Acceptance as a Pathway to Healing and Performance Enhancement
Are you contributing to a momentum of health, of evolution, of enhancing your life? Or are you in a momentum of dis-ease, of stagnation, of living small? Wherever you find yourself, acceptance is a powerful way to start making, or continuing to make, positive changes in your life.
Santosha, is a Sanskrit word, derived from Saṃ (सं, सम्) and Tosha (तोष, तुष्). Sam means "completely" or "entirely" and Tosha "contentment" or "acceptance". Combined, the word Santosha means “complete acceptance”. An attitude of Santosha includes fully accepting oneself and one's circumstances as they are. Fully accepting our circumstances when we are sick or injured can be scary because we might think that if we accept our pain, and the changes in our life it means that that is the way our life will be forever. The power of acceptance is that it instantly creates a mental environment of calmness and presence where the mind stops telling the body it is under threat, this triggers the nervous system to switch out of its defense mode and into recovery mode. In the recovery mode the body is given an opportunity to trigger its innate ability to reorganize and readjust which in turn tells the mind “We’re ok” thus creating a positive feedback loop of improvement.
Real change is only possible in the present moment. With an attitude of accepting our full self and current circumstance we create space to be present, and in doing so we have the potential for creating conscious change towards quicker recovery, improved health, and enhanced performance.