When my children are happy I am relaxed and content. I would echo all of Barb’s descriptions where a book was included. Sitting by the water always brings a wash of contentment over me.
So many delicious moments to think of with this question! To name a few–
– Sitting on my sofa on a quiet Sunday morning, reading poetry with a soft warm cat on my lap and hot coffee in my cup
– End of a full afternoon of tending to the garden with a compost bin full of pruning or weeding and a sense of accomplishment
– Savoring the delicious tastes in my mouth after a wonderful meal, feeling comfortably full, not overstuffed
– Waking up and remembering that it’s Saturday
– Sitting with my husband by the water watching kids learn how to sail, feeling the sun and a light breeze, with our bag full of locally grown produce from the farmers’ market
– Climbing into a hot bath
– That moment right after closing a good book, feeling as if I’ve been living in the world that author created and sitting with it
– Settling into the reclining outdoor seat I got from our local Buy Nothing group feeling as if the yardwork is pretty caught up and I can sit with a book and enjoy the space I’ve created with my labors
During and after meditating, if it is a relatively non-distracted meditation session. In the evening sharing a poem with my husband (we read a new poem from rotating books of poetry every evening). During spiritual reading and when listening to Nonviolence Radio. Going on a walk and appreciating the plants and animals and people that I see.
I find contentment to be fleeting. Always on to the next thing. Planning, preparing, trying to get ready for something. But I will say, that being in the kitchen at the end of the day, with my wife, preparing food, talking, and generally relaxing, brings me real contentment. We’re each kind of doing our own thing, but together. It’s so nice.
Maybe it’s in those moments when I’m completing something. Finishing a task. Before going in to the next thing. Even something simple like doing the dishes.
When I think of my dream, the gathering of my family in the U.S., I’m not feeling content because it’s far away from now. However, when I think of the opportunity to meet each other and the development of tech, which allows us to talk via cell phone easily, I’m full of gratitude and happy. Thanks to God for all of this. May you all have a wonderful day full of energy. 💐
My Ngoc, first of all, I’m sure you mean happiness in the sentence “I’m full of happiness.” I remember first coming to America in 93, in order to reach out to fammily in Vietnam in the 90s, we had to either write letters or be restricted on minutes and money for conversations. Now, we can call at anytime on Messenger.
Hmmm. Contentment. That would be the exact opposite of anxiety.
The much better of the two.
I feel content in the morning when I’m drinking my hot tea or coffee
and mulling over the daily question on this site
Sometimes at night just before going to bed I feel grateful and content.
Contentment comes from gratefulness.
Contentment comes from feeling like I have all that I need
and that I don’t have to worry about the future.
Blessed are those who feel contentment.
By living in the eternal now, and practicing gratefulness
I would like to be included in this group. ☀️
“Contentment comes from feeling like I have all that I need
and that I don’t have to worry about the future.” … yes, great observation Mary. Also makes me think that our media environment actively works against contentment.
The media: Purveyors of every imaginable food, household gadgets, prescription drugs, amusement parks and every other thing that they tell you if only you have this or that, eat this or that, go here or there, pure bliss will surely greet you. They are actually purveyors of falsehoods.
It does indeed,
dear Drea,
and it drives me crazy
to watch the commercials fly by . . .
buy this, buy that . . .
you need this to feel beautiful,
wanted, special,
or even better than.
The constant procession,
the constant assault
makes me feel poisoned.
I’m sorry . . .
this is a hot-button issue with me.
Thank you for bringing it up. ♥
I’ve recently been struggling with this, feeling content. I changed jobs and am learning something I am interested in, I have loving relationships in my life, I go out to events and put myself out there, I have more time to myself, why do I still feel like I’m missing something?
I haven’t been done a sitting meditation but try to be mindful in my daily life. It still doesn’t feel enough, and I realize I don’t feel like I’m enough. Like I’m waiting for someone to tell me that I am. But when they so, I still don’t allow myself to believe it. I have this blockage that I can’t shake off and it’s been weighing me down. There’s some days I have the strength to push through it, but other days I don’t and that’s where I tend to be apathetic. I know it won’t be like this forever, but it does feel that way.
So many of us,
dear Jenifer,
have feelings of not being enough,
and we all handle it in different ways,
from shriveling up into a small ball
to turning into a raging bully.
It’s what we do with it that counts.
Allow yourself to love yourself a little bit . . .
grow a plant.
Water it and give it sunlight.
That plant will be grateful for you . . .
you are enough to that little plant.
The collective world is grateful for you . . .
you just haven’t realized that yet.
I hold you in my heart
as you journey through this sorrow
with much love . . .
sparrow ♥
Dear Jennifer,
I haven’t seen you lately and am so glad to see you here today!
I would say that feeling like I am not enough is my issue too.
I think I feel this way when I compare myself to others.
