Contentment can feel weird at first and yet it’s an essential ingredient for healing. It’s been something we all quest for and yet we “think” ourselves out of contentment. Our nervous systems just aren’t used to it.
Contentment is a state of being where nothing is desired and the richness of the moment and all that’s in it comes totally present and we have the big ahhhhhhhh moment.
Healing happens out of a place of contentment.
Recently, we both experienced a huge sense of total contentment recurringly on the beach in Mexico. When David first noticed it, he laughed because he could feel his nervous system freaking out in the midst of the deliciousness.
Learning to experience contentment is something we have to be willing to learn how to be. There is no doing. It REALLY is a state of being.
You might imagine that a state of contentment is something natural, just a breath away. What we’ve discovered from clients and ourselves is that we have developed the habit of “over seeking” and we never actually receive what we’ve been looking for. We keep reaching rather than receiving.
And yet….
Seeking is a good thing right?
Wanting to improve ourselves is a good thing right?
Wanting to grow past our old limitations is an important aspect of our life’s work.
Becoming more generous and loving is a good thing.
And yet there is a dark side to this list of positive objectives. Our desire to improve, to heal, to advance our consciousness can become an addiction that stops us from recognizing and being present to the gloriously rich presence of contentment just waiting for us to notice it.
David’s contentment revelation was stimulated by the overwhelming realization that the people he was with, the place he was in, the air he was breathing fulfilled every hunger he had. He’d sat in the same location before, even with the same people but on that day he suddenly recognized and received the vast delicious feeling of contentment that was just waiting to be acknowledged.
Nothing was different in the exterior environment; everything became different in his interior environment by admitting, letting in, the pregnant contentment waiting to birth itself inside him.
This is not an experience unique to him, it’s waiting there for each of us right now. We all have contentment in the bank of life waiting for us to use it. It’s a majestically valuable currency that can never be devalued. Just imagine, you have piles of contentment bullion just waiting for you to say yes.
What’s the risk?
Our nervous systems that are so accustomed to being discontent would begin to learn to feel safe in the contentment that is really the essence, the foundation of the soul we really are. We give up seeking and receive.
How do we grow contentment?
- With the first sip of your favorite morning beverage, just let yourself notice that your first sip satisfies everything. Sure you may want some more but just keep noticing the deliciousness and your contentment capacity will begin to expand.
- How about allowing just 10 seconds of contentment today. If you do, your awareness, how you notice yourself, will become so attracted to the deliciousness of the experience that the next day you’ll create 15 seconds, then 30, then a minute.
- Start noticing how many times a day are you content like in the warmth of the shower in the morning,
Remember, the weirdness of contentment begins to go away as we allow it simply to happen and notice it.
And as we increase our contentment, there is room for the miraculous. When we take contentment out of the weird zone and make it a lifestyle rather than a quest, our capacity to heal expands. It’s delicious.
Please share your moments of contentment or your thoughts below.
Hi Susan and David, so good to feel into this, thank you <3
Hi Jackie
Your feeling intelligence is really wise.
Thanks for being in Sync with us and being part of the living evolution each of us is. Love, Susan and David
Seeking indicates that we are incomplete, we have to be improved, we are not yet there. Contentment is the experience of who we really are and always have been. Complete. We are as the source created us, lovely (love) in every way. We have not changed, just our perception of ourselves changed and grew to limit us in our thinking. Contentment is the releasing of that perception, the release of the breath wwe have been holding, confining, the expansion of the self.
Indeed it is a receiving, an opening to experiencing our true self, our true condition. It is a moment of deep love of everything including the self.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
Hi Judy,
Your words are a crystal clear bell of truth. The well of knowledge you are speaking from is so deep and pure and we are nurtured by your presence in our lives. Your reference to sacred breath is a delicious invitation not to hold back the sacred that is just waiting to pop into aliveness with every breath we take. Thank you for your commitment to evolve beyond any limitation, any shackle that’s been put upon you. YOu are an inspiration to us and we know many others. love, Susan and David
Dear David and Susan, You are so missed!!! Yet I am sensing such joy in your time with no time.
Gratefully, I am feeling so much the same. There are so many moments of joy, contentment, and actually a feeling that time does not exist? all time seems the same !!! ( this is not a mental concept, just a peace as if all is perfect and this moment is all there is??) Actually, this is a blessed space…after months of thinking my mind was failing, short term memory loss, and lessons to face. I finally feel all is perfect just as it is. Everything seems so much softer? Joining you in contentment…and joy!!! may you be blessed, and know that you are loved…and missed!! with much respect, and love..Linda
HI Linda,
Our hearts are smiling.
Thanks for missing us. We miss you too. You are a great explorer of acceptance. Your description of the mysterious vagaries of living in a human body as it continues ‘to mature’ is a great reminder to be in a state of wonder. The softness you describe is really the Living Place we can rest in. See you soon in March.
Love David and Susan
Several weeks ago Isabel and I started talking about the #1 feeling we want in out lives… and it was to simply be content. So, we have been hanging out remembering to keep being content, and have found that living in the space of contentment requires nothing more than allowing “what is” to be ok with us. Admittedly it’s easy to feel contended sitting on the bow of a small fishing boat floating through the warm waters of the Mexican riviera. It seems our job is to keep that feeling present when the storm appears and waters of our lives become rough and unpleasant. Your comment that our job is “being present to the gloriously rich presence of contentment just waiting for us to notice it”, feels right on.
Hi Don and Isabelle,
We have wide smiling hearts reading ow you are dancing with contentment. What a foundation to live from and thrive within. You’re describing a way of being that promotes beautiful discovery and passion. The good news about David’s contentment on the beach is that it was so strong that it connected inside him to a whole legacy of contentment moments he had had and they all rushed together and are continuing too. It’s even happening on days and in places when there are “bumps” on the road. Because we’re riding the motorcycle, it’s fun to use the bump as a joy pulse. Love to you both, David and Susan
Yes! Thank you for putting this into words…
much love
Shayla
Hi Susan and David,
Finally replying here. Thank you for this. I was in a group that told me that “content” eventually turns to “contenscious”, and don’t I want more growth in my life? I really needed to sit with this. Because of my experience, I changed the word “content” to “sense of wellbeing”. When I am this, all is well. Thank you for your blog. The practice makes it more formal for me to deepen it more continuously. See you soon!
Love,
Mignon
Relaxing into delicious contentment with you, beloveds! With eternal love, Karen & Walter