Santosha: The Yoga of Contentment

If we stop and reflect on our thoughts, we might realize that most of our lives are spent in a state of grasping. We reach forward for things we want: new shoes, a new job, a partner or maybe to lose weight. And we also reach backwards, with regret and remorse for what we did not get and for what we have lost.

Perpetual Dissatisfaction

This perpetual state of dissatisfaction was recognized by the ancient yogis in India over 2,000 years ago as a powerfully damaging aspect of the human condition, which, with great difficulty, and practice, can be overcome and controlled.

Santosha is the yoga of contentment — the first yogic practice of the second limb of yoga known as the niyamas, or external disciplines. Santosha is an invitation to practice contentment with yourself, and your life as it is.

This, of course, is a seemingly impossible yoga practice. In terms of level of difficulty, Santosha is harder than attempting a blindfolded handstand on a bed of nails while doing skull-polishing breath! That’s because life is never free of disappointment, of trauma, of pain and suffering, whether at the most mild or extreme ends of the spectrum.

My personal struggle with the yoga of contentment revolves around the sudden loss of my mother to cancer four years ago. How can I be joyful and grateful when I have been dealt such a harsh hand? I know that each one of you reading this, and everyone in the world, has their own unique story of pain and suffering.

Equanimity

As yoga students, studying the intricate details of what it means to be in this particular body in this particular life cycle, we have committed to exploring new ways of living. The yoga of contentment is another opportunity to embrace the sometimes counter-intuitive guidance of yoga, and notice how it can change our lives for the better.

The core of Santosha is the idea of equanimity: to be evenhanded in our victories and our losses. When we win the basketball game, when we lose a lover, to never ascend too high in pride, or to descend too low in dissatisfaction. In this way, the yoga of contentment constantly keeps us emotionally and mentally level, or balanced.

A Practice for Life

This yoga practice also reminds us of the very loose grip we actually have on life and its outcomes. It reminds us that we may be able to steer the car, but the road of life leads us through unmapped territory. If we can be content with the good and the bad, we can embrace the yogic principle of transience. This means embracing the present moment with an intensely satisfying sense of gratitude.

I learned from my mother’s passing and from my yoga practice to embrace life the way it is. In doing so, I felt the quality of my life increase exponentially. I loved more fully, laughed and spoke with honesty, appreciated each person and experience in my life with acute exuberance.

The yoga of contentment helped me learn how to have a deeper appreciation for life, how to remain calm in good and hard times. This is a difficult yoga practice that we must keep working hard at, continually, for the rest of our lives.

The Art of Yoga Multitasking

Multitasking is commonly thought of as a way to accomplish numerous tasks in a short amount of time with minimal effort and usually mediocre results. But what if I told you that combining yoga techniques, in the same amount of practice time and with minimal extra effort, could yield incredible results?

Why Multitask?

The art of yoga multitasking is about adding value and depth to your yoga practice without adding any more time. When you combine yoga techniques, which are usually taught and practised separately, you are also combining the benefits of these ancient actions, and their effects are exponentially increased.

Here is an examples of yoga multitasking to add to your home practice. Try it out, and then get creative and see what else you come up with! Having the courage to experiment and create a new yoga routine that feels great for you is an ideal way to deepen your yoga practice.

Asana and Pranayama

Pranayama, or breathwork, in combination with asanas, or yoga poses, creates a powerful detoxifying effect on the body and clarifying effect for the mind. In this case, we will combine kapalabhati or “skull polishing” breath with utkatasana or “chair pose”.

Utkatasana helps strengthen your thighs and ankles while stimulating your digestive organs and cardiovascular system. Kapalabhati breath cleanses the nasal passages and sinus, tones and strengthens the abdominal muscles, and creates an introverted and calm effect on the mind after practice. Combining these yoga techniques creates a powerhouse effect of physical and mental cleansing and invigoration.

