Santosha: The practice of contentment in a world that asks us to desire more

I started writing this piece thinking about how santosha, as a concept, translated in modern living as this practice of being content with what we have or who we are at the moment and not falling prey to envy, jealousy, or greed. To not desire endlessly. After all, santosha translates to "absolute contentment". And as one of the niyamas or inner disciplines, this is how santosha is usually presented in modern yogic discussions.

And yet that version of santosha seemed a little bit too individual-focused to me. While that does not discount that santosha’s main point, truly, is to promote the practice of contentment, that inner discipline is being asked of us yogis in a setting so different from the time Patanjali wrote his yoga sutras.

Today, we exist in a world that asks us to desire more.

What do I mean by this? I mean that the world as it is at the moment is a world fueled by people’s desires. A desire to go on that vacation to Spain, or a desire to buy a new car, a desire to quit one’s job, a desire to be famous in Tiktok. And this desire is often fueled, too, by the mini interactions with other people: when people ask you when (and where) your next vacation will be, what you plan to buy with that hefty bonus you received, the complaints you hear about your boss, or the promise of brand deals when you finally become famous on social media. It builds and builds, until the accumulation of desires becomes part of one’s identity. Or even our whole identity.

And so santosha becomes a very difficult practice. Because despite the conscious effort of wanting to be content with what we have, the world continues to fuel our desires to have more. The world feeds us stimuli to consume, easily ingested through hours on social media, which trains our minds that when we finally fulfill these desires, then we are complete. Yet there’s the trick: because after one desire comes another and another and another. And it is really only up to us to break the chain and pause.

It is so easy to want the next iPhone or Samsung, to plan another vacation just after we landed back home from the previous one, to get that midnight snack in despite being so full after dinner. It is not solely our lack of inner discipline or lack of santosha practice that led us to these decisions, but also because the world we live in has trained us to desire up. It also enabled an environment where desiring up becomes easy and accessible: by giving us technology (new releases every year) and efficiencies (like your 24/7 convenience stores and delivery apps) that bring us whatever we desire to our doorstep immediately. I, too, fall into this routine of desiring up. And while it may seem harmless at first, desiring up and going through the motions of a world that loves to fuel our desires, can lead to so much issues later on. 

Practising santosha by being enough

In 2023, Dr. Vivek Murthy published a study and told the world that we are now experiencing a loneliness epidemic. And in this study, 73% of surveyed individuals noted that technology was the prime driver of their loneliness. Notable here was how technology has been monopolizing our attention and even diminishing our self-esteem, often fueled by the fear of missing out on trends and reducing social interaction from in-person hangouts to anonymous tweets behind a screen. While the study relates this loneliness epidemic to a lack of community and a growing trend of isolation, it is also reflective of the growing demands the world has imposed upon us just to be regarded as enough.

Patanjali wrote in his yoga sutras: "santoshad anuttamah sukha-labhah." From contentment comes supreme happiness. 

Santosha asks us not necessarily to stop desiring altogether, yet to desire mindfully. To discern whether what we want is truly what we believe is necessary, to not be tied to our desired outcomes when things veer out of control, and to stay resolute that one’s self-esteem and self-worth is not defined by the next best thing.

To cure this loneliness epidemic, santosha asks us to discern whether the desire we have has blossomed from a place of mindfulness or maybe it is fed to us by social media, peer pressure, or herd mentality.

Santosha, in its truest form, is a resistance: a resistance from being “not enough”.

And so maybe, we need to look at santosha differently. Maybe, we need to view the practice of santosha with an awareness of the growing influence of a world that asks us to not be enough and to desire more. In this loneliness epidemic, the practice of santosha gives us a glimpse of the path towards happiness-- a path carved by an intrinsic understanding that who we are, what we have, and what we represent, is enough and does not need to change. 

Happiness, after all, is already here. No need to chase it endlessly. All you have to do is breathe and remember that when you are content, you are secure, and when you are secure, you are happy.

May you always realize your wholeness.

Love,

Karen

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