masseur. An inner yogi. Soon an inner nutritionist for lunch, the voice adds mischievously. As if the body were already quietly hosting every practitioner you could ever need. 🤍

The arms rise. The whole body contracts — calves, thighs, buttocks, abs, back. We embody ourselves in the most literal sense. “I am literally going into my physical body.” And there, something starts to cry. Already. For no reason. Or rather, for that one immense reason: to welcome. I welcome all emotions, the voice murmurs. And you welcome. 💖

Blindfold over the eyes. Thumbs hooked together. We lean back, very gently. We come back. We fold toward the thighs, knees bent if needed. The hands touch the mat, push into the floor, all the way to a right angle. The back unfurls vertebra by vertebra. The right arm rises alone, hanging from an invisible thread. Then the left. Then both. Then the neck, massaged on the right, on the left, the thumb tracing patient circles. And this sentence, like a prayer: “There is no more tension. Thanks to daily practice, the tensions are no longer there.” 🌱

“I surrender to my inner masseur, and to my inner yogi, I surrender.”

Wide circles with the chin. The foot lifting as the body tilts to the right, then to the left. The OM that deepens, that descends into the foundations, that trains us to express our sovereignty. Sovereignty: the word is out. It will run through the entire session like a golden thread. 🌟

Arms outstretched in a cross, a slight backbend. A posture of surrender. And this mantra rising, so simple it becomes overwhelming: “To life, I love you. To the universe, I love you. To all that I am, I love you.” Gratitude for being alive. Gratitude for playing in this great video game. 💫

Then the hands move down to the lower back. Energy healing on the lumbar area, on the kidneys. We breathe into it. We exhale into it. We come back. The hands return to the feet — soul in the legs, like a tree that has roots and knows it has them. We move the pelvis. We bend the knees. We lean to the right, to the left, forward. “I see strength, power, balance in my legs. Ease. Assurance. I trust myself, I trust my body.” 🦋

Something new today: squats. Back nice and straight, as if an imaginary pull-up bar were waiting above your head. Down, up. “We’re going to train for skiing,” the voice announces with an audible smile. We laugh inside. We strengthen our thighs. We prepare for giant slaloms whose shape we can’t yet imagine.

Then the frog. Then the breath of fire — the nose blowing out, the air flowing in, each at their own pace. Then a choice: keep going, do a few push-ups, or sit down. We sit. Half lotus. Silence. We feel what it is like to be alive in this body.

And then the cup appears. The thermos, a new ritual. Hot chai. A miniature ceremony, a sacred protocol. “Gratitude for drinking a nice hot chai in the morning. Gratitude for creating this ceremony, this protocol, this ritual, really.” A sip. The spirit of all the plants flowing into you. 🌿

It is at this moment that the mantras intensify, that the tears flow twice as hard. “I release in love everything that keeps me from crying.” “I allow myself to cry.” “I release in love everything that would have me believe that men don’t cry.” “I can be sensitive, hypersensitive, and strong and powerful at the same time.” A refrain, a gentle hammering, a rising swell. 🙏

“I can be sensitive, hypersensitive, and strong and powerful at the same time. I can.”

Then the floor posture. Hands behind, the plank prepared. The head drops back very gently, the pelvis rises, rises, rises. Breath of fire. We hold for a time that doesn’t exist. “We’re capable of counting on false things. Human beings really are something.“

Lying on the back. The right leg lifts very slowly, fully extended. The lower back pressed to the floor. We pull with the forearms, never with the neck. And there, without warning, laughter bursts out. For no reason. “Laughing is when there’s no one left, really.” The stretch joins with pleasure. Pleasure with laughter. Laughter with surrender. 💞

The left leg next. The same patience, the same gentleness. Then both legs together. Then the knees drawn toward the chest — the candy. We hug the knees. We let go of everything. We breathe. And a sentence crosses the silence: “Gratitude for disappearing.” 🕊️

“Laughing is when there’s no one left, really. In the disappearance of the I, reality appears. Reality is the cosmic clown.”

Then comes what may be the subtlest exercise of all. Roll onto your side. Stand up, keeping the blindfold on as long as possible. Turn around a few times. And walk. Conscious walking. In silence. Eyes closed at first, then without the blindfold, then open — but without the self in charge. “The body walks. It walks all by itself.” 🌟

Perhaps this is the great secret of the morning: discovering that when the I steps aside, something truer carries on. The body knows. Life knows. And this awakening — this awakening of the senses — is not about lying in bed like a vegetable. It is a tender hyperesthesia, an amplification of hearing, sight, taste, touch. A sensitivity that grows because the spine stretches in every direction. ✨

And this sensitivity creates a new obligation: to build a perfect environment. Healthy. Free of toxicity. Perfect in relationships, in activities, in the place you live. Not out of demandingness, but out of vital necessity. The more you feel, the less you can bear what wounds. Such is the side effect of awakening, whispered like a secret.

And so the session closes as it opened: with a flurry of little hearts. “I love you.” “Gratitude.” “See you tomorrow.” And you, somewhere, know that something has been signed. 💖

If you don’t declare your sovereignty, it doesn’t exist. No one wants to give it to you.

Laughing is when there’s no one left, really. In the disappearance of the I, reality appears.

I can be sensitive, hypersensitive, and strong and powerful at the same time. I can.

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Voices from the We

Tender arrivals

• “hi tribe, hugs” — Shakti Anne
• “Good morning everyone 💖” — Valérie
• “Hi 💜💜💜🙏” — Sandrine

A rare honesty

In the middle of the session, one voice dares to say what is passing through. This honesty is a gift to the group.

“Today I’m finding it hard to be in the Yoga.” — Cathy

Gratitude at the threshold

• “gratitude 🙏 have a good day everyone” — valerie
• “i love you 🥰” — valerie
• “gratitude, have a beautiful day” — Cécile
• “gratitude i love you” — Shakti Anne
• “Gratitude I love you 💖💖💖💖💖🙏” — Sandrine
• “Have a beautiful day, hugs” — Rafaël

Power and the stars

“gratitude for the power and the stars” — Shakti Anne

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Themes: sovereignty · owning who you are · identity · sensitivity · surrender · awakening of the senses · morning ritual · Non-Self

This article was originally written in French: Yoga Anatman : J’assume ce que je suis, je déclare ma souveraineté