Rooted Sangha - Sessions 14 & 15 -Santosha

Theme: The Practice of Santosha: Resting in the Enoughness of This Moment

It was such a busy week last week that all thought of blogging escaped me - so here we are combining 2 into 1. And that is okay! (See the theme above). Also, Santosha is such a gorgeous place to settle, so why not?

Let's return to the image we began with at the start of this journey: the quiet surface of a still lake — clear, undisturbed, reflecting the world exactly as it is. That lake has become a companion for us, a visual reminder of the calm centre that exists within each of us, beneath the ripples of daily life.

Into that image, we now introduce Santosha — the niyama of contentment. Such a tender and unassuming word, yet it asks something profound of us:

To stop waiting.

To stop preparing for life to become good enough.

To recognise that this moment, just as it is, contains everything we need.

Deborah Adele writes that we are so often always getting ready — postponing contentment for a future version of ourselves or our circumstances. We wait for the perfect time, the perfect feeling, the perfect alignment before we allow ease. Santosha invites us to soften that habit of postponement. To notice the gifts of here. To rest, even briefly, in the sufficiency of now.

Santosha also asks us to maintain centre — returning again and again to the still point within, just as the lake returns to calm after a gust of wind or a stone thrown into its surface. Life will continue to offer disturbances — disagreements, delays, disappointments, discomforts — but the lake reminds us: beneath the movement, the stillness remains.

Another core aspect Adele explores is the practice of not seeking — loosening the cultural impulse to constantly acquire, improve, achieve, fix, or upgrade. When we stop chasing the next thing, even for a moment, we notice a subtle truth: we already have so much. The heart becomes quieter. The breath becomes steadier. Gratitude begins to bloom in the space where longing once lived.

In the language of yoga, this balance between ease and unease is described as sukha and dukkha — the sweetness and the struggle, the soft ground and the rough terrain. They are inevitable companions on the path. Santosha doesn’t ask us to reject one and cling to the other — it teaches us instead how to rest gently in the middle of both.

Just as a lake reflects sun, cloud, wind, and moon without grasping or rejecting any of them, Santosha reminds us:

Life will change.

The mind will shift.

Circumstances will rise and fall.

But the steady witness within us can remain spacious, open, and at ease.**

So perhaps, over the coming days, you might pause and ask:

Where can I soften into enoughness?

What happens if I stop striving — even for a breath — and simply rest in what is already here?

What would contentment feel like in this moment, without needing anything to be different?

Santosha isn’t a finish line. It’s a practice — a gentle remembering.

A returning.

A settling back into the still lake of the heart.

Sometimes contentment grows not from what we strive for, but from seeing ourselves reflected through the kind, honest presence of others. Over the past couple of weeks, words were written, hearts softened, we have laughed and cried together, and something subtle shifted in the room — a sense of being seen, valued, and gently held in belonging.

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Giving Back

After covering room and fuel costs, all proceeds from Rooted are being saved to support a local cause as a small act of Bhakti yoga, the yoga of devotion in action.

On 21st September we made our first donation (£110) to Kettering Samaritans.

These past weeks, we have added £15 to the fund - and our current total stands at £86.50. Our next beneficiary is Johnny's Happy Place.

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Going Forward

Thank you for arriving here — just as you are, in this moment.

May you remember the still lake within you, the quiet place where nothing needs to be improved or earned before you can rest.

May you find ease in the simple act of being, and notice the subtle grace woven into ordinary days.

When life feels soft and spacious, may you savour it with gratitude.

When life feels tight or uncertain, may you meet it with tenderness, knowing both sweetness and challenge are natural tides of the human heart.

May you trust that nothing needs to be different for this moment to be enough.

And may you return, again and again, to the truth that contentment lives not in perfection, but in presence — in the steady, peaceful knowing that you are already whole.

With love, Vicki x