February is the month of Love.

As you may already be aware, we are focusing this month on Anahata or the Heart Chakra.

We are celebrating the heart by doing poses that focus on front body opening and back bends.

As we take our focus of self care to the heart, the Niyama of Santosha comes to mind.

Santosha is one of the Niyamas in Patanjali’s 8 limb path. Santosha means contentment.

In order to love others, you must first love yourself.

Being content with who you are is so important both on and off our mats. On our mats, we have to learn to accept where we are in our yoga practice and not strive to be where we are not. As much as we would all love to be able to do some of the difficult poses, where we are in our practice and doing what is best for our bodies without causing harm is more important than flying that Chaturanga!

In yoga, we need to do what feels good and right for our bodies. Progression toward those more difficult poses takes time and practice.

Yoga is a journey and patience is key.

Off our mats, many times we try to be accepted and impress others, but if we do this at the cost of being someone who we aren’t we are lose our authenticity and this damages our self esteem. Don’t be afraid to be yourself and be happy with you are. Be authentic, let your light shine through, and you will glow!

Accepting yourself and where you are in your yoga practice is the key to Santosha and self love.