Are You Content With Your Life?

Most people think that Yoga is like exercise that makes your body more flexible and helps you to reduce stress. Actually, though, Yoga is a spiritual path that involves much more than physical poses. Yoga consists of lifestyle practices (called “Yamas” and "Niyamas”) which make it distinct from exercise as we know it. Any one of these can be life-changing. One of these practices is “Santosha” or contentment. To practice contentment means to accept life for what it is and to stop grasping for more. Practicing contentment may sound simple, but is really quite profound.  

Much of our popular culture is based on making people feel discontent with their lives. Turn on the television, and you will see ad after ad telling you that you need something in order to feel fulfilled. Everywhere you turn, you get the same messages: do more, go faster, be better. More, better and different… after a while you begin to feel like a gerbil spinning on an endless wheel. How do you get off? Yoga says to be content with what you have and stop grasping for more. But what does that really mean? What if you don’t like your current situation? What if you are not content with your life? How do you practice contentment when you are swimming in a sea of discontent?

Probably the first and most important thing to remember is that Santosha, like all of the yamas and niyamas, is a “practice” which means that you don’t need to get it right the first time. You put one foot in front of the other, and if you stumble along the path, then you get up and start all over again. Practicing contentment doesn’t mean that you think about external things that will satisfy you – that will put you right back on that spinning wheel! Instead, you just be content with whatever you have and wherever you are. Be present to your own life and celebrate what you have, instead of wishing for what you don’t have.

Many times at the end of a Yoga class, students will comment on how relaxed they feel – how the little things don’t bother them as much. In that brief moment, they are content - they have gotten in touch with their true self, and have discovered the source of their contentment. It is an internal source which has nothing to do with all the things they have in their lives.  

Here is an affirmation that can help with this practice: “This Day…I am content. I am grateful for what I have and for what I do not have. I learn from both joys and disappointments.I refrain from criticism and fault-finding. I don’t try to change anybody. I accept myself as I am and as I change.”

Practice contentment and see what happens in your life…