Sunday, May 4: day two of three – Santosha

Spending a quiet day at home today, trying to recoup from an awesome performance last night.

I’m getting the full performance pics from the official photographer, but I’m also really hoping some folks got a few photos of us since I neglected to take any groups shots of us! However in my defense it was a bit chaotic backstage and the added stress of fog machine irritating my lungs probably stressed me out beyond my normal “let’s take a bunch of selfies” skills. And then there was the lost-then-found wedding ring incident at the very end of the night to add more chaos and stress before we ended up enjoying each other’s company at my house post-performance. What a night! Good times!

Yoga:  Does sitting on the couch watching “Waking the Dead” for half the day count?

Pranayama: Given how sore my lungs feel today, I’m thinking that the fact that I’m doing any breathing today is quite remarkable. Practices in special types of breathing are out of the question for me today.

Santosha (or Samtosha) is most commonly translated as Contentment. The feeling of being content, or satisfied occurs when we have just enough— not to little & not too much of any given thing/emotion/person/place etc! This delicate Goldilocks balance is consistently in flux, kind of like riding a see-saw.
We set our selves up for disappointment or attachment when we rely on external circumstances to determine our level of contentment. These external circumstances are constantly changing and therefore causing our degree of contentment to rise and fall with the tide of our environment. A form of Liberation (moksha) comes when we can maintain inner contentment when circumstances, or people, don’t turn out the way we expect or desire. Accepting others for who they are is a big step toward achieving and sustaining contentment.
While the focus is to seek contentment from within, we must be cautious not to surrender our power to navigate our circumstances. Be aware of the tendency to resort to the “it is what it is” crutch. Some things can be changed, and if not, then our response to them can be changed.
How does this concept challenge you?
Observe, Honor & Activate the feeling state of Santosha!
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