Practicing with Pain

by Nina

Needle and Ice by Melina Meza

When a man has mastered himself,
he is perfectly at ease in cold,
in heat, in pleasure or pain,
in honor or disgrace

—Bhagavad Gita, trans. by Stephen Mitchell

We get many comments on our blog, but every once in a while there is one that makes me feel sad, like this one, which one of our readers left on a post about menopause:

This will certainly be relevant for me (65). Besides ongoing extreme irritability, yoga is not the joy it has always been for me because of joint stiffness and pain. What little stability I felt in life came from yoga, and feel that slipping away when I need it most.

My first reaction to this was to write to Shari and suggest that she write about menopause and joint pain because I knew that she, too, was currently suffering from joint problems (see Yoga for Menopause: Joint Problems). But even after ensuring that this topic was going to be addressed, I was concerned about the underlying issue:

yoga is not the joy it has always been 

what stability in life that came from yoga is slipping away

The thing is, I don't believe that physical pain means that yoga practice needs to be less joyful, or that the stability that practice brings will slip away if your asanas hurt more than they used to. And I speak from experience. Now that I'm over two bouts of frozen shoulder (which, trust me, were very painful), I'm still living with an arthritic hip that's not going to go away. So for many years, I've experienced pain when I practice asana at home or during a class. And, of course, I definitely cannot practice many of the poses I used to do on a regular basis. However, practicing yoga is still a positive, life-affirming experience for me, and as joyful as it ever was.

Because, after all, what is yoga? Definitions of yoga in the scriptures vary from "yoga is equanimity" to "yoga is cessation of the fluctuations of the mind" but nowhere is there anything about practicing pain-free asana. Indeed, as the quote at the beginning of the post tells us, being a yogi means being equally at ease in pain as in pleasure.

Both Ram and I have written about cultivating santosha as an important part of yoga practice (see Santosha: Happiness and Longevity  and Yoga and the Pursuit of Happiness ). Santosha means "contentment" and TKV Desikachar defines contentment as "the ability to be comfortable with what we have and what we do not have." And I believe that being comfortable with what we have and what we do not have must include practicing asana while in physical pain and being comfortable with that. And as for the joy, the Yoga Sutras tells us in sutra 2.42 "Perfect happiness is attained through contentment."

So the path back to joy is not through the elimination of pain, but rather through cultivating contentment. In his post Achieving Stillness in Turbulent Situations Ram told us how his grandfather taught him to meditate in a train station in India because achieving stillness in a noisy, chaotic environment was what the practice of meditation was all about. Likewise, I feel that learning how to find contentment in our asana practice, even while in physical pain, is also the essence of yoga. (Of course, you should continue to use pain as a guide to practicing safely as Shari describes in her post Yoga for Menopause: Joint Problems.)

So dear commenter and all our other readers, while I hope you may find some helpful hints on this blog that will help reduce your physical pain, we cannot remove all pain from your life  But we can offer you something more valuable. For practicing yoga by cultivating santosha inside and outside the yoga room will help see you through life's challenges in whatever form they take. As I wrote in my post Yoga and the Pursuit of Happiness, the Yoga Sutras make it clear which steps to take on that journey:

1.12 Practice and detachment are the means to still the movements of consciousness.

1.33 Through cultivation of friendliness, compassion, joy, and indifference to pleasure and pain, virtue and vice respectively, the consciousness becomes favorably disposed, serene and benevolent.

1.34 Or, by maintaining the pensive state felt at the time of soft and steady exhalation and during passive retention after exhalation.

1.35 Or, by contemplating an object that helps to maintain steadiness of mind and consciousness. 

Santosha, Smiling and Longevity

by Ram

In my previous article regarding santosha, Santosha: Happiness and Longevity, I mentioned that discontentment and unhappiness arise when we get caught up in the materialistic world. If we are happy with our lifestyle and what we currently have, it will help us in the journey to absolute truth and the highest realization.

Santosha Anuttamah Sukha Labhah

From an attitude of contentment/true happiness (santosha), mental comfort, joy, and satisfaction (anuttamah sukha) are obtained. —Yoga Sutras, translated by Swami Jnaneshvara.

This observation was supported by a scientific study that showed that people who are contented are not only healthier but they may also live longer (see Santosha: Happiness and Longevity).

There are several ways of expressing santosha or happiness. One visible way of showing that you are happy and contented is through a SMILE. Smiles can be warm, beautiful, welcoming, cute, innocent, charming or heart melting. A smile of any kind has the same positive effect: it brightens up the people surrounding the smiling person. Smile and notice that the people around smile with you. The world changes based on a person's perception and outlook, and having a smile on the face not only reveals the radiance of the person smiling but it also makes the individual a pleasurable person to be around.

