Awakening Contentment

Reading from Monday, February 13, 2012 yoga class

Several times each year, I visit my attic and closets looking for items to give away.  While performing this ritual a while back, I came upon an old suitcase--a huge, 1960's style, navy blue hard shell grip (as my grandma called them), lined in satiny light-blue fabric with little gathered pouches along the sides for small valuables.  I remembered that this suitcase had at one time performed a crucial function in my daily life.  For about six months in 1980 it served as a dining table.  We brought no furniture with us when we moved out West, and having no money to buy a kitchen table, my husband and I enjoyed many a fine dinner on the suitcase's expanse.  On special occasions we would cover it with a fancy scarf and add candles.  Those were times of relative austerity, but I remembered thoroughly enjoying our suitcase meals.  The finest dining table could not have made life any more complete. 

I could have easily have responded quite differently to this situation.  Had I thought that sitting on the floor and eating off a suitcase was a sign of deprivation, I would have felt embarassed.  If every time I sat down to dinner I ruminated about my lack of a proper table, most likely the food would not have been as palatable.  This period of my life helped me understand that being happy does not depend on the number or quality of objects I own.  Contentment comes from welcoming what is present, regardless of whether it fits our ideas about what will make us happy.  Contentment is deep acceptance of what is. 

I have often found myself thinking that I will be happy only when things change---when I make more money, when I find the right relationship, when I can get a bigger house.  Early in my yoga practice, I speculated that I would be happier if I could touch my nose to the floor in seated forward bends or if I could accomplish the more "advanced" backbends.  When these things came to pass, there was a moment of elation--it certainly felt great for my ego--followed by the realization that nothing had changed in my life as a result.  I didn't even behave in a more enlightened way when I got stuck in traffic on the way home from class.

Nothing creates greater dissatisfaction in yoga practice than the thought that your practice should be something other than it is.  You will receive the greatest benefit from practice when you stay present and appreciate where you are at this time.  There is no guarantee that you will become enlightened when your head touches your knee in a forward bend or when you can achieve a full backbend!  There is a possibility of greater freedom, though, if you relax your body and mind into your poses just as they are. 

Make a list of the things you appreciate in your life right now.  Reflect on this list regularly, perhaps daily.  Re-evaluate your list in three months.  Note how your life has shilfted.  Make a new list, if appropriate, and check it again in three months. 

                           From the book "Mindful Yoga, Mindful Life"  by Charlotte Bell