Transcript
Speaker: Hi, I'm Alan Finger. Welcome to the Genius of Nothing podcast. Nothing is no particular thing.
Speaker: It's all things at once. Genius.
Speaker: Hello everyone. This is Katrina Repka. This is the Genius of Nothing podcast. I'm here with Alan Finger. Al.
Speaker: Nope.
Speaker: Hello everyone. Sorry. theyre Nice to be here with you. i just was out in nothing for a second and thank you for bringing me back. And hi, Sebastian. Hello. I'm still here. Great.
Speaker: We're working through the Niyamas. And this one today has a special place in my heart because it's actually the name that the yogic name that Alan gave me when he initiated me as a yoga master. So it's santosha, which means contentment.
Speaker: And I think I've mentioned before that it's possible, just slightly possible, that you gave me this name because I struggle, or I used to struggle more, much more with contentment. So I'm content now. Maybe the name made me content. um But I think it's like a really interesting topic because It's not really so much about like happiness, which is like an arbitrary term, but it's more about accepting and gracefully moving through your karma and your dharma.
Speaker: And, you know, being being happy, not only with yourself, but like the cards you've been dealt with. and trying to, I guess, make the most of your journey on this plane of consciousness.
Speaker: What do you think, Hal? Well, first of all, yes, I did give you the name because you needed to work on that. and you you did it But look how successful I've been, man. Sorry. but Look how successful it's been. Exactly. I'm so happy. You took it out of my mouth, i was going to say, and you've been so successful at doing that and really worked at it and changed into where you were accepting of your karma and dharma. And you put that very quickly in there.
Speaker: But just for everyone, karma is a greater force that governs everything in evolution and our whole solar system.
Speaker: Karma is not only our individual little thing. Our individual karma is our part of that big karma. And we work on it in life.
Speaker: And the more we can accept what our karma is and not look at somebody else's, the more at ease and peace we become.
Speaker: So, yeah, I think it was a very good example of that. Go on.
Speaker: Katrina, it's before you weren't at that ease and you've really got there now. has been an evolution for me. And it's not that I couldn't see the gifts that I've been given in life or that I had a lot or that I was very lucky. It was more that I think I felt always like I was such a black sheep in my family and that there was something about me that was not...
Speaker: write or I didn't quite fit in or I was, you know, I'm much more of it like an artistic, sensitive sensibility and that was hard for me growing up and then learning to discover that actually or for example, my anxiety, which can be quite debilitating. But learning to accept those aspects of me and actually see them as strengths and the the way I move through life now, I feel like those are gifts that I've been given and that I can use for the betterment of others. And actually, that's helped me a lot to accept who I am and therefore be content. I think for some people actually accepting, i know for me at least, that accepting sometimes can you know both sound and kind of feel like like you're kind of giving up in a way. Like you're almost getting becoming passive. Like, ah you know, I can't do anything about this, so I might as well just give up. I just have to accept it.
Speaker: I have to. And if you don't really feel that you understand acceptance or you can accept those life circumstances or whatever it is, you're you're you're missing a big part of really what Santosha is. Because when you really can accept you know your life circumstances, your karma and your your dharma, really, truly...
Speaker: It's not giving up or being passive, but rather it has this amazing ability really to release you from the past and bring you into the present moment and not really you know dwelling about the past or in many ways what could have been. And really, that's the foundation really for change.
Speaker: When you're not accepting your dharma and your karma, you become anxious, you become scared, you become fearful.
Speaker: But when you accept them, it allows you just to move through your life more easefully and gracefully. It doesn't mean becoming what we call tamazic.
Speaker: Tamazic means that you're inertia. And and in inertia is not bad, lies the inert patterning,
Speaker: of what's going to happen. And rajas is the working of that out. And it's only when those two are done santosha, in acceptance of each other, that we move into sattva guna, that we move into that magical place, again, Mangalam, I keep saying every week, into that auspicious, magical drive that that takes us through life. I think it's kind of interesting that we have all these social media platforms today, and they're kind of like the total opposite against acceptance and...
Speaker: and what we're really talking about, contentment. um It's interesting because they're designed by scientists and psychologists to actually just loop you into these mind loops where you kind of keep strolling strolling and you're judging and you're You're comparing and you're judging yourself and you're wishing you had more money or had what other people had. And you're just seeing this facade of things as, and we all know by this point, like how much on, you know, mental health takes beating from, you know, social media.