Recently, as I shared once before,
a friend told me not to worry about what and how others are doing.
He said, “Mary, you be you.”
This was in art class when I was doing that destructive thing of comparing myself to others.
These words helped me.
I don’t have to be like someone else.
Being my unique self, Mary, is enough.
Really? Yes, I think so!
Well if that is true, that changes everything!!!😊
I’m not sure what will be helpful for you, Jenifer,
but you will find your way through this,
either from your own wisdom,
perhaps from inspiration on a site like this one,
or from a book, a group (maybe a support group),
with the help of a friend or therapist,
or maybe even from spending more time in nature.
If it helps, I think that most people feel this way from time to time.
And a lot of people frequently or constantly struggle with these feelings.
You are not alone in this.
The members of this group are with you, Jenifer,
and I am with you.
Sending my love to you on this journey,
Mary
When I’m actively engaging with the world around me. Walking, swimming, having a conversation with someone, working in the garden, drawing. Movement and creativity, and the afterglow, are sources of contentment for me.
I hadn’t thought of contentment as something I feel when I’m active,
but really, being active makes me feel more content too.
That’s interesting, isn’t it! 🥰
I feel content all the time. I know. Seeing my short simple answers, I’m sounding more and more like San Antonio Spurs coach, Gregg, Popovich. His short and straight to the point answers are legendary. Pop’s way can come off as rude and abrasive in collective cultures.
Care and intimacy are the core principles in collective cultures. People will ask us 20 questions. Interests and knowledge conversations happen more in America. It’s personal conversations where I come from. Everything has its pros and cons.
My first thought and today’s question reminds me of the role model, imperfection, and insite questions all tied into one from Saturday to yesterday. Pop can get too political. That has largely contributed to too much politics in sports. If I’m watching a 7pm game, I just want to hear about the game. There’s always things we’re not going to like about one another. Politics aside, Pop has done many things right.
I could easily choose Pop as my role model. That could be the Spurs organization in general. The organization is very down-to-earth and transparent. Cultures with sustainable success have an honest and open communication line. There’s many different ways to do things.
There’s no arguing with the results. Pop and the Spurs won 5 championships while consistently making the playoffs for 19 years during Tim Duncan’s career from 1997-2016. Duncan was the Spurs culture-building humble superstar. He allows himself to be coached by Pop. It’s why we know both of them as 1st balot hall-of-famers. Pop even admitted that he coached Duncan the hardest during that time. Bigger gloves for bigger hands.
Tough and strict are vassly different. Strict comes from the word “Restrict.” Collective cultures are strict; not tough. My definition of toughness pretty much boils down to taking responsibility. Toughness isn’t as bad as we think.
Pop and the Spurs are pioneers of adaptability. Staying ahead of the game has helped them maintain success for decades. Pop’s toughness is rooted in passion and competition. Only geeks like me see his softer side. The last thing we want is to be steered in undesirable directions even out of goodwill.
My relationship with Ngoc feels relatable to Pop’s relationship with his players. Pop and I share the root of unorthadoxed care. His comes from a place of achieving goals while mine all points to well-being. As a piano player, I respect how Pop gets his players to live life beyond the court. I live my life beyond the keys too. Like Avril said days ago, we’re more than our busyness. With all that being said, I resignate with Pop, and it’s why people close to me have compared my personality to him for NBA coaching legends.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for all of the loving repsonses yesterday. I feel very content in this moment. My awesome husband rebuilt our bed over the weekend so it is now king-sized. We ordered a really nice mattress— we’re enjoying day 1 of a 90-day trial. I have degerative disc in my lower back and we are trying to ameliorate that and my husband has a long-term shoulder injury. It’s amazing how wonderful one can feel on a great new mattress. This moment is quite lovely in the quiet, lounging on this most cozy bed!
When I am immersed in the out of doors. To experience the raw power and beauty of our life-giving home. Be it a calm sunny spring day watching the cottontails nibble on tender green shoots, or a powerful thunderstorm filled with electricity from the sky. May all encounter peace, love and contentment during a portion or all, if you are so lucky, of this new day.
Like the deer and us, every being needs to eat! They only become bothersome if they burrow in the haystacks. That is where the barn cats come in dear Sparrow!
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When my children are happy I am relaxed and content. I would echo all of Barb’s descriptions where a book was included. Sitting by the water always brings a wash of contentment over me.
I agree. There is nothing like water!
“a wash of contentment” Lovely!
