7 ways to happiness through Yoga

SANGEETA PADMANABHAN and BHUSHAN BHUKTE from the Heartfulness Yoga Academy explain the relationship between Yoga and happiness, and the simple practices that we can all do to cultivate lasting happiness in our lives.

The Importance of Happiness

All our lives we are in search of happiness. We give so much importance to it that there is even a field of social science called “Positive Psychology, the Science of Happiness.” Thousands of years ago, long before modern-day psychologists, the great Sage Patanjali gave us the road map for eternal happiness in his Yoga Sutras. This amazing treatise is one of the oldest and greatest works on psychology to date.

Two Sides of a Coin

One of the definitions of happiness is the mental state of experiencing positive or pleasant emotions. Some schools of philosophy refer to it as sukha, the positive feeling that is produced by the contact of the sense organs with agreeable objects.

Yoga teaches us that sukha (happiness) and dukha (sorrow) are two sides of the same coin. The waning of sukha leads to dukha, and vice versa. In the search for perennial happiness, we become caught in the non-ending circle of desire fulfillment.

It is mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita, in Chapter II, Verse 63, that when desires are not fulfilled we are disappointed. Disappointment then leads to anger, and anger makes us lose our balance. Once we lose balance, we lose our humanness.

When Babuji spoke of “More and more of less and less,” he was speaking about desires. There is so much wisdom in this simple statement. If you want to be happy, have fewer and fewer desires.

If you want to be happy, 
have fewer and fewer desires. 

Yoga is the Science of Holistic Living

Yoga is the science of true and lasting bliss, Ananda. It starts with the second limb of Yoga known as Niyama. One of the Niyamas is Santosha, which roughly translates as “contentment.” Patanjali says that contentment leads to extraordinary happiness.

Contentment means to experience satisfaction in your present state, no matter what is going on. It is closely linked to evenness of mind and poise, undisturbed by either distress or happiness. The equanimity that enables us to accept all circumstances with serenity is so praiseworthy that Lord Krishna called it Yoga, or union with the Supreme.

So instead of running after elusive happiness, in Yoga we focus on contentment, Santosha.

The equanimity that enables us 
to accept all circumstances with serenity 
is so praiseworthy that Lord Krishna called it Yoga, 
or union with the Supreme. 

7 Ways to Create Your Own Happiness Through Yoga

Heartfulness Yoga gives us a deep understanding of the art and science of lasting happiness:

1. Asanas help to ease tension and promote health and well-being. Yoga poses done with complete breath and body awareness give us a “sense of direction” and keep us “completely centered and grounded.” Gomukhasana, Marjariasana, Bhujangasana, Dhanurasana, Ustrasana, and Chakrasana are wonderful postures for opening our hearts and preparing us to fall in love with everything. These practices instill in us feelings of belongingness, forgiveness, contentment, gratitude and surrender.
    
2. Regular and simple Pranayama practice makes our breathing smoother, calmer, and regulated. It calms the mind and slowly improves our outlook on life.
    
3. Relaxation helps us to know the importance of “the power of pause.”
    
4. Cleaning helps us remove the obstacles to happiness on the path and achieve a state of balanced mind. We learn to let go of unnecessary clutter.
    
5. Meditation with Transmission helps us to uncover and cultivate our deep intention, taking us on the path of true happiness.
    
6. Journaling helps us to check and reflect on how far we have traveled on the path of happiness.
    
7. Prayer reminds us to finish off our list of desires and “hurry home.”

With regular practice we experience real contentment and bliss. We stop running after fleeting happiness and become aware of the completeness within us. We stop projecting our unhappy thoughts onto the screen of our life and return to love and truth.

We allow ourselves to fall deeply in love with everything, we become aware of our wholeness, and joy is the result – the joy of the soul embracing life.

To learn more about Heartfulness Yoga: www.heartfulness.org/yoga
To practice with us daily: www.youtube.com/yoga4unity
To explore Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras: https://hfnlife.com/products/the-authentic-yoga