Skull Polishing Breath

Kapalabhati is a rapid succession of sharp expulsions of breath through the nose. To practice this yogic breath you should have a good grasp of proper yogic breathing, and practice this in the middle of your yoga session. Begin with a deep inhale, then contract your lower belly to exhale sharply 20 times. Imagine that you are blowing out 20 birthday candles quickly, one at a time . After 20 short exhales, inhale fully, then slowly exhale and relax.

Contraindications

Utkatasana

Begin by standing in Tadasana (mountain pose), then inhale, bringing your arms above your head. As you exhale, bend your knees and drop your hips down, as though you were going to sit in a very low chair. Draw your navel in towards your spine to lengthen and protect your lower back. Drop your shoulders down towards your hips, and soften and spread through the base of your feet.

The Multitask

Once you have settled into this yoga pose, inhale deeply and do one round of kapalabhati breath. On the inhale, rise back up to standing, exhaling slowly while letting your arms come back down to your side. Close your eyes and notice the effects of the breath and pose. Repeat three times, taking sufficient time to rest in between repetitions.

Satya: The Yoga of Honesty

It’s hard to admit mistakes — to ourselves and especially to others. How many hours of our lives do we spend with that familiar knot in our stomach, trying to summon the courage to tell someone something that will hurt or anger them?

Social Creatures

Satya, the yoga of honesty, is a tender topic, which cuts to the very core of our existence as social creatures. This yogic principle invites us to refrain from all acts of deception and dishonesty. Ultimately, in order to do this, we must own our decisions by taking responsibility for all of our actions and the possible impact they have on those around us.

Owning our Actions

The second level of satya, after being very real and honest with ourselves, is to become aware of exactly what we are saying to everyone we speak to, which is a pretty all-consuming yoga practice!

A good starting point for the yoga of truth is to ask yourself: what is the intention behind my words? Or, why am I saying this?

You might be surprised to find that behind the rational thought process, there are very strong emotional reasons for saying something. So much of our speech is often tangled in feelings of blame, anger, shame, judgement or fear. This yoga practice is about cultivating an awareness of the emotional states that influence our speech and then making a conscious choice.

Emotional Motivations

Is is really honest to speak out of anger or fear? Yoga holds in the highest esteem the virtue of compassionate communication and forgiveness: only from this place can we release our minds from self-imposed suffering and the masks that we wear which hide our true nature.

For many years I was caught in a cycle of fear and anger. I feared exposing my writing to the world and potential negative feedback. I continually dreamed of being a writer but, out of fear, I would belittle my talents in conversation while speaking with strong angry undertones to those who were living my dream.

Letting go of my fear surrounding the challenges of being a writer has allowed me to speak about my dreams — to speak not only clearly but also lovingly with the successful professional writers I meet. This release feels fantastic for everyone.

The Three Gatekeepers

When you decide to commit to the yoga of truth, an invaluable tool to use is the “The Three Gatekeepers of Speech.” Take a few seconds to run through these three questions when you are having a discussion. Go through them in this order, and notice what happens.

1. Is what I am going to say true?
If so, you pass this gatekeeper and go to the next question:

2. Is what I am going to say kind?
If so, you pass this gatekeeper and go to the next question:

3. Is what I am going to say actually necessary?

When I do this yoga practice, I often don’t get through all three. That’s good, because it forces me to reformulate my ideas. This helps me pay attention to that fact that a lot of what we say is at best fluff and, at worst, unkind or untruthful. These three gatekeepers can help all of us shift our speech towards honest and compassionate dialogue.

Break Your Yoga Habits

We are creatures of habit. In many ways we can thrive from routine and the feeling of control that it brings. This shows up in our day to day life and in how we practice yoga. Yet, as we know, control is an illusion, and if we can practice being OK outside of its comfortable confines, we can more easily deal with traumatic life events.

Here are a few suggestions that will most likely stir up some resistance from within you. This is because you will experiment in your yoga practice by doing things that you don’t usually do — things you may find ‘uncomfortable’. But, be brave and adventurous: you never know what will happen if you don’t try.

