Contentment

“Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough” - Oprah Winfrey. This concept, of being grateful and content, has been on my mind lately. Isn't it funny how easy it is to focus on the negative things in life? It is so easy to compare ourselves to others when it comes to what we have, what we can do, what our bodies look like, the way our spouses express love, and everything else. What if we could just be content with our lives exactly how they are? There is such beauty in being content. Content with our family, our spouses, our friends, the amount we get to travel the world, our money, our small town or big city, our talents, our trials. Although I am not saying that our contentment should hinder our progress or our desire to improve our lives, I have seen that simply being content can help us to be happier. 

How do we stop wishing our lives were different? When you find yourself going down that path, pause for a second and list things that you are grateful for. As soon as you wish you could travel more, or that your spouse would do more sweet/romantic things for you, or that you looked differently, or that you lived in a different town, or that your trials and struggles were different, or that your were better at something... STOP and literally LIST things you are grateful for in your mind. I'm not meaning to pull a therapy stunt on you but I have seen the positive effects of being content and grateful. This is something I have to continually strive to work on in myself. But when I work on it, I find that I enjoy my life, exactly how it is, more. We will never be perfect at this. We will always catch ourselves wishing parts of our lives were different. But there is something amazing about trying to be content. There is beauty in life, exactly how it is. 

Picture from here