Experimenting with a yama or niyama allows Axis Yoga Teacher Training students to have real-life experience with how Yoga can affect their lives. This student worked with the niyama Santosha (contentment) to keep a healthy perspective and focus on the positive things in life.

The niyama I chose for my first experiment is santosha, or contentment. I selected this particular niyama because I have noticed how easy it can be to become wrapped up in daily life and in dealing with major life stresses, leading to negative thought patterns, a sense of unhappiness, or at the very least a general malaise. I have also found, during challenging times, I sometimes tend to focus on dealing with whatever mayhem is occurring in my life at that time and lose sight of the big picture, and the things that are good in my life. During these times I also often lose sight of myself, and my focus on physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing.  For this reason, I felt conducting my experiment on santosha would be appropriate and beneficial because contentment is something that fluctuates regularly for a 5th year doctoral student dealing with some significant life challenges.

I can lose sight of all the blessings in my life when things become difficult or hectic and feel a subsequent sense of general discontent.

A shift in perspective, or a gentle reminder of all the good things in life, and all the things I have to be thankful for, is sometimes exactly what I need. It is for this reason I chose to conduct my personal experiment on santosha. I was feeling the need to re-center myself and remind myself of all the reasons I wake up each morning and all the beings and things that put a smile on my face.

If I take time to mindfully acknowledge the things in my life for which I am thankful, instead of focusing my energy on the negative things, I will experience a shift in perspective and increase my sense of wellbeing.

To do this, I engaged in a gratitude practice. I kept a journal in my nightstand, and every night before going to sleep I wrote down three things I was grateful for. I left the parameters of my experiment open so my list could include people, places, animals, foods, stars, the weather, etc. Nothing was off-limits for the gratitude list. If I felt moved enough or touched enough to include the same item on the list more than one day per week, or even every day, I could. If the list ended up being all foods or all flowers, that was fine too. No judgment. No restrictions.

Every night before going to sleep, write down three people, places, or things for which I am grateful.

When I first began this experiment with santosha, I sometimes needed a few moments of thought to come up with three things to add to the list. But as I moved further into the experiment and began truly embodying the practice, not only did it become easier to come up with three things, some days it was difficult to only write three down. There were a few days I was so overwhelmed by gratitude I had to write down five or more things just so as to not neglect feeling or explicitly expressing gratitude. I knew things had shifted when I felt myself getting fired up in traffic one day and I was able to talk myself back from the brink by reframing the situation and mentally thanking the person in front of me (going 45 in a 65) for the opportunity to practice patience. Usually those people just get the finger, not my gratitude.

Taking the time to mindfully acknowledge and record three things I am grateful for each day was a powerful personal reminder to maintain focus on the blessings in life.

There are far too many negative things in the world to distract us from what is important and placing my attention on the things in life that make me happy, instead of things that upset me, helped create just the shift in perspective I needed to feel better on a day to day basis. Engaging in this experiment also helped cultivate a change in how I look at the world and events and people around me. This occurred after a week into the practice; so, not only did this practice help create a space for acknowledging the positives, but it also increased my general levels of contentment and influenced how I interact with the world around me overall. Pretty powerful stuff. 

I intend to continue with the gratitude practice indefinitely and I am grateful for the opportunity to participate in this yama/niyama experiment.