The Authentic Voice Project: Week 3 (Full Moon)
C is for Contentment
Ahhh, contentment.
Society says: Contentment is swinging on a hammock while staring at the sky. It is walking along a beach, hand-in-hand with your love, golden retriever bounding by your side. At least that’s what the commercials would have us believe. But most media is playing on our desperate yearning for a life so opposite to our reality in order to sell us their drugs or stuff. And truthfully, how many of us, while lazing in that hammock are actually thinking of nothing? Isn’t it the perfect place to swing our fretting into full-blown panic because we’re not doing anything!? We are a society where doing = worth.
What society really believes of contentment is that it is not possible – but keep on battlin’ for it anyway! We are taught/brain-washed that we must always be striving for something more: More Money. More Sex. More Car. More House. More Youthful-Looking Skin. Ah, THEN you will be content.
I say: Contentment is a mind, heart and soul at rest. (Would it be that easy!)
Contentment is NOT worry. It is NOT self-judgement. It is NOT jealousy. It is NOT striving.
Contentment is the absence of fear. It is trust.
Contentment is trusting there will be enough money to pay the bills. Trusting in your own abilities. It is being grateful for what you have, not what you haven’t (but trusting that by envisioning your dreams, they can come true). It is living each day for this day, uncolored by the messages and beliefs of yesterday. Contentment is loving the discarded sock in the living room and the childish innocence and abandon that put it there. (OK, that one is a hard sell, I know.)
Contentment is “Flow” – those moments where you lose time doing something challenging that you love. Experience more of these moments and experience more overall happiness. (Visit this post for more information on the concept of “Flow.”)
Contentment is accepting each day, each event, each experience, and each person who crosses your way, not as a test sent to punish or sabotage your joy, but as part of your journey towards your best – and healthiest, happiest – self.
Prompts: In what moments are you happiest? What fears are holding you back from contentment?
joanna tebbs young 
Interesting points. And they have scientific backing, too. Our motivation for doing stuff and acquiring stuff is fired by the neurochemical dopamine. It’s the “gotta get it now!” chemical in our bodies and it relates to motivation and excitement. But it’s the antithesis of calm. While we are motivated it’s biologically impossible to be calm. While we crave stuff we can’t be calm.
Our relaxation state comes from serotonin, the neurochemical that makes us feel calm and blissfully happy. The sort of chilling-out feeling of lying in the sun without a care in the world. So not politically correct. So necessary to our well-being.