I know I am a little behind schedule. I didn’t get my thoughts written as quickly as I had hoped, so I’m wishing you a happy belated Memorial Day. I hope you were able to enjoy some of what it typically includes: the three or maybe even four day weekend, a celebration of the arrival of summer, perhaps some time outdoors with friends and family. I remember as a kid our school year always ended the week before Memorial Day, so the holiday weekend was our first big summer vacation event. It meant a Little League game in the morning (my younger brothers played), the neighborhood pool all afternoon, and then home for dinner which had been cooked on the backyard grill. And we repeated that schedule of events as many times as we could until August.
Interestingly, Memorial Day wasn’t given its currently recognized name and date on the calendar until after WWII. Before that, when it first began to gain popularity in the late nineteenth century, it was known as “Decoration Day,” because the day’s events included decorating the gravestones of war soldiers. It’s that part—the “decoration” part—that always rings in my ears.
To decorate means to embellish and adorn, to distinguish and honor. It shares the same Latin roots as the word “decent,” which is to make suitable and to be worthy. So, when we add that to the idea of acting in remembrance, a decoration becomes a dignified offering of mindfulness. It’s not just remembering something important; it’s doing so in a way that truly respects and preserves its goodness.
I think our yoga practices—and, by extension, each of us as individuals—deserve more decoration. Often times we treat yoga as a solution to a problem rather than an appreciation of the good. We notice, and then fixate on, something which we view as less than optimal about our body or our being. We feel weak and want to build strength, we feel stiff and want to loosen up, we feel sluggish and crave more energy, and so on. And it is true that we can receive an array of gifts and gains from a consistent practice. But what should be remembered is that we are not problems in need of being fixed, rather we are human beings deserving of recognition and affirmation. Yoga is a way to decorate your Self. It is a way to adorn who you are and what you have. And it’s a way to truly respect the goodness you always have been and always will be.
Really it is not until you can embrace and decorate yourself exactly the way you are that the gifts of practice become accessible to you. One of yoga’s first big lessons is developing self-awareness. You must be able to recognize yourself in order to know who you are and what you have right now. And then that recognition needs to be bolstered with acceptance and contentment; what we call “Santosha” in Sanskrit.
Santosha is one of Patanjali’s five internal disciplines or vows (along with integrity, austerity, self-guided study, and dedication), and, while it isn’t easy to cultivate, it is worth the effort. The “Yoga Sutra” says that contentment is a key to happiness. That is because it includes feelings of gratitude, plentifulness, security, and satisfaction. The alternative is to constantly swim up the stream of “more and better and different” which is exhausting and confusing. Therefore contentment is also a source of stress-relief and ego-reduction. It is sometimes misunderstood as naiveté or blind optimism, but it is actually more of a conscientious yielding. It isn’t ignoring or condoning bad behavior or poor choices, rather it is understanding the difference between what needs to be addressed and what is good enough just the way it is. Santosha is trust in your ability to discern between vice and virtue as well as your capacity to act accordingly. It is the ability to show yourself appreciation for your strengths and compassion for your weaknesses.
When you work in remembrance of your innate goodness; that is, with both self-awareness and self-satisfaction, you recognize your suitability and you respectfully adorn it. In that way, yoga is an act of decoration. It embellishes and augments the best parts of who you are. And that, by the way, includes the parts of you which are undergoing continued development.
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