Stay Content
Remaining contented throughout your life is a big task but it's also an important one. Contented people have fewer health issues, are more likely to enjoy life to its fullest, and do not want for what they do not have. A contented person is not chasing after rainbows or trying to keep up with the Joneses; instead, a contented person knows that the source of contentment is deep within, trusting oneself and loving the life one has.
Contents
Steps
- Be in harmony with those around you. If you are having difficulties in your relationships, it is important to sort these out quickly. Impoverished relationships are a key source of discontentment and if you have tried hard with some people and nothing improves, it is important to reassess whether or not you will continue to have that disruptive influence in your life. For those you love and care about, praise them, acknowledge them, and be more a part of their lives in each and every way daily. Revel in the beauty of loving and caring for people around you. Even those who cause you pain, forgive them as you move on from them, and let them be the way they are in the world without this causing you angst.
- Stop seeking the riches and fortunes that you feel others have. Think about the realities involved; what a lot of other people have are debts and a need to be boastful through belongings. Eschew this path and avoid falling into the trap of wanting all the goodies others have. Having all that stuff will not make you happy.
- Love your job. No matter how much you earn, no matter how much training in a specific field you have, no matter how much you think ought to follow the "right path", working in a job you hate will not bring you contentment. Even your perfect home life cannot overcome the daily grind of a much-detested job. The key is to accept that you might not be cut out for the career you chose for yourself. And to accept that happiness may just come with a much less well paid job that comes with greater fulfillment. Readjust your life's priorities.
- Keep healthy with the little things. Floss your teeth daily, eat nutritious foods, exercise regularly, have a good laugh at least twice a week. These are simple things, said often and over and over again, but there is a reason for this–they work. Do them and contentment will follow.
- Be a good neighbor. Get to know the people around you and be there for them as much as you can. Create community wherever you go and show trust to others. Reaching out to all is part of being contented within ourselves.
- Trust and have faith. Learn to trust more and learn to have faith in both others and yourself. This may seem difficult at first in a world where you are taught to "trust nobody but yourself" but if you cannot even trust yourself, even that adage is twisted. Forget the negative connotations about trust. Be a pragmatic trust-warrior by accepting that there will be some people who will abuse that trust but for every abuser, it is likely there will be 9 people who reciprocate your trust, or who eventually come around because someone cared enough to trust them. Hang onto this belief doggedly and change the world's contentment as well as your own.
- Be in the moment. Don't worry about the past and the future. Contentment is reached when you make the most of the present as thinking of the past and the future will in the end just lead to disappointment.
- Positive thinking. Changing your outlook to a positive outlook makes it much easier to be content.
- Don't compare. Comparing your life against others or your past creates a lot of unhappiness, enjoy and make the most of what you have.
- Meditate. That is sitting still for 20 minutes a day, which gives time for your worries to come up, but don't think about them just allow them to naturally pass until you achieve a calm mind. meditation is allowing your mind to become calm.
- Ask questions. When you experience a thought nagging at the back of your mind, write it down as a question. This focuses your mind and helps you not become obsessed with your thoughts.
Tips
- Do you feel like getting up every day? Are you rearing to face the world and all the wonderful opportunities in it? If not, you're not content, meaning that it is time to face the facts and sort through what is causing you the pain, tiredness, lethargy, disinterest, hatred, etc. for what you are doing in life. Sort it!
Warnings
- Keep negative people at a distance. Be polite to them but avoid buying into their view of the world. It is a skewed view and it is the easier way to see things rather than struggling to change what makes them unhappy. But did you know that people who are negative on purpose in order to avoid feeling bad when things do go wrong, feel no more buffered and safe when things actually go wrong than those who kept a positive outlook? In fact, they often feel worse. So seeing the worst in everything as a self-defense mechanism has an in-built failure because negative people collapse faster and harder when things crumble and lack the ability to shake off the rubble and start again. Be wary of them and just steer your path as always.