Rearrange Your Will

Are you an A-type personality who has to do everything at 200%? Do you strive to stretch the farthest, sweat the most and breathe the deepest in your yoga class? Try taking a step back and practising at 70% of your maximum potential. You may notice that not-so-subtle, aggressive inner voice telling you to push harder. Where is that voice coming from? You may notice that when you ignore that voice and instead soften your mental effort, your body actually relaxes and allows you to deepen in the pose.

On the other hand, if you always practice way below your maximum potential, try moving closer to 100%. How do you feel when you widen your lunge stance and try the advanced option of a yoga pose? How can you release fear and anxiety and embrace your new-found yogic abilities?

Switch Studios

To those who say they only like one style of yoga: You don’t only benefit from things that you like. Do you always like going to school or to the dentist? You may not like something but you do it because you know it will be derive benefit from it.

So try going to a yoga class that doesn’t appeal to you. Attend it with as open a mind and heart as possible. If you find yourself enjoying it, don’t fight that feeling; and if you build walls of resistance, investigate your reasoning. So many of our choices are guided by what we think we should like and what we should be. Many times, going against one’s natural tendencies is the best way to bring balance into our lives.

Move Your Yoga Mat

One of the most subtle yoga habits you may have unconsciously developed happens just before you start class. It has to do with where you place your yoga mat. Do you walk into the yoga studio and see your spot? What goes through your mind when someone else is there? Have you ever actually asked someone to move? If you usually go to the back of the room so no one can see you, try front and center. If you normally take the front row so you can see the teacher clearly, go to the back and try listening more intently.

Our habitual tendencies reveal so much about who we are. Breaking habits is a way to listen to these stories we tell about ourselves. By challenging our habits, we get a chance to rewrite them.

Brahmacharya: A Life of Moderation

The life of an ancient yogi was defined by renunciation. Having few possessions and fewer worldly addictions, daily life was filled with self-study and self-less devotion. This yogic commitment meant giving up many foods, all forms of intoxicants and taking a vow of chastity.

Being a ‘Householder’

You and I, however, are household yogis — meaning that we have committed to practicing yoga to the best of our abilities within the realm of everyday life. We are not sitting in easy pose all day in a cave in the mountains. We are still going to work, raising children and paying taxes.

The yoga of brahmacharya, as introduced to me by my senior teachers, has to be slightly modified, or interpreted to meet the realities of our yoga practice. Brahmacharya, then, is not about giving up all earthly pleasures. It is, for us, the challenge of seeing our addictions and compassionately regaining power over them. It’s about choosing to say no to addiction in favour of a life of moderation.

Repression vs Management

A key point to remember when committing to this yoga practice is to differentiate between repression and management. If we repress our desires and cravings, then we are subduing them by force. Chances are they will resurface, no matter how hard we try to suppress them. When we manage our desires and cravings, we are controlling them in a very conscious way through volition.

The ‘householder’ interpretation of brahmacharya does not ask us to never have sex or eat ice cream; rather, we are to watch how often we crave these things and, if we are acting on very frequent cravings every time they arise, to learn how to say no. My teachers encourage us to control our cravings for something like ice cream by eating it once for every ten times we want it.

Breaking Cycles of Addiction

The deeper yogic principle behind this yama is the idea of life force, energy or prana. In the yoga practices of breathwork (pranayama) and posture work (asana), we are building prana — bringing more energy into our bodies and opening any blocked channels. In doing so, we are strengthening the health and well-being of our bodies and minds.

According to yogic philosophy, engaging in activities of sensual gratification drain us of the prana we work so hard to build in our yoga practice. Brahmacharaya is about being conscious and responsible in how we use our energy. At a very practical level, it can help us avoid and break cycles of addiction by building awareness and self-control.

Affirmations

Here are a few affirmations to help you practice the yoga of moderation:

I am moderate in my lifestyle.

I treat myself and others with respect.

When my energy becomes scattered I come home to my source and to the primary relationship with myself.

The Perfect Yogi Makes Mistakes

People feel a lot of pressure to be perfect in their yoga practice. I can’t count the number of times that I have spoken to people about starting yoga, and they said, “But I don’t know how to do yoga, I wouldn’t be any good at it.” I also can’t count the number of times that I have seen others, as well as myself, hold back during a yoga class for fear of doing something wrong.

