Timeout.

Santosha - Contentment.

Our next Niyama to examine is Santosha or contentment. Diving deeper into Santosha we learn that contentment exists within. We may look outside but contentment doesn’t live there.

Society has shown us how to play this game. We’re so good at the game! It’s the game of eternally searching for external happiness. We want the shiny thing. We get the shiny thing. It’s great! Soon, it becomes old and tarnished. It was supposed to bring us happiness but it didn’t - we feel the exact same as we always did. Wait. What?! Okay, maybe this thing isn’t the answer. Maybe this next thing is. So, we get that instead. But, that didn’t bring happiness either. Hang on, this wasn’t supposed to happen. The shiny things are meant to be the answer to all our problems.

Contentment is an inside job friend.

I remember being on the plane from Auckland to Buenos Aires with a burst of excitement in my heart. In my beautifully innocent 32-year-old mind, I thought the year ahead would answer all of the questions I ever had about happiness. I thought a tango dancer would be waiting for me at Buenos Aires airport with ‘‘contentment’’ on a platter and lead me by the hand through the continent with a bag over my shoulder and inner joy tucked under my arm.

L O L Z!

It happens so often. I’ll be happy when I get….. the job/the relationship/the house/the car/the degree/the approval from my parents.

You work really hard. You get the thing. But happiness doesn’t come. If you’re not careful, you’ll have blinked and missed the middle part. The middle part is the best part, it’s where life happened.

I’m sure you’ve heard the quote ‘‘life happens when you’re busy making plans’’. I love this quote as it reminds us of the importance of daily things. The rainy Tuesdays are just as important as the contract signing. By being so laser-focused on the bigger picture, you risk losing sight of the smaller, more intimate details.

I love a good goal! Give me a training schedule, a savings target, a timeline. I’m your girl. Let’s do the things! AND - at the same time, let’s be mindful that things change. Injury happens. Jobs get lost. Panini’s hit and destroy the world as we know it (hello 2020!).

But, what happens then? you may ask. Santosha happens then.

Remember how excited you were to grow up. To go to school. To graduate. To travel. To get married. To have babies. To retire. It’s normal and natural to get excited; it’s a wonderful emotion we experience. It fills our bellies with butterflies and our heart with hope. But if we’re not careful, the dreamer within misses the reality of the now. If we get so caught up in the future, who is living in the now?

Think of your contentment is a delicate ball of glass. You own this glass ball and you protect it with all your might. You can wrap it in wool, keep it safe and dry. Give it what it needs to grow. Nourish it. Now give your contentment to someone else; your boss, your partner, your grades in school. They don’t shine it as you do. They sometimes drop it and bits smash off. They leave it on top of the fridge!

Your contentment can only be taken care of by you. Nobody else knows how, nor should they - they have their own contentment to look after. By giving our happiness over to someone else, we have surrendered control.

If anything this year has taught us, it’s that contentment was never in the raging to-do lists or the massive workdays. It wasn’t in the shopping sprees or the hustle life. It was in the connection we hold with our loved ones, it’s our health. It’s the security of our close-knit network of humans who fill our hearts. Santosha shows up as we surrender. The more we resist, the more resistance we come up against. Instead, lean into the knowledge that it’s all okay. It’ll all work out, it always does. The more we plan and run after things, the less room we leave for life to evolve just the way it is supposed to.

Swami Rama said ‘‘contentment is falling in love with your life’’.

So have the goal, see the big picture. But stay fluid in change. Lean into the challenge when things take a turn. Release the grip on the outcome and surrender to the journey as it is. You never know what you may miss out on.

Don’t be so focused on the outcome, that you miss the process.

Soar high, land soft.

Love,

Leonie Xx