Ep #30: Limb Two Niyamas: Santosha, Contentment: Gratitude, Abundance and Presence, the NOW

You are a yogini (even if you don't think you practice "yoga")! Find more peace, harmony and love on the way to a healthier you! Slayer continues to prove her point as we progress through understanding this path of self discovery through age old principles passed down from Maharishi Patanjali of the Yoga Sutras. Slayer shares how Gratitude, Abundance and being Present affects our health and weight loss journeys and how we can incorporate more of this in your life. As if this isn't reason enough to listen, we get to enjoy more off key singing by Slayer in this episode, but don't worry, it's quickly and pretty painless and will keep you coming back for more.

Slayer LIVE Caged Tiger Sermon on her Mount (mentioned in this episode)
LINK to Slayer's Facebook LIVE Caged Tiger Rant

Mentioned in this episode:
The Four Soul Questions
Who am I? What is my purpose? What is my heart's desire? What am I grateful for?

Shaman Durek's book (Slayer recommends this in audio version as Shaman Durek reads it himself and is very entertaining)
Spirit Hacking: Six Shamanic Keys to Reclaim Your Personal Power, Transform Yourself, and Light Up the World

AddieBeall.com


Get Social with Me!
Facebook Namaslayer (LIVE weigh in Sundays at 7 AM Mountain / 9 Eastern)
YouTube Addie Beall @addiebeall2574
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Transcript

Santosha (Contentment)

If you have been following along, you know I am in the midst of relating the Yoga Sutra’s from Maharishi Patanjali from 500 AD to my weight loss journey and the path I have been creating at Namaslayer and the MEFirst Sisterhood. 

Last week I shared about Saucha, which is the first of 5 principles of the Niyamas of yoga and has the sisterhood clearing out their closets, LOL. 

Did you listen? Did you decide to clear your gut, brain or space? I’m always curious what impact, if any listening had in your world! Please feel free to message or email me at slayer@namaslayer.com. I love mail!

Personally, I had to clear my brain out. I shared on a LIVE I did on the Namaslayer page the other day about feeling like a caged tiger (I’ll link to that live in the show notes incase you want to see a LIVE Slayer Sermon on the mount—I get into a bit of a rant about half way through. lol). 

So, pacing like this tiger, I realized that while I do my magic morning pages each day, which is a stream of conscious writing and really gets most things out and clears the space for creativity for the day, the space has been elusive this week. 

I would like to blame it completely on the blood moon, but I know I need a bigger brain dump and to get my calendaring done in detail, into the future and I have been avoiding this out of indecision. 

This weeks’ podcast was timely for me as I realized I have not been feeling my normal level of Santosha, the Niyama we are going to discuss today.

Therefore the caged tiger pace. 

Being content and experiencing Santosha is a peaceful happiness that comes from being happy with what you have right now and what you don’t have. 

Experiencing the now with a detached awareness of self, that keeps you in a place of joy and love.

We continue our exploration of the 8 limbs of yoga in relation to our weight loss and health journey by continuing on to the Second Limb and the Second Niyama (2 and 2 as Chuck Worlrey would say—who remembers that guy?) Santosha, of course

I originally had some resistance to the word contentment and had to look it up. 

I felt like it meant I didn’t want something more, and that is not the case. 

Contentment means you are peacefully happy. 

I thought on that a bit and realized, yes, of course I can be content and still want more--

This is what I have been experiencing a good portion of the past year. 

Finally content—happy with me, who I am, where I am—because I have started to remember who I truly am. 

That magical light being I am!

When I feel and see myself out of alignment—usually I notice this because I am not peacefully happy. 

Usually I have slipped into Corporate Addie “do do do” High Achiever mode which you have been hearing about recently because I see her rearing her head right now. 

I just do ALL The things. When this energy comes about it brings a scarcity mindset--

There isn’t enough time, I can’t possibly create that amazing things and help all these people. 

Perfectionism will rear its head…all the not good enough stuff that used to stop my dreams in their tracks!

What does this have to do with weight loss and health? 

EVERYTHING! WHY? Because guess what happens when we are not feeling content? 

For many of us that means we eat it, drink it, watch it away. 

We process the emotion outside of ourselves. 

We don’t feel GOOD about ourselves now so we act in ways that don’t serve us…therefore perpetuating the cycle. 

