#122 Coincidences Are God's Way of Remaining Anonymous

Or How Patanjali Knew About Social Media Addiction Before it Even Existed

I heard someone say this at the AA convention this weekend:
“Coincidences are God’s way of remaining anonymous.”
It stuck with me like a mantra - looping in my mind through every encounter, reflection, and unfolding event.

One of the main reflections that came up for me at the convention was this creeping, uncomfortable awareness: I was addicted to Instagram again.

It hit me like it did back in January. That subtle but powerful pull to pick up the phone. The compulsion to post, engage, read messages, get the dopamine hit of a like or a comment. I could feel my conscious contact with God dimming the more time I spent on the app. I wasn’t grounded. I wasn’t present. My life started to feel unmanageable.

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In Yoga Sutra 2.3, Patanjali names the five Kleśas—the root causes of all suffering:

• Avidyā – Spiritual ignorance: forgetting our true nature.

• Asmitā – Ego: clinging to a false sense of “I.”

• Rāga – Attachment: craving pleasure or validation.

• Dveṣa – Aversion: avoiding discomfort or criticism.

• Abhiniveśaḥ – Fear: especially fear of loss or death.

Instagram, for me, hits almost all of these.

When I’m deeply in the scroll cycle, I lose touch with Spirit (Avidyā).
I get wrapped up in my identity as a yoga teacher, entrepreneur, influencer (Asmitā).
I chase likes and engagement (Rāga).
I avoid my responsibilities, hard emotions, and difficult tasks (Dveṣa).
And I cling to the fear that if I don’t stay online, I’ll become irrelevant. Forgotten. Obsolete. (Abhiniveśaḥ).

And yet, Patanjali also gives us the solution.

In Sutra 2.1, he outlines Kriyā Yoga—a threefold spiritual practice to purify the mind and reduce suffering:

• Tapas – Disciplined effort (like showing up to my mat daily).

• Svādhyāya – Self-study and reflection (like journaling or therapy).

• Īśvarapraṇidhāna – Surrender to a higher power (like my meditation practice and connection to AA).

When I fall into the kleshas, the path out isn’t more effort, more performance, or more “content creation.”
It’s the opposite: slowing down, turning inward, and reconnecting to something greater than myself.

And that’s when the coincidences started.

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God, Disguised as Happenstance

On Monday, right after I got back to Ubud and after having this reawakening to getting off Instagram, I walked into a yoga studio in Ubud and ran into a former YTT grad of mine from two years ago. He’s now teaching yoga full-time, thriving, and planning to move to Bali just in time for this year’s training (so I hope to have him teach a class!)

On Tuesday, I was leaving a café and crossed paths with another student—from my Sober Curious Yoga platform back in 2020. He was living in Dubai then. Now he lives in China. We made plans to reconnect.

I couldn’t figure out what was reason for the coincidence from God in this case of bumping into these two, random, unrellated students of mine. And then, I realized: neither of these people had social media.
Neither found me through Instagram.
And yet - they remembered me. They reached out. They’re still here.

These “coincidences” felt like whispers from the Divine:
You don’t need Instagram or Facebook to stay relevant.

You just need to stay aligned.

And maybe that’s the real point of spiritual practice - to trace our suffering back to its origin, just like Patanjali teaches in Sutras 2.10–2.11, and to meet that root not with shame or striving, but with stillness.

“The subtle kleshas are resolved by meditative absorption.”
(Yoga Sutra 2.11)

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Returning to Sādhanā

This week, I’ve extended out my afternoon sādhanā. I’ve been doing an afternoon meditation all along, but it’s turned into an extended 21 minute, 7 pose yin experience beforehand with reiki music.

During today’s Sutra Study Class, I taught about the Kleshas and the Kriyā Yoga framework:

• Tapas – Staying committed to the practice.

• Svādhyāya – Studying these patterns.

• Īśvarapraṇidhāna – Trusting the unfolding.

And from this place of grounded clarity, I made some big moves, mostly, the decision to stay off Instagram for the rest of the year and just have a trusted person logged into my account replying to messages and resharing stories.

And I feel free.

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So... What’s the Message?

Maybe these coincidences were God’s anonymous way of nudging me back to my path.
Maybe they were reminders that my dharma is still unfolding. That my community is still growing, even offline. That the past and present are always weaving together, if I stay awake enough to notice.

Or maybe they were just the result of quieting the noise enough to hear that whisper that says:

“You’re exactly where you’re meant to be.”

What if your suffering is just the kleshas at work?

And what if your healing isn’t in doing more - but in doing less, with devotion?