Unrealistic Ideals

The hesitation and self-limiting ideas that many of us struggle with in our yoga practice seem to be symptomatic of the larger social pressure, and arguably innate struggle for perfection. Whether we are told we should have perfect skin, perfect bodies, perfect kids and work performance, this unrealistic ideal can be to a greater or lesser degree an ever-present part of our daily life.

When we step onto our yoga mats, we carry all of the baggage of daily life with us — our fears, our insecurities, our strengths and our weaknesses. So it is often the case that when we practice yoga, we are practising from an internal, mental space of judgement, of fear of failure, and of self-criticism that very obviously surfaces in how we hold our bodies and move through yoga poses.

Take Chances with Failure

Watching students — and more importantly, watching myself — doing yoga poses, it becomes clear that we often practice yoga within the safe boundaries of what we know we can do. This allows us to avoid making ‘mistakes’ (which I will put in quotations to make the point that there are no mistakes in yoga) and to therefore succeed in our perception of what it is to do yoga ‘right’.

However, as with our activities off the yoga mat, if we never take chances that may end in failure, we never grow as individuals. If we never take chances on the yoga mat, we never grow and evolve as yogis. A major result of practising yoga is self-transformation and personal growth. This is the gift of this ancient practice. And so, I invite you to evolve your yoga practice by making mistakes.

Falling Out of Tree

The next time you are hanging out in tree pose, experiment a little! Try raising the arm opposite to your bent leg above your head. Then, drop the other arm down by your side, resting the top of your hand on your knee or lower thigh. Now, start to slowly come into a shallow side bend towards the side of the lowered hand and bent knee. Did you lose your balance and fall out of the pose? If so, good! You are now exploring another edge of your yoga practice: learning how to embrace imperfection!

Another challenge to try is to come into tree pose again and then slowly begin to close your eyes. You can imagine your gaze at the third eye, right between your eyebrows, as your eyes close. Did you lose your balance again and fall out of the pose? Yes? Good!

It’s alright to laugh at ourselves, and it’s very important to see how serious we take things — how judgmental we can be. Soften your ego, embrace the places in your yoga practice that you struggle with, and compassionately let your practice grow.

Asteya: The Yoga of Non-Stealing

Yoga used to be a part of my life designated to a specific time and place. It was just another activity, like reading the newspaper, gardening or grocery shopping. But when I engaged with other branches of yoga to deepen my practice, I realized that every word I spoke, every weed I pulled and each apple I bought was an opportunity to practice yoga.

The third of the yamas, or inner restraints, is asteya: to not take what is not freely offered. When I began to practice the yoga of asteya, I viewed these everyday routines quite differently. This yama asks us to consider the act of ‘taking’ and ‘giving’ in all that we do. What is being taken and given when we enter into a conversation, or buy an apple, or read the newspaper?

What Is Stealing?

Moral prohibitions against stealing usually take into account such questions as the nature of a product, its value, ownership status and means of transferral. In addition to these considerations, asteya asks us to peel back these basic levels of stealing and explore the subtle ways we take what is not offered. Beyond material objects, the purpose of this yoga practice is to explore what immaterial things can be ‘stolen’, such as other people’s time.

Are you chronically late for meetings and dates? Do you often wear out your welcome or spring calls and visits to family members and friends without notice? This yogic practice is, like the others, about moving from habitual actions, that have us flowing unconsciously through life, to recognizing our actions, motivations and their repercussions on the wider world.

The Environmental Yogi

The yoga of non-stealing invites us to re-evaluate ‘who’ or ‘what’ can be the offering agent. If we consider for a moment, that the Earth offers us a myriad of invaluable things we use on a daily basis for everything from survival to pleasure, then what is the ‘give’ and ‘take’ relationship here? What do we take from the Earth that is not freely given?

This may well be the most complicated yoga practice, because on a surface level, we often buy from each other what we have plundered from the Earth. Trading in such goods does not fit the usual definition of ‘stealing’. Yet the yoga of asteya recognizes our plunder as theft and therefore throws so many of our daily actions and ideologies into ethical question.