Speaker: And it really just brings us out of the now. But it's so much about this always getting ahead. And I think that's a very dangerous thing, really. We all try to... And that's the whole point of all of this is that, you know, getting ahead is about doing something to be somewhere else.
Speaker: We want you to remain in the now without getting ahead. doesn't mean not doing anything. It means doing everything with with grace and efficiency.
Speaker: So if you've put into it, I want to be ahead, then you you're not in the now. You're not living. ah You're going to miss that magical moment. That's why I said, I realized what you were saying, and I agree with you. It's the language that that's that's often formed in the Instagram, and we want to be an in Insta now, in Insta nothing. That's very simple app. In Insta yoga, which means in all things at once.
Speaker: So you can move through life in this magical, graceful way.
Speaker: But I also feel like, I mean, I've surprised myself because I don't, I mean, I'm surrounded where I live by people with a lot more, like a lot more than I have, a lot more money, a lot a lot more homes, a lot more whatever it is and Homes, Yeah. And like a lot more children and a lot. And I sometimes like, I don't even have the feeling remotely that I want what they have, which surprises me because it's like, you see the nice place on Instagram, the house or everything that people are trying to sell. And I just don't even inside myself remotely feel like it's what I want. And I guess the argument is that I kind of have everything. I have enough and I have, you know, a a an apartment that I love and a child that I love and a partner that I love and like friends that I love. and it's just kind of enough, but it's, it's anti-materialist in a lot of ways. But then i guess one could argue that I have,
Speaker: um You know, I have enough, and so I don't feel that lack. It's all Katrina, because I gave you the name Santosha.
Speaker: Right. And you're living it because, you know, you cannot project to what's what's a lot for one person is not enough for another person.
Speaker: And there's never an end. That's why when people keep projecting, they get so much money that then all that's left is to build spaceships and rocket ships to try and get beyond earth And then they get beyond Earth to Mars and they find nothing.
Speaker: Eli. That's another thing I have no desire to be a part of. What's say that? very I have no desire to be a part of going to space. I feel very content on Earth.
Speaker: Same. I mean, what do I need? More darkness? A place that he' is even colder? Thanks. I already live in Stockholm, so, you know, let's it's dark enough.
Speaker: So, guys, I know that I repeat myself a lot. No. Because, you know, it's such it's common sense, not special sense.
Speaker: And when you realize common sense is being in the now and letting you tuning to the flow of evolution and you're being on that razor's edge,
Speaker: The duality, the opposites create wavelengths and movement. And it's only when you're in that razor's edge, like a tightrope walker, like the eagle that lifts up and it hovers in the sky, guruna davaa and it can see everything because it's lifted up.
Speaker: But when it's on its perch, I think I mentioned this last week, when it's on its perch, It only sees what's on the floor. So we have to learn how to lift ourself up out of all of the mentalization of things And then view it from there.
Speaker: Yeah, but it's not always an easy thing to do, Santorcia, to just accept and to be, you know, feeling accepting of the circumstances. Because as an example, me and my wife have been trying to get pregnant the last year, really. And it's...
Speaker: been really hard and it's been a struggle and a lot of hardships with that so practicing having a having you practice to begin with is essential to have your sadhana and to be able to practice santosha in that is has been very helpful for me just because it's it's that practice of not attaching to a certain outcome and you're being okay with that you're being content with that But it's tough. It's not you know something that's just easy. it's something to snap your fingers and you feel better about it. It's a practice. It's something that takes time.
Speaker: now Better than snapping your fingers, though, is to use the mantra, Brahmasmi. I am part i'm part of the universal infinite consciousness that's manifesting matter.
Speaker: And you've got to keep doing that in life. Aham brahmasmeh. Eye up like the eagle. Get out of the chatter of the mind. The chatter of the mind says, should I have a baby? Everybody's having a baby. How come I am not having a baby? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker: It's all just mental. It's only mental chatter. If you didn't think you had to have a baby, then you wouldn't have a baby. But if you're looking around and you see everybody else is, then you think that's what you're supposed to be doing.
