A man in a Hallmark store was poking through greeting cards for a long time, lingering from one card to another, when a clerk came over and asked, “Sir, is there a problem?”

“Yeah,” he sighed. “I can’t find one card my wife will believe.”

This bitter sweet anecdote struck me. Do you believe the cards you receive from your loved ones? When they say you are wonderful, amazing and extraordinary — that you are the perfect husband, wife, mother or whatever — do you believe it?

I hope so. But if you don’t, what’s in the way? Was it a derogatory remark from a parent or teacher years ago? Was it something that your mind told you?

Many of the negative remarks and thoughts directed your way may have become your beliefs but they were not necessarily based on the truth. Look up “belief” in a dictionary or thesaurus: you will find “truth” in the list of antonyms for belief. Yes: truth is the opposite of belief.

You have a choice when these negative remarks or thoughts pop up: believe them on face value or reject them as of no value. If you believe them, then that belief may become a truth, like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Reject them. Give more importance to the truth.

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first black woman to serve on the Supreme Court, whose ancestors were uneducated slaves, learned a good lesson from her mother about the truth. In her memoir Lovely One (which is the meaning of her African name Ketanji), she writes that when she was struggling with her math homework or a piano piece, her mother would ask, “Can this be done, Ketanji?”

Ketanji would reply, “Yes.”

And her mother would then remind her: “Well, if it is possible for a person to do this thing, then you can do it, too.”

Ketanji realized from this that she could do anything that others have done. She saw from the example of her own parents that if she worked hard and put her whole heart into it, she would succeed. She knew this as the truth, and that became the basis for her own success.

And this truth is the basis of yoga. Yoga is not based on belief; it’s based on truth. Yoga is a science, a system of knowledge based on what has been observed and proven to be true through experimentation. It’s been validated over and over again for thousands of years by millions of practitioners, seekers and sages from all over the world. That’s science.

Yoga promises that if you practice consistently and whole-heartedly, you will be happy under all circumstances. Enlightened yogis, past and present, are examples of that truth. You will experience great clarity, understanding and compassion. You will experience the deepest sense of peace and bliss.  You will know your Self as Infinite Beingness. You will know your own Divinity and the Divinity of other beings.

And when you receive your next Hallmark card from a loved one or close friend, you will know what it says is true:

You are truly wonderful, amazing and extrordinary. You do make a difference in the world!