Today I will share some tools that have helped me release more of Corporate Addie and embrance my inner Yogini. These tools help us practice Santosha more in our lives and live a more peaceful, happy life and guess what the side effects of that are? 

A healthier body, mind and soul! 

That’s right…who knew that losing weight and finding health didn’t have to be a path FULL of misery and struggle? 

What? 

Seek being present and being happy?  

Pashaw! Who ever heard of such a thing??!

Patanjali teaches us that in being students for life and working on these aspects of ourselves we uncover in practicing all the 8 paths of yoga…..we start to remember more and more that light inside and we live in more love naturally, which means also we live with less fear and create more amazing things in our life!

My new thought I’m working on is “I am free from attachment to things, thoughts food and wine.” 

It’s still a work in progress, I know that isn’t my future thought yet, because I won’t actually THINK that when I’m free, because I will be FREE already. 

FREE meaning, I literally don’t have a thought for these things unless I need to fuel—it’s not about that love for the taste of pizza. 

I will be beyond that in my end game vision.

I know this is possible because I have seen it happen to ME as I have been experimenting with fasting, getting the sugar and gluten out. 

I have also seen this happen with my clients as they experience this miracle. 

One recently told me, “it was crazy—I normally get something at the bakery when I shop and I just walked by it, and later realized I didn’t even think about it.” Yes, indeed. 

That’s because your amazing vessel of a body was clean and clear my dear Willow, you were fat adapted! 

How FREEING was that? The bakery didn’t control you. Hmmm….

I have seen this happen over and over again as women get their bodies cleaner and this weight loss thing we have battles for life just gets EASIER. It’s really like a miracle, but also, a world in progress. 

We catch glimpses of this freedom from food, but ineveitable we all want to dable with putting these things back in that cause our bodies to have attachement to the things—so there is the mindwork that goes with that, but the more and more we practice the freedom, the closer we get. 

We can also catch glimpses of freedom from the rat race, freedom from Corporate Addie mode, and other habits that bring us negative energy. 

There is still the mind work, but the body can be FREE from it and this episode is more about actions we can take to help free ourselves—where the last epidode, about the first limb of the Niyamas, Saucha was about purity, or clearing space. 

Let’s be intentional with what we put in the space so we can cultivate more Santosha, shall we?  

This Niyama, Santosha to me means that I have that KNOWING. I’m in the present moment and know that I am whole, complete and taken care of –having all my needs met without anything but the connection to my spirit. 

Deepak talks about our needs being the Four A’s: Attention, Acceptance, Appreciation and Affection. When these are met, we feel complete. We often look outside ourselves for these things. 

Practicing Santosha, we realize these are all met within. 

As we release the attachement and need for other people to listen to us, to be accepted by others, to need love from others or receive affection from them. When we realize we are whole as is, we meet all these needs ourselves and we have a new sense of freedom. 

In this freedom, Material things are fine—great even, it’s nice to have that new car or house or Adventure RV--whatever, but we don’t need them. We aren’t any less or any more with or without these things. 

In fact, a great way to practive Santosha in your daily life is to focus on your material things more—become materialistic. 

Shocking, yet? 

Not in the way you think though—in this aspect you will focus on taking great care for the things in your world—this includes not only items in your home, which if you have been practicing Saucha, perhaps you have cleared your space to include only things you use and bring you joy as you are clearing space for abundance. 

Now you focus on caring for these things really well…and this includes things like maintenance of our cars, bodies, the trees in your yard, the environment around you, the earth. 

You show love to these things in this physical experience because we realize we are NOT this experience, but are able to be here and have the joy of this experience. 

I remember when this hit me, up in Michigan last late summer. I have a picture from that day. I remember being so amazed with this realization. 

I had been on the road since June in the Adventure RV. This magical little space, just mine that I created to be like a mini version of my vision board. I removed the RV furniture, got a new toilet (essential, my friends—gotta have a clean shitter) a new mattress (also imperative). I had the painters blast it out in White and new wood plank vinyl floors put in.  

The oriental rug, also referred to as the magic carpet arrived from a friend that was visiting over seas shortly after. I removed the cabinet covers over my living space to create a book shelf look and voila! 

I had my magic space. 

The Universe had set me up, through my creation of a vision of what I desired. It set me up in a way I could not have dreamt up myself. I followed my breadcrumbs thought. I spent the summer adventuring with my daughters, and on a deep dive into my spiritual practice with the Chopra Center guidance. 