Speaker: And it's not the case.
Speaker: So we've really been looking at this from ah point of view of Tantra. And i think it's interesting if you look at it from a scientific point of view, actually, Santoshia aligns very, very closely to neuroscience, modern neuroscience. And there's a network in the brain called the DMN, which is short really for the default mode network. And this is like a brain, part of a brain region that becomes really active when we daydream, when we think about the past, the future, or ourselves.
Speaker: And this is your brain's own story generator, really. Really like the autopilot you have. And this is kind of like where your identity kind of lives, where you're the person you think you are.
Speaker: Not really in a spiritual way, but more in a neurological, self-programmed way. And it's interesting that when we quiet this network down, we get better focus, we become more aware, we become creative, and we get really reduced anxiety and depression markers.
Speaker: But the flip side to this is that when we it's overactive, we tend to worry, we feel anxious, we get stuck in emotional patterns. So this network, really what it does is that it loops the beliefs that we have about ourselves automatically around and around. Not really because they're necessarily true, but because they are familiar and repeated again and again.
Speaker: Almost like you can imagine a muscle that you work at gets stronger and stronger. Unfortunately, the greatest hits that many of us tend to repeat and run over and over again is mostly negative and self-critical stories about ourselves. So when we practice mindfulness and meditation, this is the amazing part. This network actually quiets down and you get less internal commentary, you know, less me versus the world. And the attention really shifts from story mode to present moment mode.
Speaker: You actually see and hear and feel, you know, what's happening without filtering it through your self-judgment. And acceptance becomes more neurological than philosophical.
Speaker: So Santorcia isn't really about pretending that you're content. It's really about accessing a state, really, where the noise, what you call it, Al? Mental flux.
Speaker: Which actually blocks your ability to be accepting and content. yeah So meditation in a very real way brings us into a direct experience of Santosha.
Speaker: and And now even science backs it up. Thank you, Sebastian. Finally. So, Al, what if somebody feels unhappy or not content, hu what would you say would be, is it just what are the best practices for that?
Speaker: Like meditating, obviously, going to stillness, but because he's I know you're going to say that anyway. know Before everyone, before we had this podcast, Katrina and Sebastian said, Al, you need to give people more.
Speaker: then the answer is just going into stillness and allowing yourself to interpret it from a different place. But that's my answer to you always, everyone.
Speaker: That is my answer always. My answer is that, and now Sebastian finally has found some neuroscience to back me.
Speaker: That when your brain is, when the chatter is still and you're not bouncing, I should, I could, I would, i can't, I can't, I must move ahead, I'm behind. And you're just in the right, you're always in the right place.
Speaker: You're always there and wherever you are correct. And when you can live, and that's Santosha, when you can live in that place, then magical things start happening to you.
Speaker: So if you're a person that really wants to practice antorsha, that wants to be more accepting in life and circumstances, how do you go about doing that?
Speaker: Well, look, first and first of all, Sebastian, you've got to have a meditation and, to me, a yoga practice. The yoga practices are phenomenal because they give us tools Starting with the body, with asana, going into breathing, going into jnana yoga, mental ah balance and viewing, going into kriya and laya yoga, techniques to help us break beyond the limitations, the barriers.
Speaker: that we get trapped in in our mind. We have to get trapped in in our mind because we build our life. From the moment we are born, when we are free, we build our life of beliefs and we live in that world of beliefs.
Speaker: And they are man-made and you made your world. You are the one who actually pulled them in. And so you do need the tools.
Speaker: And there's so many. And with Ishtar, we try to balance the right tool to the right individual at the right time. That which resonates with the consciousness, with the soul of that being.
Speaker: And of course, that you need a teacher for because I can give you little general tips what to do. Just stretch your breath long in and out and enjoy the pauses in between breath.
Speaker: That in itself will give you a an ability to look back at life once you've done that for a minute and then come back and you'll see it differently.
Speaker: you'll start to see it from a point of acceptance and clarity or whatever it is that you need. Because a lot of people don't need acceptance. they already got that. They need the opposite.
Speaker: They need the boot. And for anyone that wants to go deeper into this, you do actually teach a class once a week online that anyone join. Yeah, come to my class and learn the techniques.
