Creating joy through contentment

Yoga—like anything else worth learning—takes regular practice, even (and especially) when motivation is low. 

The gurus who translated the yoga sutras—the foundational principles of yoga—welcomed life’s trials because they offered the chance to put the yoga mindset into practice. Finding gratitude for an injury or illness is more challenging than being grateful for a great meal or good company. 

Regularly coming back to the yoga mindset teaches us to find happiness and joy from within. By shifting our focus away from external sources—material things or even relationships—for happiness, we also become less affected by what happens around us, what other people do and say to us. Yoga teaches us to be content, just as we are. 

Contentment, much like gratitude, is one of the foundational principles of yoga. Gratitude, the ability to recognize and appreciate who we are and what we have, nurtures contentment. And when we are content, when we feel whole just as we are, it changes the way we view the world and interact with others.

Gratitude and contentment are also liberating. They can free us from constant pursuit and consumption. And even from our emotions.

By practicing yoga, we understand that neither happiness nor hardship come from anywhere else but from within us and our perception. That means we are always in control to change how we feel and how we experience the world around us.