The Fine Art of Contentment

Dr Ellen Potthoff, DC, ND 

                It is once again the holiday season (it seems to come around more quickly than ever).  I can’t believe I saw Christmas decorations the day after Halloween, and I love Christmas!  No matter what your reaction to the holiday season in general,   I think this is an apropos time to consider the fine art of contentment.

                I saw those words in the newspaper the other day, and they stayed with me.  I began to think about what they meant, and how elusive a quality contentment is.  This is certainly true in this day and age with lives run at   rocket speed.  Contentment comes in on cat’s feet and tiptoes quietly  before the fire.  I think we need to slow down in order to just begin contemplating the idea of contentment.  

                According to the dictionary, contentment means the condition of being contented (satisfied).  I think I like the word enough to expand on that meaning, or maybe to color it a bit.  There is a certain amount of coziness about contentment, like a cup of tea with a friend, or watching a baby sleep.  Again, this needs at least a modicum of time to appreciate.  Stolen moments, but maybe that is what makes them so sweet, especially now.

                The difficulty with an idea like contentment is avoiding complacency and indifference related to maintaining the status quo.  How can we strive to make things better, and yet be content?  I am reminded of one of my favorite prayers – by Carl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr:   “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.  The courage to change the things I can.  And the wisdom to know the difference.”

It ends up being like a tightrope walk between the two:  contentment and complacency, giving up  or settling for second best.  Potentially, contentment involves resting on your laurels for a while as you ease into contemplating the next thing you would like to do. 

                Or consider Desiderata, written by Max Ehrmann in 1927 (maybe things haven’t changed so much after all):  Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.  As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.  Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and ignorant, they too have their story.  Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.  If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.  Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.  Keep interested in your own career, however humble, it’s a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.  Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery.   But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life if full of heroism.   Be yourself.  Especially do not feign affection.  Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass.  Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.  Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.   But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.  Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.  Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.  You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars, you have a right to be here.  And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.  Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive him to be.   And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.  With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.   Be cheerful.  Strive to be happy. 

                In this country, where we have the highest level of prosperity in the world, the season most involved with contentment, giving thanks and celebrating a new birth, is associated with the highest level of depression.  Part of that might be associated with the darker days, and colder, wetter weather, but I think that unrealistic expectations of self and family, coupled with a lack of time to cultivate contentment are at the heart of so much negativitiy.   With so much, we want more and feel like we have so little.  Potentially, the inability to take, and I mean carve out, the time to practice contentment, may be one of the biggest lacks that we have. 

Contentment for me can be found in activities with a meditative-like quality.  There is a certain amount of quietly sitting with oneself.   There is a certain amount of silence and potentially solitude.  There is definitely a slower aspect to it.

So what do I wish you for the holiday season?  Peace, contentment and the time to celebrate what you have.  Have a wonderful holiday season!