Speaker: And we have in Ishtar, we have so many different programs and things that we offer. from class to retreats to workshops to, and you know, just so much, and you can start learning all the processes because the the the simple things to do when you feel you're getting out of it, use your breath,
Speaker: Aham brahmasmi, come back into the moment and feel the tune to the greater intelligence that's governing things. Aham brahmasmi. You could even do aham brahmasmi namaha.
Speaker: Namaha means to bring light out of darkness. So I tune to brahman, the infinite intelligence, and Namaha to I am that intelligence and let that intelligence bring light out of darkness.
Speaker: Because most people are in the dark. of They're not in the in the light of what, um that they are part of a greater intelligence. only Only when you lose that do you begin to suffer.
Speaker: i had a i had I had something that I actually thought of today that I thought we could try and do, it see, i don't know, could be fun. So I'm going to go through five things that I think, you know, how samtosha relates to life. And I was going to go with them, you know, one Al, one Katrina, and, you know, we go. So shorter answers, how samtosha relates to life. And the first one is for you, for mind, for the mind. How does samtosha relate to the mind in life?
Speaker: I know what you're going to say. yeah and Your mind, as you said earlier, the word in science is mental flux.
Speaker: the the The buzz that's in your brain, the buzz in your brain gives your mind the chaos. If you look at a lake and the lake is absolutely still, it can reflect the trees, the sun, the moon. It's beautiful.
Speaker: But if it's windy and the lake is being blown a little way, it doesn't reflect anything. So we've got to quiet the mind. And when you quiet the mind, the answers are there.
Speaker: You see it from that sattvic point of view, the balance between trying and not trying. And the second one is the body for you, Katrina. wo um Well, I think actually that a lot of my contentment in my body comes from being balanced.
Speaker: And I actually take medication to help me with that, which I would say can be controversial. I think like I've struggled with that, that there's, um you know, that a yogi should be pure and no toxic. and All of that. No, I'll answer that in a minute. But, you know, i'm'm i'm taking I'm taking medication that helps me to be content. And it's changed my life, actually. Amazing. I think, like, my baseline anxiety. I don't think I could be the person I am without it. And... um
Speaker: So I think that actually, yeah. So, I mean, obviously there's yoga, meditation, blah, blah, blah. But the um fundamentally for my body, I need to have like my serotonin and and hormonal levels balanced. Otherwise, it's really hard.
Speaker: How can one expect to live in life because every thought in your brain is a chemical transaction? And if you lack something in your chemistry,
Speaker: And God bless science that they found a way to offer you that because in your genetic structure, you don't own that. And so if science can give you that that's the universe put it here. the The scientists didn't, they unfolded it, but it was there.
Speaker: So when you say that it's... I think there's stigma around it, don't you? Yeah, for sure. I feel like there's a stigma around mental health and needing to balance oneself. But I'm trying to take that stigma out because it's ridiculous. It's just another man-made...
Speaker: the Although it's the people trying to be pure man-made. It's still a man-made concept that that's bad, but then they'll go and take every vitamin and hope for it to do it, but it's not strong enough often can't do it.
Speaker: Yeah. It's all in yoga. Yoga means when you're in santosha and you're seen clearly. And yoga means when you're in singularity.
Speaker: whether you're in tune with your soul, then you know what's right and wrong. So yeah, it is all from yoga, but yoga gives you the ability to say, yes, I need this, yes, I need that. No, this is how i get it. That's fine.
Speaker: The uncertainty is when you're not in the balance when you're not When you haven't got space in your mind and you're coming from a belief pattern, you can see it. Well, it seems like Malcolm agrees with you. And then Alan, work.
Speaker: and then alllan work What's work? How do you realize... Yeah, exactly. What's work? Man has never worked in his whole life. Yeah. ah how some Tosha relates to, you know, work. you're part of You're part of the evolutionary process.
Speaker: I mean, everyone knows that, right? Yeah. So we're part of the evolutionary process. One person is a yogi and a yoga teacher. Another is a scientist. Another makes ah the the yoga mats and another makes ah transport vehicles.
Speaker: It's all part of that process. And you're born to play your role. And whatever, that's Santosha, being accepting. My role is to make shoes. My role is to make ah money deals. My role, whatever it is, it's okay.
