How yoga is built on gratitude
The cool and dark days of fall and winter bring an energetic shift; even during the rush of the holidays, or maybe because of them, there’s more space for reflection.
Thanksgiving comes with a call for gratitude. But holidays can have a way of challenging our sense of gratitude. They can be a reminder of loss or an obligation to gather with people we may struggle to engage with. Some of us might be reckoning with the harmful history of the holiday itself.
Yoga shows us how to find gratitude in spite of the baggage. Harnessing an inner peace can help us heal the world, not become complacent with it.
The foundation of yoga is gratitude. Yoga is an eight-part system that goes far beyond physical practice. It starts with the yamas and niyamas—the ethical and moral principles for how we treat ourselves and others. In that guide are multiple calls for gratitude.
Asteya, non-stealing, one of the five yamas, isn’t just about not taking things from others. It’s about not wanting more than what you have. We live that by being grateful for what we do have; that includes our convictions and our ability to recognize injustice.
The yamas focus on our treatment of others. If we’re satisfied with what we have, then we won’t take more than we need. And if we use what we have to live a more peaceful life, we’re serving others.
The five niyamas on the other hand put the focus on ourselves. Here we’re told to find santosha, contentment. As with asteya, gratitude is a natural vehicle for santosha. As Sri Swami Satchidananda defines santosha in “The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali:”
“Contentment means just to be as we are without going to outside things for our happiness.”
Santosha doesn’t mean we don’t strive for change or growth. But it allows us to appreciate who we are, what we have in the moment. It’s a reminder that we are whole and complete just as we are.
Through continued practice, we can learn to be grateful even for the hardships, the challenges and our missteps, in part, for the lessons they impart. That kind of gratitude requires us to shift our perspective, and to find the purpose in everything.
Living in a state of gratitude helps foster peace within ourselves. And that peace is contagious.