A journey inward to awareness, stillness and freedom. Some books arrive like whispers. Others arrive as gifts. For me, The Untethered Soul was both.
It came to me at a moment of quiet recalibration, the kind of internal turning point that doesn’t look dramatic from the outside but feels seismic within. I had just begun teaching Karma Yoga at Kozen, a sanctuary of a studio where I was learning not just how to guide a class, but how to listen more deeply to myself.
At the time, I still carried self-doubt. My voice was soft, my confidence newly forming. I wasn’t yet sure I belonged in the teaching role. The new owner of the studio, a kind and intuitive person, handed me this book and later offered me my first paid teaching position. It remains one of the most thoughtful gifts I’ve ever received.
The words in this book didn’t give me steps or strategies. Instead, they gave me space. A reminder that I didn’t need to fix everything within myself to find peace, I just needed to stop clinging, stop resisting, and begin to watch.
Here are 20 moments from The Untethered Soul that helped me do just that, woven with questions I’ve carried into practice, travel, and daily life.
1. You are not your thoughts
“There is nothing more important to true growth than realising that you are not the voice of the mind — you are the one who hears it.”
This simple truth can reshape everything. I began to observe the noise in my head with a little more curiosity, a little more time and space and started to see that a thought is just a thought. This little voice narrates our whole life, to keep us safe, informed, but also to keep us tangled up.
Ask yourself: Can I notice my inner voice today without becoming it?
2. Awareness is your true home
That quiet, observing part of you? That’s who you really are. The one who watches thoughts, not the thoughts themselves.
Ask yourself: When do I feel most connected to that inner stillness?
3. Inner freedom is possible
“You gain nothing by being bothered by life’s events. It doesn’t change the world — you just suffer.”
Freedom doesn’t arrive when life aligns perfectly. It arrives when we no longer seek it or need it.
Ask yourself: What part of my life am I trying to control right now?
4. Let go, again and again
Letting go isn’t a moment. It’s a practice. A willingness to stop clinging, even when the ego tightens its grip.
Ask yourself: What can I gently release, even if only for today?
5. The mind will always have something to say
It narrates, judges, and interrupts, but you don’t have to follow it.
Ask yourself: What would happen if I simply witnessed my thoughts instead of reacting?
6. You don’t have to believe every emotion
“Learn to stop resisting reality, and what used to look like stressful problems will begin to look like the stepping-stones of your spiritual journey.”
Feelings come. They also go. Not every emotional wave is a sign or a truth.
Ask yourself: What emotion am I holding onto that might be ready to pass?
7. Resistance creates suffering
The pain isn’t always a direct result of an event; sometimes it’s in our refusal to let life be what it is.
Ask yourself: Where am I currently pushing against what is?
8. The heart was made to stay open
“If you want to be free, you must learn to view pain as simply something that is passing through you.”
Even when it hurts, we can choose to stay open. Not because we enjoy pain, but because freedom often lies on the other side of resistance.
Ask yourself: Can I meet this discomfort with softness instead of protection?
9. Triggers are doorways
They feel personal, but they’re often patterns. Portals to deeper work that your body is asking for. Approach these triggers with curiosity; they’re likely trying to tell you something.
Ask yourself: What recent trigger might be pointing me to an unhealed issue?
10. There’s nothing to fix
Much of our exhaustion stems from trying to improve ourselves. What if presence is enough?
Ask yourself: What happens when I stop trying to be “better” and just let myself be?
11. Death is the ultimate motivator
“You’re sitting on a planet spinning around in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Go ahead, take a look at reality.”
It sounds morbid, but it’s not. Death reminds us to live fully, to stop postponing peace.
Ask yourself: What truly matters when I remember my time is finite?
12. Peace doesn’t come from control
Peace comes from surrender, not strategy.
Ask yourself: What might open up if I stopped trying to manage every outcome?
13. You are the sky, not the storm
Thoughts and feelings are like the weather. You are the awareness through which they move.
Ask yourself: Can I rest in the part of me that remains still and steady?
14. You don’t need to protect yourself from life
“The only thing you have to know is that you must want to be free. You must want to be free more than you want to be right, more than you want to hold on.”
The walls we build to keep out pain also keep out love, joy, spontaneity.
Ask yourself: Where am I closed off, and what might it feel like to open?
15. Everything is energy
When you stop resisting, energy flows. When you cling or shut down, it gets stuck.
Ask yourself: Where do I feel blocked, and could it be from something I’m holding onto?
16. Don’t cling to pleasure or push away pain
Both are fleeting. Presence is steady.
Ask yourself: What am I holding on to too tightly, or pushing away too hard?
17. The present moment is all there is
“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.”
This is not a metaphor; it’s the truth. Life only happens now.
Ask yourself: Am I here, or lost in yesterday or tomorrow?
18. Fear loses power when we stop running
Turning towards fear, gently and steadily, changes our relationship to it.
Ask yourself: What fear have I been avoiding, and what might it teach me?
19. Your soul is untouched
No matter what has happened to you, the essence of who you are remains whole.
Ask yourself: Can I feel into the part of me that has never been broken?
20. The journey inward is the journey home
You don’t need to do anything to find peace. Stillness is always available.
Ask yourself: What helps me return to myself when I feel lost?
This book didn’t offer a solution. It offered something better, a path. One that winds inward, away from noise and comparison, and towards something quieter. Something truer. It offered a gentle reminder that we can be the observer of our experiences, not their prisoner.
