Spring is very much a season of abundance. Plants come into bloom, nature emerges from hibernation, and the lushness and light of life returns after a rather long, dark Winter. In the sacred text the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna even likens himself to the season of Spring, which is known in ancient Ayurveda as the ‘King of the seasons’.
As was discussed previously in a piece about abundance, it’s about having, and being ‘enough’, but what is ‘enough’?
Santosha: Contentment
Also known as ‘Samtosa’, the two Sanskrit words ‘sam’, meaning ‘entirely’, ‘equal’, ‘same’, ‘completely’ or ‘same’, and ‘tosa’, meaning ‘acceptance’, ‘satisfaction’, or ‘comfortable’ come together to literally mean the acceptance of things equally and 
completely.
Being content and just ok about how everything is, is actually a very difficult practice. It’s much harder to be ok about struggling with something than to simply be ‘perfect’. To be content really means to be at peace and accepting the situation as it is, rather than
struggling and forcing against it. It doesn’t mean you don’t have to do anything about your situation if you want to change it, it just means you accept that it is what it is.
Becoming distracted in a Yoga class, in the middle of a conversation or while working isn’t necessarily a sign that you have a ‘short attention span, or that the situation in front of you isn’t enticing enough; it’s a sign of being dis-content. How truly content are we in each moment?
“Allowing the pleasure of the commonplace to shimmer is a lovely skill…. We used to spend hours on the grass, gazing at the sky. We knew contentment, and somehow we unlearned it. We became busy”
~ Matthew Remski – Threads of Yoga
The challenge isn’t in being the ‘best’, the ‘busiest’ or being ‘perfect’; it’s in being content no matter what stage we’re at. It’s not about becoming something different, it’s about becoming yourself. Your true self.
What are you waiting for?
When I was 12 years old, I heard someone say: “Life is not a dress-rehearsal, so stop treating it like one”, and it has left an indelible mark on my brain ever since….
The old adage “I’ll be ok when…..” is over-used and well past its sell-by date now. The second we tell ourselves we’re not ok as we are right now, we act from a place of lack, and we continue to do this over and over and over again, because that ‘when’ never comes. There will always be something to strive towards, there will always be some obstacle or another, there will always be a ‘when’ so it’s important to realise that we are in fact
‘now’.
In order to change, the first step is to accept exactly where, when and how we are right now. After all, how can you trust the direction you’re heading towards if you don’t know where you’re starting from?
If we continue to wait for something to happen, we will miss the things that are happening right in front of our very eyes – life is not only the grand and exciting things that happen to us; life is made up of the tiny, seemingly insignificant aspects of the every-day. The first thought you have when you wake up, the smell of breakfast, the conversation you have with a loved one – or even a not-so-loved one – the journey to work, the feeling of an old, comfortable coat, interactions you make at work, the sunset, and the last thing you hear before you go to bed. This is what real life if made up of, and it impacts our every waking second.
Being Enough Versus Being Ego-Centred
We say someone has a ‘big ego’ when they seem ‘full of themselves’, but when we choose not to show the world what we’re capable of, to hide away and to purposefully not express our authentic selves, we are also falling prey to the ‘ego’. To know you are enough is not to be arrogant, it’s to be honest, and it’s actually a whole lot more useful to the world….
Being ‘Enough’ Is Our Natural State
While nature is abundant in it’s most natural state; the world as we see it right now is anything but. We are full, but we are not abundant. We have a lot of stuff, but there is still a huge gaping sense of emptiness. We gorge ourselves on material possessions, processed food, expensive holidays and accumulation of wealth, but we still act from a place of lack. Because we are scared that we might not actually be enough….
Spend some time in nature; a week, a day or even an hour, and you’ll notice how abundant and generous and accepting everything is. There is no pressure to look a certain way, to hold a certain status, or to appear the most ‘successful’ on the surface, there just is, in each moment things just happen as they are. The world turns whether we tell it to or not, and it continues to give, maintain and transform life whether we say thank you or not. Nothing that is natural takes, it merely exchanges and gives back.
“Those who are empty take, those who are full give”
~ Brahma Kumaris
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