Contentment – a deeper expression of happiness.

I have just got off the phone with friend and she had asked me how I was. I replied that I felt very contented and as I said that word I felt a very deep peaceful feeling.  Contentment is key.

It reminded me of a conversation I had had with a friend over 25 years ago where I was passionately arguing that I wanted to be happy not just content! He was saying that for him contentment was a better aim. How wise that friend of mine was although I couldn’t see it at the time.

Happiness is great and it is an inside job. Nothing outside of us can ‘make’ us happy. We have to choose to be happy. This is very easy when everything is going well. However it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that we can only be happy when all is going well. If we believe this to be true then we are slaves to making life good – all the time. And as I am sure you have experienced that is not only impossible but very hard work trying.

Instead, come into harmony with everything.

For a while now I have been focusing on coming into harmony with everything that happens in my life. Of seeing the divine play equally in what I could, if I chose to, judge as good or bad. If I take away the judgement and see everything as the divine play equally that’s when contentment can arise.

You see contentment is being happy with everything – whatever is happening. Contentment is the deeper expression of happiness. My friend from 25 years ago was right – it is better to aim for contentment than happiness.

Contentment is seeing your world and choosing to come into harmony with everything that happens. What does that mean? It means that we stop fighting the reality of the world. Instead of letting our personal likes and dislikes govern how we feel we notice our reaction and choose to accept it as it is. After all, fighting it in our mind is not going to help.

To truly practise contentment – and it is a practise – you have to make a personal commitment to yourself to practise coming into harmony with whatever arises – to truly practise contentment it needs to be in all areas of life. You can’t decide to choose contentment with the small stuff but still get riled up about the big stuff – or visa versa. In all situations, when I remember, I literally tell myself – everything is fine – exactly as it is.

I have seen that I need to be contented with the weather when it rains as much as I need to be contented with the way the world is right now. When it rains and my plans for a swim in the river are thwarted I could get upset and fed up with Switzerland and it’s rainy summers. I could moan about it and generally be in a bad mood. Or I can choose to be contented with whatever else I end up doing and see that it is just one day and there will be other days and just because my well laid plans did not pan out doesn’t mean I have to lose my contented state. Everything is fine – exactly as it is.

Equally I could look at everything that is going on the world right now and get into a right state about it. Or I could acknowledge that what I see is not what I would choose for the people involved and the world but that if I get into a negative state of mind about it then I am adding to the problem, not helping it.   If I continue to fight, even if it is in my mind, then I am part of the problem.

Feeling contented in times like these does not mean that I condone all that is happening, it just means that I am not mentally or energetically fighting it. When we do that we can begin to forgive it because only out of understanding will things change.

Contentment has a deep feeling of Joy.

For me contentment has a lovely deep feeling of joy for no reason. When I choose to be in harmony with ‘what is’ that feeling is instantly there. One moment I can be annoyed with something and the next I can remember contentment and my experience immediately changes.

Try it and see for yourself. Choosing happiness is easy when the good stuff happens, now you can set the intention to choose happiness even when things are not working out and it will be then that you’ll experience the deep joy of contentment.