Personal Development
Contentment

Contentment

Be grateful for what you have

As we have already mentioned, yoga aims to bring us back to a goal of well-being through detachment, letting go is learning to live, feel, take full advantage of every moment.

Yoga teaches us how to realize that it is all these moments, these little things marking out the path, these small everyday victories, which enrich us much more than the goals we set for ourselves and the material goods. This way of approaching life helps release the pressure, and gives us much more space to observe and welcome simple and precious joys. “Santosha”, described in the yoga-sutra, translates to “contentment” or “acceptance”. This personal ethical rule is at the philosophical foundations of yoga. Desire is a perfectly natural feeling, it is not about eliminating any form of ambition or envy but about being grateful. Isn’t it already wonderful to be in good health, to be able to eat when in hunger, to be surrounded by a few people who love us …? To take a step back from the demands of our society and to give back their place to the desires and the very numerous objects that we possess, is to detach ourselves from illusory needs that only add to our frustrations. We all need fulfillment, but many times we don’t look for it in the right place. When we take the time to take advantage of what we already have, we stop exhausting ourselves chasing chimeras, and we leave room for the feeling of gratitude, finally real satisfaction!

Become an actor in your life by welcoming the unexpected

When we begin to appreciate the path we are traveling, the intended purpose becomes less essential and the “pseudo-lacks” less burdensome. We accept the idea that existence is full of unforeseen events, and we live better with the fact that it does not always mold itself to our liking, to our desires. We can even finally appreciate these hazards by “letting ourselves be”, even when this is not what we had planned. Unexpected experiences, side roads, instead of frustrating us (because they did not fit our first desire) can become enrichment, whether they are otherwise pleasant or not. Because by going further in contentment, it is possible to learn to welcome even the most complicated, even painful trials. It is not always easy to take advantage of these difficult moments to transform them into enriching experiences, but it is to become an actor in your life, not only to subtle, but to act. Using our energy to build a life in our image, instead of rehashing a past that no longer exists or moping over what we do not yet have, is learning to compose with reality. Living in the present, satisfied with what you already have, does not mean having no goal, however, it is the only way to be truly in control of your life. Thus, letting go of certain requirements, leaving frustration and eternal dissatisfaction at the door frees us from a position of vic-time, to finally take our place at the heart of our life, to be master of our choices and, in a nutshell meaning, to fully experience free will.

Free yourself from the superfluous

We all have basic needs, but that’s not all. We are also desire beings, and we use a lot of energy in order to satisfy them. In our modern societies, we have long gone beyond the idea of ​​the need to make desires the master of our lives. Paradoxically, this has the consequence of creating a lot of dissatisfaction, to find joy in what is already. It is not a question of not having anything but of stopping always wanting to have more and to get rid of the superfluous. We can be interested here in this very fashionable method from Japan: the KonMari method, named after the author of a book sold in millions of copies, Marie Kondo. The principle is simple: we have too many items that we do not use or that pile up in the cupboards and pollute our house and our mind in a way. KonMari offers an art of Japanese reclamation which consists of clearing one’s house by sorting item by item. The originality of his method comes from the fact that the choice must be made, among other things, according to the joy that the object gives us or not. The basic idea is to organize your living space better, of course, but above all to separate yourself from what is not necessary (to offer oneself joy being also necessary). In any case, to part with material goods goes in the direction of the stripping of which yogi philosophy speaks, to approach a fundamental contentment with well-being.

 

 

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