Anything that brings me gratitude
also brings me contentment . . . ♥
So many delicious moments to think of with this question! To name a few–
– Sitting on my sofa on a quiet Sunday morning, reading poetry with a soft warm cat on my lap and hot coffee in my cup
– End of a full afternoon of tending to the garden with a compost bin full of pruning or weeding and a sense of accomplishment
– Savoring the delicious tastes in my mouth after a wonderful meal, feeling comfortably full, not overstuffed
– Waking up and remembering that it’s Saturday
– Sitting with my husband by the water watching kids learn how to sail, feeling the sun and a light breeze, with our bag full of locally grown produce from the farmers’ market
– Climbing into a hot bath
– That moment right after closing a good book, feeling as if I’ve been living in the world that author created and sitting with it
– Settling into the reclining outdoor seat I got from our local Buy Nothing group feeling as if the yardwork is pretty caught up and I can sit with a book and enjoy the space I’ve created with my labors
I smiled reading each and every one of them 🙂
Love all of these
”– End of a full afternoon of tending to the garden with a compost bin full of pruning or weeding and a sense of accomplishment”
Amen,
dear Barb . . . 🙂
During and after meditating, if it is a relatively non-distracted meditation session. In the evening sharing a poem with my husband (we read a new poem from rotating books of poetry every evening). During spiritual reading and when listening to Nonviolence Radio. Going on a walk and appreciating the plants and animals and people that I see.
I find contentment to be fleeting. Always on to the next thing. Planning, preparing, trying to get ready for something. But I will say, that being in the kitchen at the end of the day, with my wife, preparing food, talking, and generally relaxing, brings me real contentment. We’re each kind of doing our own thing, but together. It’s so nice.
Maybe it’s in those moments when I’m completing something. Finishing a task. Before going in to the next thing. Even something simple like doing the dishes.
When I think of my dream, the gathering of my family in the U.S., I’m not feeling content because it’s far away from now. However, when I think of the opportunity to meet each other and the development of tech, which allows us to talk via cell phone easily, I’m full of gratitude and happy. Thanks to God for all of this. May you all have a wonderful day full of energy. 💐
My Ngoc, first of all, I’m sure you mean happiness in the sentence “I’m full of happiness.” I remember first coming to America in 93, in order to reach out to fammily in Vietnam in the 90s, we had to either write letters or be restricted on minutes and money for conversations. Now, we can call at anytime on Messenger.
Hmmm. Contentment. That would be the exact opposite of anxiety.
The much better of the two.
I feel content in the morning when I’m drinking my hot tea or coffee
and mulling over the daily question on this site
Sometimes at night just before going to bed I feel grateful and content.
Contentment comes from gratefulness.
Contentment comes from feeling like I have all that I need
and that I don’t have to worry about the future.
Blessed are those who feel contentment.
By living in the eternal now, and practicing gratefulness
I would like to be included in this group. ☀️
“Contentment comes from feeling like I have all that I need
and that I don’t have to worry about the future.” … yes, great observation Mary. Also makes me think that our media environment actively works against contentment.
Right, there’s always something that you “need” to buy!
The media: Purveyors of every imaginable food, household gadgets, prescription drugs, amusement parks and every other thing that they tell you if only you have this or that, eat this or that, go here or there, pure bliss will surely greet you. They are actually purveyors of falsehoods.
It does indeed,
dear Drea,
and it drives me crazy
to watch the commercials fly by . . .
buy this, buy that . . .
you need this to feel beautiful,
wanted, special,
or even better than.
The constant procession,
the constant assault
makes me feel poisoned.
I’m sorry . . .
this is a hot-button issue with me.
Thank you for bringing it up. ♥
I’ve recently been struggling with this, feeling content. I changed jobs and am learning something I am interested in, I have loving relationships in my life, I go out to events and put myself out there, I have more time to myself, why do I still feel like I’m missing something?
I haven’t been done a sitting meditation but try to be mindful in my daily life. It still doesn’t feel enough, and I realize I don’t feel like I’m enough. Like I’m waiting for someone to tell me that I am. But when they so, I still don’t allow myself to believe it. I have this blockage that I can’t shake off and it’s been weighing me down. There’s some days I have the strength to push through it, but other days I don’t and that’s where I tend to be apathetic. I know it won’t be like this forever, but it does feel that way.
So many of us,
dear Jenifer,
have feelings of not being enough,
and we all handle it in different ways,
from shriveling up into a small ball
to turning into a raging bully.
It’s what we do with it that counts.
Allow yourself to love yourself a little bit . . .
grow a plant.
Water it and give it sunlight.
That plant will be grateful for you . . .
you are enough to that little plant.
The collective world is grateful for you . . .
you just haven’t realized that yet.
I hold you in my heart
as you journey through this sorrow
with much love . . .
sparrow ♥
Thank you for you kind words Sparrow 🧡🙏🏽
Dear Jennifer,
I haven’t seen you lately and am so glad to see you here today!
I would say that feeling like I am not enough is my issue too.
I think I feel this way when I compare myself to others.
Recently, as I shared once before,
a friend told me not to worry about what and how others are doing.
He said, “Mary, you be you.”
This was in art class when I was doing that destructive thing of comparing myself to others.
These words helped me.
