In this week's Naked Soul Reflection, there is an offering to cultivate contentment and to choose to live from joy from a deeper place within.
Choosing to cultivate contentment and live from a deeper place of joy.


Santosa or contentment is one of the niyamas, part of the 8 limbs of yoga. The Niyamas are "personal ethics necessary for taking care of and developing oneself in order to live a balanced life." The Language of Yoga: Complete A to Y Guide to Asana Names, Sanskrit Terms, and Chants by Nicolai Bachman.

Excerpts from the Bhagavad Gita:

Those whose consciousness is unified abandon all attachment to the results of action and attain supreme peace. But those whose desires are fragmented, who are selfishly attached to the results of their work, are bound in everything they do. (5.12)

But ignorance is destroyed by knowledge of the Self within. The light of this knowledge shines like the sun, revealing the supreme Brahman.* (5.16)

They are not elated by good fortune nor depressed by bad. With mind established in Brahman, they are free from delusion. Not dependent on any external support, they realize the joy of spiritual awareness. With consciousness unified through meditation, they live in abiding joy. (5.20-21)
Source: The Bhagavad Gita (Classics of Indian Spirituality) by Eknath Easwaran

*Brahman = "energy of creation" per The Language of Yoga or "universal principle" in some other sources.