Contentment is more than transient moments of appreciation—it is a way of being. It is a place where our minds and hearts rest, an embodied understanding that has deep within it a sense of contentment, an ease of being, a sense that all is well.
Noticing and giving time to what is present doesn’t come so easily to most of us, especially when we’re under stress. However, there are steps we can take to train ourselves to bring awareness to the nourishing aspects of our lives and cultivate the conditions for enduring contentment. Raising and broadening our gaze can reveal many moments of appreciative joy in everyday life. Recognizing, seeing, and stepping away from our judging mind creates the conditions for enduring contentment.
Contentment does not deny difficulty or pain, nor the value of the judging mind if it is used judiciously. It is not some kind of Pollyanna positive thinking. In fact, contentment can mean recognizing and resting in a difficulty, letting go of the struggle that can perpetuate suffering. More than this, it can open our eyes to the goodness that often sits alongside any difficulty. Contentment in this sense opens to what is actually present in any given moment: the pleasant, the unpleasant, and the neutral, letting go of the striving for perfection, goals, and stability that simply don’t exist.
A Mindfulness Practice to Cultivate Contentment
Take a few moments to steady your attention. Take up a posture that communicates a sense of wakefulness and dignity. Steady for a few moments on your breath, anchoring your attention. Take note of any bodily sensations, feelings, and thoughts, allowing them to be as they are, with the breath as the anchor for your attention.Bring into the practice the questions “What do I need in this moment to be happy?” and “What is lacking from this moment?” As best you can, stay very close to this moment. If you notice your mind wandering into judging or wider questions about your life, escort it back to this moment, back to “What do I need in this moment to be happy?”; “What is lacking from this moment?” Explore within yourself what it is to rest in this moment with ease, to rest in the small space between the ending of the out‐breath and the beginning of the next breath, to rest in the quietude between sounds, to rest in the body.The Importance of Gratitude in Cultivating Contentment
Gratitude nourishes and supports contentment. It is an active choice to identify all that we can be grateful for in our lives. We can be grateful for a seemingly trivial thing, like a moment of kindness a stranger shows us, or more seemingly profound things, like a loving relationship or our health. You’re not denying any difficulties you may be experiencing by acknowledging the good that sits alongside them. Gratitude isn’t an antidote to your problems, but a gentle counterpoint to the inclination of the mind to identify everything that is lacking or imperfect in our lives.
There are many ways to develop gratitude, but one is to look at all the good things we often take for granted.