Speaker: That's your role. Doing it in Santosha, accepting it and do, of course, sattvically, purely, because if you don't,
Speaker: then you're gonna find you're gonna get rajas overly involved in it and opinionated about it, or you're gonna become lazy and drop out.
Speaker: or not successful. Your success comes from being in Santosha. You do as best you can because you can only do as best you can when you're not concerned in results.
Speaker: Because sometimes you need to keep quiet to understand what's going on. You need to take a pause. Yeah, that's true. Because people will usually, if you're quiet, people will usually tell you what they want and, you know, they will start blabbering because they get kind of nervous almost.
Speaker: Exactly. And you just let it flow and at the right moment, you come in. Yeah. And that moment is Santosha. That moment is yoga.
Speaker: And this one is for you, Katrina. So how does Santoshia relate to relationships in your opinion? Well, I always think that my relationships are also yoga. And so the challenges that happen in relationship are there to help me grow and evolve and that In my experience, each relationship has been an evolution and a growth. And you're in that for the time you're in that with that person to learn the lessons you need to learn. And then you take those lessons and either move on or maybe those lessons are lessons that
Speaker: are for a lifetime and you're with somebody for your lifetime. But that, um I guess, yeah, I mean, I try to be content and compassionate in relationship.
Speaker: And I think I'm pretty fiery. So I try to temper that as well about, you know, i understand i think understanding myself and then understanding what I need and being able to express what I need.
Speaker: And that that makes me happy because ah I've been heard. um I guess coming back to the contentment. I think it's also been something like after my husband died, when i was like dating, but also really knew that I needed to be on my own and coming together. into myself and like learning how to be really comfortable with myself and not needing a relationship so that the relationship I'm in now is like a real it's a choice it's because I love being with this person and I love this person and but I'm not you know I'm not needy oh that's really beautiful
Speaker: And the last question. This one is for you, Al. How does Santoshia relate to your yoga practice? You answer that. Ooh, the old switcheroo.
Speaker: Well, I think for me, Santoshia in my practice has been have been very important, mainly because I came from a background of fencing, competitive fencing, and I am very open-jointed, so I could come into almost all positions and And able to do that, you know, the practice always came easy to me. I always had a strong practice. i demoed for you a lot. And, you know, that kind of became for a while synonymous with yoga and for me and what I am. And and as you get older, it's it's really important and profound that you understand that, you know, your body's getting older, how you tend to modify your practice to...
Speaker: to suit your body and to like get what you need not what you want like we always say and it's sometimes easy to say and sometimes it's just you know learning every day a really stepping on the mat and understanding what do I need and feeling in and understanding, you know, wherever it is that day and, you know, it's beautiful and it's perfect and, you know, whatever position it can come into as long as it's aligned and it's, ista it's but you know, modified for the individual, for me.
Speaker: And that's, you know, all I need and that's perfect. So that applies to every individual. Every individual has different shape bones, different lengths of muscles.
Speaker: So some people can do twisty, bendy things and others don't reach the full twisty, bendy thing. But the yoga, the asana is finding the balance in yourself in the postures that you are doing.
Speaker: The poses inside you. It's finding that equi equilibrium inside you and enjoying it. That's yoga.
Speaker: Not what you look like in the end body. You know, I'm i'm a kapha-type body, and pi so I have a very good full body. And don't be jealous of it, all of you. Nice, good-sized belly. when I'm content. Otherwise, I would struggle with jealousy. So so if I do Udayana,
Speaker: or nauli. It's pulling the diaphragm in and trying to look like a skeleton. Well, it's impossible. But I do it and I feel the muscles do it. And nauli, you have to roll the central muscle out, pull it abdominal, pull it in and then send it out to the one side and the other side. Very good for the colon and testosterone and for the energy and the shakti.
Speaker: But when I do it, It's like, what's he doing? Something moving there? But I'm content and I'm doing it.
Speaker: I'm feeling it inside. yeah
Speaker: so I want you all to find your own, your santosha with your body, your yoga, and what it is that it's doing for you.
Speaker: Okay, well, that seems like a good place to finish up. Yeah. Have a super wonderful week, everyone. Namaste. See you next week. Namaste. Namaste.
Speaker: Thank you for joining us today and have a super wonderful week. Namaste.
