I used to have an acting teacher who said that, in order to be successful performers, we had to be “the right kind of narcissist.” It’s a career that can be isolating, and in order to really pursue it, we have to be willing to go on the road for months (or years) at a time. We often have to put personal relationships on the back burner if we’re going to give ourselves fully to our careers.
Then, of course, there is the level of self-care involved in being an actor, too. Sure, everyone needs to take care of themselves, but when your primary work “tool” is your own body and voice, the stakes are a little higher.
But let’s be honest, the thing that inspired this post is this whole platform. Daily Flow Yoga is many things that are “noble,” but it’s also a way in which I center myself. From the outside, I can imagine that it looks like a total vanity project, and, in some ways, I guess it is.
On the other side of this coin is that, by putting myself out there in such an obvious way, I’m also responsible for the failures. For the people who click “thumbs down” on a YouTube video or just the very slow growth the channel has. I wrote a lot about that in another post, so I won’t repeat myself, but suffice it to say, my ego has taken a few blows along the way, too.
Withdrawing in Public
The evolution of this website and YouTube channel as well as my own presentation and performance have become a very public way of practicing the yoga principle of Pratyahara: withdrawing the senses and going inside. A kind of yogic narcissism that involves acknowledging the outer world and deliberately receding from it. Listening only to the deepest inner voice and trusting that being authentic is enough.
Self-Centering
Have you ever been friends with someone because you felt sorry for them? Or maintained a client relationship because you just needed the money? I’ve certainly done both. Then in the last couple of years, something shifted. As I get deeper into my yoga practice and connect with that deeper Self, I find it more and more difficult to be inauthentic.
When I was going through a particularly difficult time in my personal life, I realized I couldn’t just hunker down and meet a needy friend for coffee because it was the “nice” thing to do. And, more recently, I declined an old client’s repeated calls for me to do some work for them because I knew from experience that they’re very demanding and there was no amount of money worth the anxiety.
So I said no.
I turned off the egoic noise and centered my Self. I turned down the work (more than once) and stepped away from the friendship. Neither person did anything wrong: both are good, decent people coming from a place of liking me / my work, but I recognized that if I was going to leading an authentic life, it meant severing those ties.
Your Public Practice
Maybe this is what Pratyahara looks like in 2026.
Not retreating to a cave. Not deleting every account. But standing in plain sight while refusing to be consumed by the noise. Showing up without letting the applause or the indifference define you.
You don’t need a YouTube channel to practice this. You just need a place where you’re tempted to perform instead of listen.
At work. In your family. On social media. In your art.
I’m still human. I still check my YouTube metrics and let ChatGPT help me craft more SEO-worthy titles, tags and descriptions. But now I do it with a bit more humor and a lot more detachment. In fact, that my YouTube channel broke 200 subscribers is a big deal to me, even though it’s nothing to brag about in the greater YouTube ecosystem.
So The question isn’t whether you’re self-centered. Of course you are!
It’s about what you’re centering.
The noise? The ego? The “likes”?
Or the deepest Self that knows that those things are fleeting, and they don’t ultimately matter.
So… Withdraw.
Listen.
Then act.
That’s the kind of narcissism that serves the world.
Nothing that appears in this blog or on this website is intended to treat or diagnose any disorder, physical or otherwise. Always consult a physician before beginning any exercise program.