Happy or content?
Merriam-Webster defines happy as “feeling pleasure and enjoyment because of your life, situation, etc.”
We all, of course, want to be happy. The question is: how? How can we be happy? Is it possible to be happy all the time? while washing the car? doing the taxes? while reading the news?
For many folks being happy seems to based on a More Strategy: to have more money, more achievements, more stuff. But haven’t you learned that having more is a never-ending journey? We seem to need more and more to be happy. Happiness is largely the passive result of attainment: we acquire goods or status and they bestow happiness. And it can come and go.
We really want a state of well-being, rather than just a moment.
But on the other hand..
Contentment, according to Merriam-Webster, means “pleased and satisfied: not needing more.” Being content means being happy now with what we already have, not needing this or that before we can be happy. This Enough Strategy means directing our attention inward to find our wholeness. Contentment requires no external input and is sourced entirely from within.
It comes from our relationship to what is going on around us, rather than our reaction to it.
It is the powerful realization that we are whole and complete just as we are, despite the anger, sadness, joy, frustration, and excitement that may come in and out from time to time.
A radical appreciation of all of our life’s experiences is a cornerstone to contentment, which is the idea that right here, right now, everything is OK as it it. And yes, that means we can be content even with our sadness, even with our anger, even with our loneliness. We can be content with our elation, joy and peace–and everything in between.
Let’s seek contentment. If we are content with ourselves and able to accept who we are right here and right now in whatever circumstances, we will have more awareness of the the gifts we have been given, the opportunity to live and experience life, in both its delightful and its inglorious moments.
After all, even if we have nothing, we can enjoy a sunrise. Even if we have no one, we can partake in conversation with a stranger.
So let’s look around, breathe the air, listen, and look in our heart for something to be grateful for. That is contentment. Embrace it, and we’ll never have to pursue happiness again.
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Very well said!