I had this overwhelming sense of contentment as I was sitting in this nook writing and looking outside the window. 

I was parked at one of my best friends homes in Michigan (thank you Heather!!) I realized just how content I was, for the first time in my life. 

And, it wasn’t because I was off on this great adventure and doing all the things, that was all fun for sure—but also not easy. 

I was just so peacefully happy…sitting in my little nook writing on my computer. Realizing I didn’t need anything to be happy. 

It just HIT me. Now, it was a work in progress for sure, and still is. 

This is why it is called a practice…and a yoga practice of santosha is just that-awareness on the level of wholeness already. 

We can honor and love the things in life, and experience the joy of living, and all the other emotions we may not want to experience, but as we do, we are experiencing the NOW and can practice it with contentment, no matter the situation. 

This week has brought up a lot of thoughts of my Mom and her battle with cancer, and the impact it had on me turning my life around and learning to live in LOVE even when things were not rainbows and daisies. 

Her battle brought me back where my body is happiest, in Arizona. 

Literally, my body loves it here. 

I was really sick in Hawaii and was quite a bit growing up in Michigan. 

She brought me closer to my Aunts and Uncles again. 

She brought me home to my soul. Mom always knew I would find my way. She never lost faith. When I packed up in the middle of the night and left Michigan when I was 19 and called from Texas to say I was alive, she said I love you, you will be fine. 

When I was over eating and drinking and hiding smoking, she just loved me unconditionally. She never said a word, and she knew, for sure. 

She just always said she knew I would find my way. 

And, I did at 46, I had my soul awakening, as she was saying goodbye to this body and this life time. 

What a magical thing really. 

I was there at her last breathe and I really feel like all of her immense love and heartsing….and she had this in bushels—all of it flowed in to me. 

I went to the mountain that morning before I went to her bedside and made sure I was in the right heart space. 

I knew the end was near, but I had no idea how near. 

I didn’t know that this would come up in this episode about Santosha, but it’s flowing—so let me tell you this. 

At what could have been one of the darkest moments and times of my life, I was full of love. 

I was able to be present and full of light for her because I was practicing santosha. 

I had the KNOWING that I was one, that we were one. 

I told her it was okay to go, and she did.

And I was grateful she was no longer in physical pain, and grateful that our love is infinite and not attached to these things, even these bodies. 

Just like in Michigan, a year or so after her passing—sitting all alone in my magical space I created, with none of the “THINGS” 

And, yet, here I was….peacefully happy. 

Grateful for just BEING. 

For creating my life. 

For stepping in to drive the bus instead of being a passenger.

So, this leaves the question…how do we create this santosha? 

You might be thinking, “Slayer, that’s all fine and dandy for you, but I have responsibilities, I can’t just slip off into the dark of the night and live how I want to live.”

First of all….um, that’s a LIE, of course you can. 

You create this life. It’s a decision to stay where you are, in your responsibilities. 

The sooner you own you are the co-creator, the sooner you can step out of the victim mentality that is keeping you locked in living in fear and you can step into a life you are living from love. 

It might not be your heart’s desire to travel around in an RV anyway—what does your heart call you to? 

What IF you do write the story? 

Sine you are the Co-Creator here, not the victim, let’s talk about how you can CREATE what your heart’s desires. 

There are practices you can do each and every day to put you on this path, and while you can practice santosha on a yoga mat, that’s not what this podcast is about today. We will talk about that when we get to the 3rd limb of yoga, Asana Yoga. 

Here Yoga is meaning union—of body, mind, soul, breathe, environment…all of it. 

How can you create more joy, love and happiness in your life? 

We are going to talk about the BIG THREE today. 

And, no, this is not a This is Us Reference 

I’m talking Gratitude, Presence and Abundance

When we cultivate the mind-body-soul connection that bring us to these places of being—we experience more santosha in our lives. 

So, let’s break it down. 

Gratitude. I’m quite sure this is probably not the first time you have heard of the impact of having a gratitude practice in your life. Oprah talks about her Gratitude book by her bedside—and how she refers to it each night as she writes in it and adds to the list.

How else can we cultivate more gratitude in our lives? 

Gratitude is the highest vibration emotion, they say. 

It’s in this heart space that we create from. 

