“Contentment is natural wealth. And luxury is an artificial poverty.” —Socrates.
There were many reasons we chose to simplify our lives and become minimalists. We were frustrated with clutter. We realized happiness was not found in our custody. We found the time that was wasted managing our possessions. And we identified that we value other things far more than physical belongings. This primary process of simplifying our home required effort, energy, and encouragement.
However, remaining minimalist and living this counter-cultural lifestyle against all odds requires something completely different. It requires knowing how to be content.
Contentment is the lifeblood of minimalism. And without it, the journey toward minimalism is indeed short-lived. Discontent will always rear its unpleasant head and become a significant obstacle to fully thriving in a simple and happy life.
Finding One’s Contentment
Although there is no one-size-fits-all strategy to fully-attain contentment, you can learn how to be content by being intentional. Here are six (6) tips you can apply now to find more contentment in your life:
Tip #1. Take control of your attitude. Individuals who lack contentment in their life will often engage in “then and when thinking. Instead, take control of your attitude. Remember that your happiness is not reliant on acquiring any possession. Your satisfaction is based solely on your decision to be happy, which may be one of the essential life lessons you can ever learn.
Tip #2. Practice gratitude. It is impossible to develop contentment without appreciation—they are inseparable. And a grateful person has learned to anchor on the many good things in their life, not on the things they lack. The simple discipline of starting the exercise will genuinely shift your focus back to the many good things you already have.
Tip #3. Break the buying habit. For many of us, it has been implanted into our lives that the right way to disperse discontent is to purchase the outward item seemingly causing it. We must break that habit. Material possessions will never fully satisfy your heart’s desires, which is why discontent always returns. Instead, commit to better understanding yourself and why the lack of that thing is causing discontent. Only after you deliberately break this thinking will true contentment start to surface.
Tip #4. Help others. You will learn to be content when you begin helping others and sharing your talents, time, and money. The practice will give you a finer appreciation of who you are, what you own, and what you have to offer.
Tip #5. Stop comparing yourself to others. Comparing your life with others will always lead to discontentment. You are unique and special. Your life is different, and it is better that way always. Prioritize learning how to cease comparing yourself to others.
Tip #6. Be content with what you have and never with what you are. Do not ever stop discovering, growing, or learning. Take pride in your individuality and the progress that you have made, but only become so content that you can find room for improvement.
Contentment versus Complacency
The difference can seem minor, but there is a world of difference. Contentment is to be joyful with what you have and find satisfaction in your current situation. Complacency is being unsatisfied with your life but still being unwilling to make changes to improve your circumstance.
Is contentment a choice?
Although it is more challenging than it sounds, learning to be content comes from a combination of intentional mindset shifts, habit changes, and awareness of our thoughts and actions.
Relatively, Chet Shupe, a whistleblower to the world, speaks with urgency about the need to rediscover people’s connections with their nature if we are ever again to experience the contentment of sisterhood and brotherhood that is our natural heritage.
Chet is an electronics engineer with severe Attention Deficit Disorder for much of his life. When he was 43, his condition was finally diagnosed, and he began treatment with Ritalin. Suddenly, life made sense. As a result of that extraordinary experience, he began writing on brain dysfunction to provide a conceptual framework for medically treating the brain.
As a result of that effort—combined with his professional knowledge of system control theory—Shupe’s subject soon changed from brain dysfunction to cultural dysfunction. He realized that the brain could not find lasting contentment, nor can it produce behavior that serves its species when functioning in a reality that it does not comprehend emotionally.
Get to know more about Chet Shupe by visiting his website.
The Happy Hammock 