“We can easily practice Santosha in the beautiful moments and joyous experiences of our lives.  But Patanjali asks us to be equally willing to embrace the difficult moments.” Judith Lasater

 

Rolf Gates writes in his Meditations from the Mat (thank you Christine for this amazing book!): "Santosha is the practice of being still with faith, with an open heart and an open mind.  We have the opportunity to do this in the postures that we like and the postures that we don’t like.  Watch your reaction as you move from posture to posture. Where does your mind go when things are going well? Where does your mind go when things are hard? (And most importantly) Can the moment be enough."

 

A couple of thoughts on these quotes.

First we used our yoga practice to move today through familiar and unfamiliar poses.  I asked everyone to observe themselves and their mind as they went through the sequences.  Zoom gives us a wonderful opportunity to jump in fully to our own practice without comparing it to others in the room.  While in the room I prompted everyone to envision their yoga mat as their own unique life and their own unique way of moving through life - without judgement.  That is the practice of Santosha - today I commit to making peace with myself - this is achieved through non judgmental awareness and acceptance and gratitude for our own unique selves.  Which brings us to the second point from the quotes above……Can the moment be enough?  Oh boy, tough one for me - my knee jerk reaction to life is “more” - more fun, more joy, more for me, myself and my loved ones!!! Buddha said "the great addiction of all is our addiction to me, myself and I with the purpose of protecting ourselves."  Our instincts are often enriching, but sometimes (mine for sure) are often harmful to my own inner peace.  Thankfully I have done enough spiritual work that I know not to respond to my first reaction to life (most of the time I do this, but I often mess up!!!).  I have also done enough work to realize that if I am living in a place of an addiction to me, myself and mine then I am not filling my life with “more”, I am actually making it smaller.  Reread this….what do you think of that statement? Can you take a moment to write and see how this applies to you?  When we live from a place of scarcity and personal protection we actually keep people and experiences out of our lives - do you see yourself doing this in any area of your life?

 

Rolf Gates writes further about Santosha…..”Contentment is not complacency, it is reverence.  Yoga asks us to dip below the surface of the imperfect world created by our imaginations and connect to the divinity that underlies our existence.”  Where is your imagination taking you? Is it taking you to a place where you will only be content if you have “more of X, Y or Z?”  If so can you give yourself a moment to connect to the divinity that lies underneath your existence in order to make peace with yourself and your life today as it is, its enough - promise!

 

With acceptance and gratitude I say…Om Shanti - peace!