This is the emotion I feel when I weep in meditation at the grandeur of knowing who I am. That to me is the feeling in my body of this emotion. 

Do you know how gratitude feels in your body? Start to take notice.

Part of the process in our MEfirst Guide, we have a circle of gratitude to reflect on what you are grateful for each day, and at night what you are grateful for from the day. 

My Gratitude usually looks something like I think of a million things I’m grateful for, my heart swells, and then I’m left with one word to describe it all, and in that space, I write this word. 

Sometimes it’s Universe, Life Force Energy, Love. 

Sometimes I will attempt to cram the million things I’m grateful for in the circle, but always through the process it comes to this knowing of the oneness. 

I love the process at night. 

I can always find 3 things, but sometimes I have to think long and hard…and this process takes a day that was less than mediocre and flips it on its head. We do this first before we assess our days. 

Then we are in the heart space to be kind and loving to ourselves as we review. 

Another way to do this is to ask yourself the Soul Questions as you head into your meditation practice.  

Who am I? What is my purpose? What is my heart’s desire? And…what am I grateful for? 

The answers to these questions you might not know yet, but it’s always a good time to just start asking the Universe. These aren’t for you to devise answers for from your brain, rather you allow them to arrive—in an experience. It can be a thought, vision, idea…but the trick is to just allow it, not force it. Just like it’s the trick with meditation—nice and easy. Just allow.

When I do this, it starts the shift from my ego self to a space of awareness of my inner self. I can literally feel the shift in my body now. 

Do you already have a gratitude practice? What does it look like? 

Practicing gratitude also helps you stay in an abundant mindset. And living and being from abundance is key—

Being grateful NOW for the body you have, your finances, your life—this process of living in abundance is what creates more of it. 

You have all heard like attracts like-the law of attraction. 

If we spend our life talking about how fat we are, or how we never have enough money for all the things we want to do, or how we are too scared to ever take a chance to even DREAM. 

Guess what we get? MORE of it. 

You can see this world through the thought process too—think, feel, act. 

We perform an action, called Karma that leads to a memory of that action, samskara and to the subsequent desires. This is called the Software of the Soul in the yogic world. 

In the life coaching world, we see this is known as the think-feel-act cycle mixed with habits. 

Which makes since because at this stage in life 90% of our thoughts are habitual. 

They are from everything we have accumulated along our journey in life. 

All of those limiting belief thoughts you have? Nothing more than a habit. 

I’ve been listening to Shaman Durek’s book Spirit Hacks—so fun by the way. He talks about when he died and had conversations with an elder before he returned and he got to ask all these questions and he peppered her with questions about what was wrong here on Earth. 

The answer in each instance was Thought Error. 

Wow. 

To be able to boil down any and all issues to that simple, not so simple process. 

Seeing as we have 60,000 thoughts a day

So, how do we start to repair our thought errors so we can live in more santosha? 

Well, if like attracts like, we do the things we DO want.  We think the things we want to think. 

Part of this awareness of self comes with the power of the knowledge that YOU ARE IN CONTROL.

You get to choose. In EACH moment how you want to think, act, feel. 

It might not feel like it, but we do. 

I can choose to be joyful when I think about my mom, or I can be sad and depressed she died. 

Guess what I choose? 

What are you going to choose to think, feel, and act? 

And, how can you do it from abundance? 

So, start focusing on what you have NOW that you love and want to keep in your world. This will bring you gratitude. 

Get in that space of abundance, and then think about those things you want to add in. 

For this week, and practicing Santosha, bring yourself to that space of awareness. Of gratitude and abundance. 

When you see those negative thoughts come in, or actions, try to steer toward a more positive vibe. This doesn’t mean you ignore it and start rapidly repeating some affirmation you don’t believe however. 

Maybe you have to take it out and take a look at it…like we talked about last week as we cleaned our brains out. Whatever it takes to clear your vibes. 

I do this with my new thought I’m working on each day. 

Until it is a belief, I have doubts in there that will come up each and every day. I watch them rise each morning as I write it, and then I write counter thoughts to all of these negative thoughts. 

I’m training my brain. 

Just like you can train yourself to do new habits, you can train your brain. 

Isn’t that great news? 

Bottom line: you can train your brain for more happy!
 Regardless of circumstances. 