Affirmations for Practice

The final word on asteya is that it is an extremely complicated practice. A note of caution: We should not be too self-critical when we open up to exploring this form of yoga; success is about learning to be aware of what is offered and not, to take accordingly, and to make the best choices we can at any time, knowing that no one is perfect. Here are a few affirmations to support your practice of asteya yoga:

I live in gratitude for all that I have.

I take and use only what is rightfully mine.

I respect the possessions, time and talents of others.

I release my desires to own objects or talents I do not have.

Aparigraha: The Yoga of Non-Attachment

What’s the most challenging thing you can imagine doing in your yoga practice? The splits? A handstand? While these advanced yoga poses take years of dedication and patience to accomplish, aparigraha may be the most difficult aspect of yoga to master.

What is Aparigraha?

Aparigraha is the second of the yamas (internal disciplines), as described by Patanjali in his ‘Yoga Sutras’. The guiding principle of this yoga practice is not to act on the impulse to be greedy. Immediately, this raises a massive red flag for contemporary western society, which is almost entirely, at a social and economic level, based upon the ideal of limitless wealth and ownership.

In many ways our capitalist consumer culture demands that the line between what we ‘want’ and what we ‘need’ be blurred. Aparigraha is in this respect the most necessary and difficult yoga practice we can commit to because it asks us not only to define the difference between ‘want’ and ‘need’ but also to relinquish the former.

Because it is so hard to start practising the yamas immediately in the realm of our everyday lives, the best starting point for this practice is on your yoga mat during your asana practice. This is why it is called a yoga ‘practice’, because you are practicing for that moment when you step off the mat and back into the outside world, when your yoga truly begins.

Explore Your Attachments

Once you commit to aparigraha at the yoga studio or in your home practice, begin by paying attention to the ways that you are ‘attached’ in your yoga practice. Are you attached to achieving a certain level of success in your yoga poses, perhaps based on outside influences of what that should be or look like? Are you attached to the outcomes of your asana practice in terms of how it will make you look or feel?

Once you have bravely begun to answer these question in relation to the microcosm of your asana practice, you may begin to find threads linking to the macrocosm of your life; perhaps a similar approach to the success of your career, or feelings of deep attachment to a spouse, or desire for material goods or wealth. The first step both on and off your yoga mat is simply to notice. True change can come only once we see things clearly.

Release Greed and Attachment

So why should we release greed and attachment? Because being attached to owning things and people — to goals and dreams — creates discomfort and unhappiness when reality happens: when people leave us or pass on, when jobs don’t come through, or when you never get perfect abs.

It’s not about being numb and detached; instead, it’s about loving people and seeing our needs clearly in a healthy way that recognizes the transient nature of reality. The yoga of non-attachment does not mean that we should give up our goals (in practice or in life), it invites us to simplify our goals by getting rid of ‘wants’.

This yoga practice is about cultivating satisfaction and fulfillment from within through simplifying. Aparigraha helps keep us moving forward at a steady pace, facing success and failure evenhandedly, helping us find emotional balance.

Build your Yoga Pose Like a House

Every yoga pose is like a house. A house has to have a solid foundation in order to stay standing. No matter how lovely the walls and roof may look, if the foundation is not built properly, the house will eventually fall down. In the same way, every yoga pose needs to be built from the ground up in order to assure proper alignment and stability.

Basic Principles of Construction

When a house is built, the foundation is set first, then everything else follows. Each yoga pose, whether standing or seated, follows the same basic principles of construction. This is a key component of your yoga practice that might be missing, either because the yoga class you attend moves through poses too quickly or because you have received inadequate instruction.

This concept of yogic ‘house-building’ is an essential way to deepen your yoga practice. Many times when we advance our practice we either skip important steps or lose sight of the basics in more complex ideas and poses. Revisiting the foundation of a yoga pose helps us pay attention to some bad habits that have most likely arisen out of routine, laziness and familiarity. This special attention also brings us into a deeper experience of our bodies and thereby of each moment.

