Harvest Happiness!
Our lives are so busy that we often forget to acknowledge our achievements, and rather than celebrating ourselves for the completion of a task, we feel obliged to move straight on to the next thing on our to-do list. Lammas is the perfect time to pause and reflect on what we have achieved over the past year. We celebrate our harvest and acknowledge where seeds failed to germinate, and consider how we would do things differently next time, to ensure success.
Life is full of challenges and it’s natural to be focussed on how to resolve these difficulties. However, in the process we can forget to acknowledge the beauty and everyday miracles in our lives. Lammas, the time of first harvest, encourages us to use our yoga and meditation practice to strengthen our gratitude muscles, and in doing so increase our potential for happiness.
Yoga & Meditation for Harvest Time
August 1st to August 7th 2025
On each of the seven days of the challenge you will find a short Lammas-inspired yoga practice which can be fitted in to even the busiest of days. I have designed these yoga practices especially for this 7-day challenge. Each of the practices takes between 15-30 minutes and has a PDF that you can download and print too.
The yoga practices in this 7-day challenge are inspired by the abundance of first harvest and they aim to help us to cultivate a sense of gratitude for the earth’s abundance. Yoga Sutra 2.42 states, “Perfect happiness is attained through contentment.” During the challenge, we integrate Patanjali’s words on contentment into the practices as a way of opening ourselves up to happiness.
The season of first harvest is the perfect time to establish a Gratitude Practice. One way that we can cultivate gratitude is by acknowledging all those people (including ourselves!) who have helped us to “grow” our harvest. During the challenge we use meditation phrases inspired by a Buddhist meditation, called the Metta Bhavana. The word metta translates as ‘loving kindness’ or ‘friendliness’. This is the perfect meditation to use at Lammas because it helps us to strengthen our gratitude muscles.
On each of the days of the 7-day challenge you will be offered the choice of 3 activities. On busy days you might choose to do just one of those activities, which will take between 5-15 minutes. On other days, when you have more time, you might want to do all 3 activities for a longer practice. The course is yours forever, so even after the challenge has ended, you can go back and engage with the yoga practices, meditations, and seasonal meditation questions, throughout the harvest period (and again next year, if you choose!).
The 7-Day Lammas Yoga & Meditation Challenge 2025 starts on August 1st and runs for 7 days. Once you have enrolled the course material is yours forever. So if you have to start the course a day or two later, that's fine. After you have completed the challenge you can return and engage with the course material whenever you want.
Lammas Yoga Resources
Each of the challenges 7 yoga practices has a PDF that you can download and print. The bite-sized Lammas yoga practices can easily be fitted into a busy day. If you find that some days you have more time, you could always use the longer bonus practice that’s included.
Yoga Philosophy to Promote Happiness
Yoga Sutra 2.42 states, “Perfect happiness is attained through contentment.” Over the challenge we integrate Patanjali’s words on contentment into our yoga practice as a way of opening ourselves up to happiness. When we cultivate gratitude as a spiritual practice, contentment (samtosa) naturally follows, and from contentment happiness blooms.
Whereas happiness can be elusive, the path of gratitude and contentment is always available to us.
Each day over the next week, at the start of our yoga practice we will silently repeat the sutra, “Perfect happiness is attained through contentment.” During the practice we will integrate the words into flowing yoga sequences. On the inhale we will affirm, “Perfect happiness”, and on the exhale, “Contentment.”
Gratitude as a Spiritual Practice
During the period of first harvest our spiritual practice invites us to look deeply and to recognize that we are all part of an intricate web of interdependency. The self-made man (or woman) is a myth. None of us can make it alone. Taking time to acknowledge with gratitude all the ways that we are supported by others is a spiritual act.
Over the seven days of the challenge, we will be using meditation phrases inspired by a Buddhist meditation, called the Metta Bhavana. The word metta translates as ‘loving kindness’ or ‘friendliness’.
A downloadable PDF of this meditation and other resources are included in the course.
Lammas Meditation Questions
Over the seven days of the challenge, you will have the opportunity to engage with Lammas-inspired seasonal meditation questions. Below are the themes that you will be working with:
Day One: Celebrating your harvest.
Day Two: What are the seeds inherent in my harvest?
Day Three: Weeding to ensure a successful harvest.
Day Four: Harvesting fruitful relationships.
Day Five: Cultivating Gratitude.
Day Six: Harvesting a fruitful yoga practice.
Day Seven: Celebrating the Earth's bounty at harvest.
It’s up to you how you engage with the meditation questions. You might choose to spend some time each day meditatively writing (journaling) your responses to the questions. Or if you are short of time, you could simply read through the questions and trust that your subconscious and universal conscious will come up with answers to the questions. Or you could turn them over in your head anytime you have to walk anywhere. Or integrate them into your yoga practice, for example posing a question whilst you are staying in a yoga pose.
A downloadable PDF of all the Lammas meditation questions is included in the course.
August 1st to August 7th 2025
Lammas 7-Day Challenge 2025 Curriculum
Your Tutor & Course Guide
Jilly Shipway is a writer and a qualified yoga teacher with over thirty years teaching experience. Jilly is the author of Yoga Through the Year, Yoga by the Stars, and most recently, Chakras for Creativity: Meditations & Yoga-Based Practices to Awaken Your Creative Potential. She regularly contributes to various magazines and yoga publications.
The 7-day challenge is a self-paced online course, designed by Jilly. Although there is no formal tuition or video content, Jilly looks forward to interacting with you, offering guidance, and answering questions in the (optional) discussion forums during the course.
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