When you live and approach things with LOVE there is not room for fear, anger or anxiety. 

It’s a practice of Saucha really—clearing space, but goes hand in hand with learning to live in more love and joy….and seeing that you are the observer. 

This brings us to present moment awareness. 

Being in the NOW. 

This is a bit of a buzz word—being MINDFUL, focusing your attention on what you are doing. 

Whether it’s a conversation you are having, eating a meal, playing a game—whatever it is, having your mind present and focused. 

In addition to this, my favorite way to think about being in the NOW is releasing the past and the future. 

The past does not exist now. 

This is where so many of us get caught up. 

Because I have been fat my whole life, I’m destined to be fat forever—see all the proof, we say?

We use our past, which science statistically shows us that we only remember 50% accurately anyway, we use this to color our NOW. When we can learn to release it. That our past does not define us, we can start to create a different, alternate future and live it NOW. 

This is the tricky part if you ask me and what I am always working on. 

To see the future, create the vision, and release it. To plant the seeds of intention. 

To not allow Corporate Addie to storm in and take over the vision with all her do do do High Achiever mode. While we need some of that, we do need to take action, it’s in the understanding the path with unfold. That part the Universe is bringing to us, we just move toward that bigger vision and watch for those bread crumbs. 

Look, you might not have Corporate Addie, you might have People Pleasing Patty to deal with that comes out just as you start to put yourself first and move toward YOUR desires—your souls desires, you shove them down and put others first again, ignoring your own needs and then you might shove down your soul in there with whatever is handy probably –food, wine, Netflix, social media—you know the culprits. 

We let these parts of us that were created from our past, and from habits to squeeze out our Santosha.

It’s the past that I see haunts people the most. We look at this as proof. We are taught this is logical—which is not. So much of it is not even truth. Start releasing. 

Allow yourself to LEARN as an observer from your past, but don’t let it define you. 

Learn to step into fear of the unknown—the magic in the future and in dreaming again  

You are on the HUNT for those desires. Ask yourself What IF???

This will all lead to Santosha, but for now you must seek as you uncover the light, release the layers and get to that knowing inside. 

WHEW! Sure, seems like a lot of action for peaceful enjoyment huh?! 

LOL…think of it like this—you can do Magic Morning pages, meditate and a full plan including a gratitude practice and self-reflection in the same amount of time it will take you to watch your favorite Netflix show episode, or get in a Facebook scrolling worm hole. 

So, what will it be? Do you choose to start practicing the yogic path and putting YOU first so you can better serve others? 

Do you choose Santosha, contentment in your life, or whatever else is in its place that you are telling yourself is more important than time spent on YOU? 

Are you going to drive your bus into that field of infinite possibilities or keep playing it safe? 

Let’s light this B up!!!

Take away this week—remember…pick one little thing that stuck with you to work on. You can always come back and pick up more as you are ready. Step away from perfect—baby steps!

Start a gratitude practice of some sort if you don’t have one already. Get a nighttime notebook like Oprah, practice in your planner or MEFirst Guide, start a gratitude jar and drop in something each day you are grateful for and at the end of the month read them all. Start a collage with them! How fun would that be? Get creative, have some fun. 

Abundance—grateful for what you have already and start to see from a space of unlimited protentional and notice when thoughts from lack come in. 

Present Moment awareness—breathing is a good way to get present. Try it now. Take a few deep breathes and notice how much more centered you feel. Your breath is part of your energy and is tied to your body-mind experience. Start to use it more to focus. When you see yourself “WORRY” realize that this is just your imagination—and you can choose in the moment to use your imagination for superhero things or to stress yourself out. This is your creative brain, and our primitive brain likes to go to the space of worst-case scenario. You can retrain your brain in these moments. Ask yourself, “Are you worrying about something not in your control?” Is it possible this isn’t even going to happen? What could you better spend your energy thinking about? 

Have that dream, the vision and the goals, plant the seeds in the Universe, and then let it go. Focus on your present moment and creating what you intend in each moment, allowing the Universe to deliver the path.

I hope you have joined us already in the heartsing podcast community on Facebook!

And, with my heart full of abundance, love and gratitude for just the way things are right now…. thank you all again for your support of this podcast! I would be honored if you keep sharing and if you haven’t made the time to drop a review yet, it really helps the podcast get noticed, and it’s appreciated so much! 

Many Mahalos!