Finding Contentment is Vital in Life

Finding Contentment is Vital in Life

Contentment is the key to pure bliss. Because the virtue is all about staying happy with what you have and who you are. It is also about accepting the reality of the present while taking efforts to make future better in a balanced way.

When you are content, you appreciate what you hold right now without giving in to greed factor that forces you to stay in a state of dissatisfaction forever.

Yet, contentment does not mean the complete lack of desire; it means you are happy with your present, and you believe that the turns your life will take later will be for your best.

So, desires are integral to life but they are not everything. They are not at the core of life. There is a lot in life other than just fulfilling temporary wishes that keep emerging consistently.

The Emergence of Desires

Your desires work according to your brain’s reward system. Your brain evaluates your external motivation against internal needs & longings.

Understand it this way.

Let’s say, you were feeling sad one day and you decided to eat some ice-cream. Subsequently, you felt good and happy. Whether it was the flavour of the ice-cream or the taste or the season, doesn’t matter. Now the craving has been embedded in your brain.

The next time you feel distressed, there will automatically be a wish to have some ice-cream and the more you repeat the act, the harder it would become to break the habit.

This is just an example and that’s how your mind works.

The same pattern applies to almost all your craving and desires. Your mind knows what you crave in which situation and compels you to satisfy that.

The Nature of Cravings

Sometimes, a simple wish occupies your whole thought-process, making you unable to do anything else unless the wish is satisfied.

In this way, some wishes may make your mind restless. And if the wish is strong enough, it can create a big disturbance in your mind. And also, any attempt to eradicate yearnings will make the desire even stronger.

For a peaceful life, therefore, you should stop this habit and for that Lord Krishna has a shown the path in the Bhagavad Gita.

It is the path of contentment.

Befriend Contentment

In life, contentment is your best friend. God teaches in the Gita to stay contented, stop being restless, and chasing unnecessary things that stick to your life.

When you stay under the influence of discontent, whatever you have would look completely valueless.  And what you don’t have, you will try to attain that at any cost. It would become the core of your life, your main motive in life.

Such a desire will create a mindset of dissatisfaction in you.

However, this is also true that when you’ll attain whatever you want, it will become useless after some time. Your mind will get bored of it and it will start a new search. It will keep telling you to satisfy your new desires. Now you’ll devote your life, time and money to fulfill those cravings.

The cycle will go on and on. The race of the mind never stops. It turns a human being into someone who is dissatisfied forever.

Try not to be Eternally Dissatisfied

Now, someone who is eternally dissatisfied, someone who is dependent on one’s desires cannot remain happy, especially under such circumstances when it is difficult or impossible to fulfill the cravings. The aftermath may create a great inner disturbance as well.

Moreover, such people get involved in creating more desires and fulfilling them only. Their search for newness will never end. This race is infinite that will never stop. Yet, for attaining inner peace you have to stop this race and that depends on you only.

You can start practicing contentment in any part of your life.  It will stop you from getting restless over your cravings. Contentment also stops the restlessness of the mind.

Practice contentment by embracing your present without judging that, experiencing the positive experiences available right now, showing gratitude for all that you have, and also through mindfulness & meditation.

They all will usher you on the path of tranquillity and a happy life without any need to fulfill your desires.

So, stay content, stay happy!