Living Santosha! Yoga isn’t the answer, Stop the bullshit! Rethink your Life.
The best day of my life was when I woke up! I had discovered beyond any doubt that my thoughts and feelings were creating my life. Learning to love my life with my whole heart (Santosha) helped me to attain more.
Today, I woke up on the right side of the bed. Well, every day I do that, because I love the life I’m living. As I rolled out of bed I stepped over a cockroach on my way to the bathroom, brushed my teeth, washed my face then gracefully stumbled into the kitchen. Made a pot of chai tea excited to try the brown rice milk my bestie made the night before.
While waiting for the water to boil, I took a peek at the seeds we are sprouting in recycled jars, looked out the window and felt a cool breeze come through the screen, brrrrr. Now, with a steaming cuppa tea, I’ve gone back to bed to take advantage of this cool weather not often the case in Nicaragua. No longer needing the fan because the sheets are still warm from the night before. I cozy in, enjoying the aroma of clove and cinnamon feeling the rhythm of my beating heart, a gentle reminder of this miracle to have another chance to make this day better than the previous.
Feeling grateful for all the wonderful things in my life I consciously quiet my thoughts and direct this energy into a constructive channel and start to write this blog, enjoying a few more days of pure solitude before new guests arrive and appreciating that my time in the ocean this afternoon will be spent paddling out beside my soul mate, connecting to nature, catching some waves and meditating on my surfboard. This is my life.
Listening to the sound of the wind as it whips through the trees I’m reminded of a busy mind I was once unable to control. My thoughts would race from one memory of the past like a sprinter running a fifty meter dash, then quickly to the next memory like tagging a relay race runner onto the next memory and then jumping ahead to a future thought that didn’t yet exist and like always it skipped the present moment. The present, without thought is where all the good stuff can be felt, heard, contented, tasted and appreciated. I hear a meow, reminding me to be present even with these passing thoughts as I write them down.
The rising sun starts to peek through the transparent curtain creating a beautiful green glow as it dances with the breath of mother nature. I sigh and take a deep breath of clean Nicaragua air and start to match my inhales to my exhales. Ahhhhh, yes, yes, finally....I have found Santosha! Truly, living Santosah (contentment) on all levels has led me to real happiness.
What is the best way to put forth the most positive energy?
Yoga isn’t the answer to a happy life but yoga and my many teachers including the teacher within taught me how to quiet and control my thoughts and breath so I can live in the moment and appreciate all the beauty that surrounds me in a crazy confused world. Some days it can be a real challenge.
How do I do it? Do the things you enjoy!
“Only do things that you enjoy, do what you want to do! What the fuck do you really want to do?” ~Joe Rogan
The conception of my company Seeking Santosha did not come from living Santosha but the name came to me at a time in my life where so much chaos and suffering was thriving due to my own unnecessary thoughts. Stop HERE. Appreciate this moment if it is happening to you right now because it is here in this moment we can learn and grow so much.
I was seeking Santosha. I had planted a seed with an unconscious intention to grow a garden of creativity, love, compassion and contentment from that day forward. I knew I needed to find my life purpose and nurture my soul where my restless mind could find some peace from the endless dance party dirtying up the dance floor of my mind. It’s like banging on a closed-door but through the window you can see your annoying neighbors throwing a big wild party you weren’t invited to and all you want is some peace and quiet so you can sleep.
I knew if I could quiet my thoughts and the words of others trying to tell me how to live my life I would finally be able hear the whispers of my soul and in this stillness my heart would be a compass and a true guide so my feet could start walking in the right direction down a path towards purpose and a life I really wanted to be creating. Each conscious step took courage but with each passing day and each focused breath I knew I was getting closer and my actions became unconscious. I stopped living and started creating.
Easier said than done, right? True, that’s why I’m saying it!
But with patience and compassion for yourself you have to start somewhere, so I did.
I started by doing yoga poses on a mat in a studio with a select group of close friends and spiritual teachers. I was guided through meditation and pranayama and while the physical practice made my body a strong vehicle for my spirit an internal transformation started here unconsciously. Nowadays I don’t go to a studio because I live in the jungle and have my own quiet space and after completing my yoga teacher training I do my own practice, meditation and pranayama. Yoga is not the answer to my happiness or my life. I do some form of yoga every day, I live a healthy lifestyle by controlling my breath, my thoughts, through meditation in my home studio, bedroom or on my surf board while connecting to nature. I connect with nature daily to keep in harmony with the oneness of all things and beings including my myself and the universe, or call it God if you must, a higher power, our maker.
Yoga is the method by which the restless mind is calmed and the energy is directed into constructive channels. Imagine a river that has been controlled and properly harnessed, this creates a vast revision of water, it prevents famine and provides an abundant resource. So, the mind, when controlled provides a reservoir of peace and generates abundant energy for our uplift. Meditation ignites the sleeping artist within and sparks my creativity, it is here in the silence that new ideas emerge.
Religion and yoga can give you inspiration but it isn’t the answer because it puts you on a single one lane road. Trust me, you don’t want to be stuck here. Don’t get attached to ideologies.
Santosha is not needing more, buying more, consuming more - it is not what North American society is teaching -MORE MORE MORE but merely being content with what you have. Unless we change this we will not evolve. When you live in the moment you appreciate what you have. Once you are happy in this place, your energy and dreams will start to attract other opportunities to you that will provide you with adventures, money, abundance, love and give you more because your soul is a magnet. You can’t fool the universe so take care of your self and be the most evolved version of yourself that you can be then you will be living Santosha, contentment which will attract even more beauty.
It is okay to seek ...go ON just be aware of what you invest in, partake in and consume along the way. Balance and devotion are key because if “You’re in the midst of a war, a battle between the limits of a crowd seeking the surrender of your dreams, and the powers of your true vision to create and contribute to all that is good. It is a fight between those who tell you what you cannot do, and that part of you that knows and has always known, that we are more than our environment; and that a dream backed by and unrelenting will to attain it, is truly a reality with an imminent arrival.” ~Anthony Robins
I wake up each day excited to CREATE my day. You’ll love what you’ve got with all your heart today, and you will be ready for more tomorrow. And the next day.
Watch this video by Joe Rogan and be inspired.
Be the most evolved version of you that you can be. In the words of Joe Rogan ...
1.) Put healthy foods in your body, eat many vegetables and the right amount of protein, a lot of water. Stop drinking soda. 2.) Stop the bullshit! 3.) Get a better idea of how your body feels when you treat it healthy. When it’s moving it’s flowing. Meditate. 4.) Be nice. Be cool to people. Smile. Tip well. Do the most you can. So what you want to do with your life. Do what you really want to do. If someone else is doing it, you can do it too! Follow the path you really feel pulled to.
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