A person with a smile not only mitigates the suffering around but also boosts up someone else's existence, even if it is for a fleeting moment. People tend to trust and cooperate more with individuals who sport a smile. Moreover, smiling is infectious; a smiling individual lightens up the room, change the moods of others, brings happiness along and attracts more people. Several scientific studies suggest that people who smile a lot are not only happy and contented, they are also more stable, happier in their marriages, have better cognitive skills and interpersonal skills. And now there’s an additional benefit that comes with a smile: it adds years to your life.

A study by researchers at Wayne State University concludes that a smile has an impact on aging and life expectancy. The wider you grin and the deeper you smile, the more likely you are to have a healthy aging and longer existence. For the study the researchers analyzed 230 pictures of major league baseball players who began their careers in professional baseball before 1950. The photos were enlarged and a rating of their smile intensity (big smile, partial smile, no smile) was noted. Researchers then ranked the players according to their smiles and laughter lines (length of the creases). The players smile ratings were compared with data from deaths that occurred from 2006 through 2009. The conclusions from the study:

1. Players with big smiles (n=23) lived an average 79.9 years.
2. Players with partial smiles (n=64) lived an average of 75 years. 
3. Players with no smiles (n=63) lived an average of 72 years. 

The above results did not change when the researchers also corrected for other factors associated with longevity. Furthermore, the researchers also noted that the benefits did not extend to players who put out a false smile but only those who looked truly happy had the extra life expectancy.

One may wonder how the act of opening the lips wide and bringing on a smile triggers all of the above-mentioned benefits including longer lifespan? Studies have shown that a simple smile triggers several positive changes in the body. Smiling helps to boost the immune system, which provides resistance from many diseases. Smiling relieves stress, lowers blood pressure, triggers the release of endogenous pain killers and changes the mood attitude for the better, all of which help in graceful aging.

So how about bringing santosha in the form of a wide smile in your own lives as well? Smile as much as you can, even if you are not on camera!

Santosha: Happiness and Longevity

by Ram

In the Sadhana Pada of the Yoga Sutras by Patanjali we are introduced to the eight rungs/limbs/steps of yoga whose practice helps us to develop attention as a tool to discriminate between ignorance and awareness and truth from illusion which is the means for liberation or enlightenment. The first two of these rungs or limbs are the yamas and niyamas that can be looked at as universal morality and personal observances. The practices of yamas and niyamas lay the foundation from which to develop all the other subtle practices. The second limb contains the five niyamas or observances/practices of self-training, and deals with how we relate to ourselves inwardly. One of the five niyamas is santosha, which means contentment or true happiness.

Santosha Anuttamah Sukha Labhah
From an attitude of contentment/true happiness (santosha), mental comfort, joy, and satisfaction (anuttamah sukha) are obtained. —Swami Jnaneshvara  

To be contented and happy, even while experiencing life’s difficulties, becomes a process of growth through all kinds of circumstances (see Yoga and the Pursuit of Happiness). We should accept that there is a purpose for everything and we cultivate contentment to accept what happens. It means being happy with what we have rather than being unhappy about what we don't have. Humans seem to always be seeking satisfaction in the materialistic world and our internal fantasies. However, if we are contented with our wants, wishes and needs and truly happy with our lifestyle and what we currently have, it will help us in the journey to absolute truth and the highest realization. Discontentment and unhappiness arises when we get caught up in this materialistic world. Our desires and needs for material possessions, if left unfulfilled, create frustration, anger and loss of mental peace, leading to a disharmonious life (see Anger Management: Philosophy, Science and Yoga).

Chicken on Hawaii Beach by Brad Gibson

People are looking for ways to bring that peace and santosha in their lives, and so not surprisingly santosha seems to be the most sought after "principle" in the world today. Your own test for santosha would be about whether you respond through the five senses and react to the changes in all the circumstances of life or whether you listen to your inner voice and are not swayed by the material instincts.

In my previous post  I emphasized the principle of karmayoga or selfless service (see Selfless Service for Harmonious Longevity). Karmayogis are known to constantly live in a world of true happiness. What could you possibly achieve by experiencing true happiness? Among several other benefits, true happiness is now known to extend longevity. Happy people have an advantage over unhappy ones—they are not only healthier but they may also live longer. This is the conclusion drawn from a review published in Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being thus confirming the need to be happy for a healthy living as advocated in the yoga sutras. The research study compared 160 studies that examined several types of emotions defined as subjective well being (SWB). These included life satisfaction, optimism, hopefulness, sense of humor and other positive emotions. The summary of the findings include:

1. Happy people exhibited a high SWB as compared to less happy individuals.
2. Happy people with a high SWB had better health and longevity.
3. A high SWB (exhibited by happy people) was related to lower mortality rate in both healthy and diseased populations.
4. Unhappy and stressed people (having a low SWB) had higher blood pressure levels and low immune response as compared to happy people with high SWB.

The above together with other findings suggest that happiness measured as subjective well being causally influences health and longevity. So how about bringing that santosha in your own lives as well? It’s no wonder that Bobby McFerrin gyrated and swooned to the tunes of “Don't Worry, Be Happy.”