I don’t have to be like someone else.
Being my unique self, Mary, is enough.
Really? Yes, I think so!
Well if that is true, that changes everything!!!😊
I’m not sure what will be helpful for you, Jenifer,
but you will find your way through this,
either from your own wisdom,
perhaps from inspiration on a site like this one,
or from a book, a group (maybe a support group),
with the help of a friend or therapist,
or maybe even from spending more time in nature.
If it helps, I think that most people feel this way from time to time.
And a lot of people frequently or constantly struggle with these feelings.
You are not alone in this.
The members of this group are with you, Jenifer,
and I am with you.
Sending my love to you on this journey,
Mary
Thank you for your beautiful words Mary 🙏🏽🧡
“Content” is an interesting word! I think I’ll just leave it at that!
Carol, nice and succinct. You just took a page out of my playbook from seeing my detailed answer.
When I’m actively engaging with the world around me. Walking, swimming, having a conversation with someone, working in the garden, drawing. Movement and creativity, and the afterglow, are sources of contentment for me.
I hadn’t thought of contentment as something I feel when I’m active,
but really, being active makes me feel more content too.
That’s interesting, isn’t it! 🥰
In a nutshell,
dear Drea . . .
“Movement and creativity, and the afterglow, are sources of contentment for me”
I feel content all the time. I know. Seeing my short simple answers, I’m sounding more and more like San Antonio Spurs coach, Gregg, Popovich. His short and straight to the point answers are legendary. Pop’s way can come off as rude and abrasive in collective cultures.
Care and intimacy are the core principles in collective cultures. People will ask us 20 questions. Interests and knowledge conversations happen more in America. It’s personal conversations where I come from. Everything has its pros and cons.
My first thought and today’s question reminds me of the role model, imperfection, and insite questions all tied into one from Saturday to yesterday. Pop can get too political. That has largely contributed to too much politics in sports. If I’m watching a 7pm game, I just want to hear about the game. There’s always things we’re not going to like about one another. Politics aside, Pop has done many things right.
I could easily choose Pop as my role model. That could be the Spurs organization in general. The organization is very down-to-earth and transparent. Cultures with sustainable success have an honest and open communication line. There’s many different ways to do things.
There’s no arguing with the results. Pop and the Spurs won 5 championships while consistently making the playoffs for 19 years during Tim Duncan’s career from 1997-2016. Duncan was the Spurs culture-building humble superstar. He allows himself to be coached by Pop. It’s why we know both of them as 1st balot hall-of-famers. Pop even admitted that he coached Duncan the hardest during that time. Bigger gloves for bigger hands.
Tough and strict are vassly different. Strict comes from the word “Restrict.” Collective cultures are strict; not tough. My definition of toughness pretty much boils down to taking responsibility. Toughness isn’t as bad as we think.
Pop and the Spurs are pioneers of adaptability. Staying ahead of the game has helped them maintain success for decades. Pop’s toughness is rooted in passion and competition. Only geeks like me see his softer side. The last thing we want is to be steered in undesirable directions even out of goodwill.
My relationship with Ngoc feels relatable to Pop’s relationship with his players. Pop and I share the root of unorthadoxed care. His comes from a place of achieving goals while mine all points to well-being. As a piano player, I respect how Pop gets his players to live life beyond the court. I live my life beyond the keys too. Like Avril said days ago, we’re more than our busyness. With all that being said, I resignate with Pop, and it’s why people close to me have compared my personality to him for NBA coaching legends.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for all of the loving repsonses yesterday. I feel very content in this moment. My awesome husband rebuilt our bed over the weekend so it is now king-sized. We ordered a really nice mattress— we’re enjoying day 1 of a 90-day trial. I have degerative disc in my lower back and we are trying to ameliorate that and my husband has a long-term shoulder injury. It’s amazing how wonderful one can feel on a great new mattress. This moment is quite lovely in the quiet, lounging on this most cozy bed!
That’s wonderful, Avril!
Luxuriate and enjoy!
Enjoy that new mattress, Avril. What a treat.
Sounds like a nice bed you have, Avril. I’m happy for you.
Thank you Loc
In the mornings when I sit for meditation and then the time that follows drinking coffee, visiting this site and journaling.
My mornings and time spent with my kids.
When I am immersed in the out of doors. To experience the raw power and beauty of our life-giving home. Be it a calm sunny spring day watching the cottontails nibble on tender green shoots, or a powerful thunderstorm filled with electricity from the sky. May all encounter peace, love and contentment during a portion or all, if you are so lucky, of this new day.
I hope those tender, green shoots that the rabbits nibble on,
are not crops that you have planted,
dear Joseph . . . 🙂
Like the deer and us, every being needs to eat! They only become bothersome if they burrow in the haystacks. That is where the barn cats come in dear Sparrow!
🙂
So much glory in nature if we just stop and really take a look!