A Few Ground Rules

Here are a few ground rules to help you build your yoga ‘house’. Try this during your personal yoga practice, so that you have enough time to explore the subtlety of every movement and adjustment. Notice the difference between how you first arrived in the pose and then notice how it feels and opens up after these simple steps.

Begin with your feet, or whichever part of your body is touching the ground. (For example: if you are in a seated pose, this will be your sacrum). Lift and spread your toes, imagining the soles of your feet softening and widening on your yoga mat. Notice if you are putting more weight and pressure into a certain area of your foot, like the inner or outer edges, and try to evenly distribute your weight across the base of both feet. Imagine growing roots down through your feet or sitting bones on each exhale. This will set your solid foundation.

Understanding Your Body

Now notice your pelvic alignment. In standing poses such as Tadasana (Mountain pose) or Virabhadrasana 1 or 2 (Warrior pose), your spine should be neutral. For forward folds such as Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward Facing Dog), your pelvis should be in a dog tilt. And for back bends like Bhujangasana (Cobra pose), you should be in a cat tilt. Imagine your pelvis as a bowl filled with water; when it is in a neutral position, no water should spill out. A dog tilt means that you are pouring the water out of the front of the bowl. In a cat tilt, the water pours out the back. In every pose think about where the water should be and realign, if necessary.

Finally, bring your awareness to your shoulders. Draw the head of the humerus (upper arm bone), into the shoulder socket, draw your shoulder blades down and flat against your back and let your sternum open. You should build your yoga pose from the ground up by first establishing your feet, then the hips, and then the shoulders. This will ensure proper alignment, a grounded pose, and deeper introversion and understanding of your body during your yoga practice.

Ahimsa: The Yoga of Non-Violence

Would you believe that you can practice yoga from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep? You don’t need a yoga mat, or yoga clothes, or even a yoga teacher – all you need is to grasp the principle of one yama or niyama (the first and second limbs of yoga), like ahimsa, and commit to the practice.

What is Ahimsa?

Ahimsa means ‘non-violence’, and is the first of the yamas, or external disciplines. To practice ahimsa is to avoid all forms of violence, not only to others, but also to yourself. At a surface level, this obviously means refraining from physically hurting anyone, or anything, including yourself. In the later instance, you could consider some of the ways in which we hurt ourselves, like eating poorly, abusing alcohol or drugs, contaminating our bodies with toxic chemicals through consumer cleaning and beauty products, or depriving ourselves of sufficient sleep.

On a psychological level, this particular yoga practice cuts to the core of our relationships. In this yogic invitation to avoid violence, we begin to consider the myriad of ways in which we actually cause harm. As you go through your day practising ahimsa, notice your thoughts towards others: the person that cut you off in traffic, or your inner-dialogue about the annoying co-worker. Do you find yourself getting caught up in thoughts of anger or jealousy?

Violence Towards Others — and One’s Self

Then notice your outer reactions to these thoughts, and how you might be hurting someone with your words, or if not directly, then in theory if they had heard your thoughts. You will probably notice, once you start to walk this path of anger and negativity, that in the end, even if your words, actions or thoughts did not in any significant way hurt the other person, you are left in an uncomfortable mental and emotional state of negativity.

In terms of the psychological ways we hurt ourselves, your yoga practice would involve being aware of the negative thoughts you have about ourselves on a daily basis. This process of actually hearing our inner dialogue is powerful and reveals the self-limiting concepts that we all harbour. For example: what goes through your mind when you make a mistake (even the smallest one), or when you fail to succeed at any goal (whether it be to do your taxes today, or to getting that promotion)? How do you feel when you have these negative reactions?

Practice Love and Compassion

The yoga of non-violence invites the yogi to explore the practice of love and compassion. When our thoughts are directed towards loving, non-judgmental awareness, on and off the yoga mat, we can release the negative energy of fear, selfishness, jealousy and judgement. Shifting your habits towards a mental state of understanding, patience, self-love and worthiness has a profound effect on our mental and physical health, and overall happiness. This practice is the absolute foundation of what it is to be yogic.