What is true contentment? (Part 1)
Contentment describes to me a mixture of joy and peace. I feel it is something that each and everyone of us search for in our lives. In our careers, in our family, in our relationships, in our children, in our creative outputs..in all of these endeavours of life, we are inadvertently looking for anything within them that gives us that feeling...the feeling I would like to call contentment. I realize the word may have been watered down in meaning today and associated with something more flimsy but to me contentment is deeper. It is that feeling in your gut when you talk to someone and realize you've finally found someone who understands you, it is that feeling when you toil all spring and summer in a garden and you see it come to life. Mind you contentment must come from within myself. No matter how many people complement my garden, I have to be happy and at peace with it to be content. So it is not based on outside feedback but is something that is borne within me and since I am my worst critic and also the person who knows myself best, truly being content with something will be perfection of joy and peace won't it?
Joy is derived from the Latin word gaudium meaning to be glad. For some reason, I always thought of joy as being more lasting and more deep than just happiness. In my head I associate joy with an image of a woman at her kitchen table, laughing heartily, blushing deeply and being unable to keep her whole body from shaking from sheer enjoyment.That is an experience is it not? I have always remembered the times I laughed so hard my body shook and tears came out my eyes and my tummy hurt. I may not remember why but I do remember with whom and that is what matters isn't it? Happiness I associate with that good feeling when someone compliments your outfit, or you...you grin for a bit but after a while, its gone. I have contemplated the aspect of true lasting joy and peace for a long time because I desire it so deeply. I feel if I can attain true joy and peace, then anything else I do will not matter.
I find that the happiness derived from things that are passing are predictably also passing. So even if I spend the day shopping, or treat myself to a spa day, or go to a party or hang out with friends, or have a drink, or an orgasm, it all passes. Eventually I have to repeat the whole procedure all over again to experience that feeling of happiness. Joy on the other hand is different. Joy is related to deeper things, things I cannot explain because they seem so insignificant at face value but they leave deep imprints in your heart.
Peace is similar to this lasting joy for me, in fact I feel the two go hand in hand. I think when you are deeply content, you are also in a sense peaceful because the state of content makes me feel that I have all I want or could need.
So what then qualifies contentment for me? What criteria does it need to fulfill for me, to call it lasting? It should permeate me and my being and last longer than a simple 'high' and if it could be present somewhere within me even through the tough/bad times or lows in my life, that would be perfection of contentment.
Joy is derived from the Latin word gaudium meaning to be glad. For some reason, I always thought of joy as being more lasting and more deep than just happiness. In my head I associate joy with an image of a woman at her kitchen table, laughing heartily, blushing deeply and being unable to keep her whole body from shaking from sheer enjoyment.That is an experience is it not? I have always remembered the times I laughed so hard my body shook and tears came out my eyes and my tummy hurt. I may not remember why but I do remember with whom and that is what matters isn't it? Happiness I associate with that good feeling when someone compliments your outfit, or you...you grin for a bit but after a while, its gone. I have contemplated the aspect of true lasting joy and peace for a long time because I desire it so deeply. I feel if I can attain true joy and peace, then anything else I do will not matter.
I find that the happiness derived from things that are passing are predictably also passing. So even if I spend the day shopping, or treat myself to a spa day, or go to a party or hang out with friends, or have a drink, or an orgasm, it all passes. Eventually I have to repeat the whole procedure all over again to experience that feeling of happiness. Joy on the other hand is different. Joy is related to deeper things, things I cannot explain because they seem so insignificant at face value but they leave deep imprints in your heart.
Peace is similar to this lasting joy for me, in fact I feel the two go hand in hand. I think when you are deeply content, you are also in a sense peaceful because the state of content makes me feel that I have all I want or could need.
So what then qualifies contentment for me? What criteria does it need to fulfill for me, to call it lasting? It should permeate me and my being and last longer than a simple 'high' and if it could be present somewhere within me even through the tough/bad times or lows in my life, that would be perfection of contentment.
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