The Yoga Niyamas: How to Practice Santosha, Contentment
Practicing contentment is about as illusive as learning how to clear your mind in meditation. Before you can clear your mind, you have to learn how to focus. This is why most meditation techniques use mantra, breathwork, visualizations and a whole host of modalities to maintain mindfulness. Similarly, there are a few practices you will need to work on before you can cultivate a state of contentment.
Santosha, the second niyama, asks us to cultivate contentment in our practice and daily lives. Despite the simple concept, there aren’t many action steps to help you implement the idea of contentment. That’s why I love Deborah Adele’s book, The Yamas and Niyamas, Exploring Yoga’s Ethical Principles. You are given real life examples, journal prompts, and action steps so you can better understand and implement the philosophies of the yamas and niyamas.
Santosha and the Eight-Limbed Path of Yoga
Each limb within the eight limbed path of yoga builds off of one another to create the system of practice. The practice of santosha, or contentment, is a part of the yoga niyamas, or mental observances. The niyamas are taught as the second limb after a student is competent in their understanding of the yoga yamas. This means that each yama and niyama leading up to santosha will aid you in your understanding of contentment. To learn more about the yoga yamas, the first limb of the eight limbed path of yoga, check out my blog post The Five Yoga Yamas.
Honesty & Letting Go
To begin, you first need to understand that you cannot practice contentment if you are not being honest with yourself. You cannot bypass your emotions and pretend like everything is fine when inside you might be fuming. Contentment is not an act of numbing out, but rather tuning in so you can understand yourself and the world around you better. It requires honesty about your own personal bias in a situation and an ability to see other’s perspectives. When you do this, you can choose to stop identifying with your ego and let go of that singular narrative.
How to Practice Santosha on Your Yoga Mat
In many ways, contentment is a highly personal practice as you bring awareness to the deeper layers of your being. This aspect of santosha is often brought up during meditation and asana. In order to clear your mind in meditation, you have to first acknowledge what’s on your mind. Notice your thoughts as they bubble up to the surface, without attachment or judgement. If you create stories with your thoughts or judge your thoughts, you will get distracted and won’t find that quiet space of peace. This is where the niyamas take your practice deeper, drawing inward towards that inner observer.
Acceptance, Non Judgement & Love
Consequently, the deeper you dive into your practice, the more challenging it becomes. When you start applying santosha to your physical practice, you see the direct correlation of the inner and outer experience. Yoga asana, or postures build heat and bring deep rooted mental patterns to the surface. When you come across these mental disturbances and physical barriers, it’s important to remind yourself of the very first yama, a practice from the first limb of the eight limbed path; ahimsa. Ahimsa is the practice of non harming or compassion. This is a foundational principle that you will be reminded of many times throughout your yoga journey.
You cannot practice honesty and non judgement without non harming. In the same way, you cannot practice acceptance and letting go without compassion. When all else fails with your application of these observances, return to ahimsa. When you meditate on ahimsa, you will more easily see how you can apply these principles to your daily practice and life.
Want to learn more about the yoga yamas and niyamas, check out The Yamas and Niyamas; Exploring Yogas Ethical Practice by Deborah Adele
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