Shift in Perspective: Santosha

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.