Santosha: Contentment, Happiness and Satisfaction
Casey and Erin talk about contentment. Erin starts by talking about her experience on a silent retreat with a Buddhist nun. The experience allowed a lot of time to appreciate life without all of the distractions and stimulations of technology, future aspirations, or anything outside of ourselves. Purposely creating gratitude in our lives is another way, but usually that takes creating some space and remembering that we are not our thoughts, mind, or body.
Casey and Erin talk about the benefit of retreats to reset our internal contentment.
Santosha invites us into contentment by taking refuge in a calm center, opening our hearts in gratitude for what we do have, and practicing the paradox of “not seeking.”
Many times we are seeking approval outside of ourselves. We look for it in approval from coaches, teachers, parents, siblings, partners, friends, and peers. When we do this, we give the away our power to create our own happiness.
Erin goes on to talk about a small book she has with little snippets of positive affirmations and then goes onto talk about the movie Magic Mike. If we fast forward through life, just the way we want to fast forward through the acting scenes and get straight to the dance scenes, we miss out on all of the wonderful character development.
When you love what you have, you have all you want.
When we resist and want to escape our lives, it makes it very difficult to achieve contentment and maintain it. If we can slow down and notice the significant in the insignificant, how much pleasure we can get from just breathing and being alive, or how beautiful a person looks when they smile to themselves, we are more likely to lead a happy life.
Seeking and Avoiding are expensive uses of our energy. If we are constantly trying to avoid pain and seeking pleasure, we will be exhausted and disappointed in the end. If we can learn to sit in the eye of the storm, we can watch the world around us and still hold our peace and peace for others. So that in good as well as challenging times, we won’t fall apart.
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