Yesterday at Yoga, our instructor focused on the word ‘contentment’,  and suggested that contentment is all in one’s perspective. As I started thinking about it over the last 24 hours, I defined contentment differently at various stages in life.  Teenage contentment might come when a driver’s license and high school graduation are obtained; moving from there into perhaps vocational/college degrees being completed, thus leading to the first career job.  Career accomplishments, purchasing the first home, choosing a husband/wife, and building a family all hold significant feelings of contentment. Life keeps marching on with both its ups and downs, sometimes with contentment just out of reach, and other times, it might feel like WOW, life is so good!

All of this being said, I think that the key to real contentment lies deep within and is only reflected as we obtain these milestones in life. It is the reflection of our own inner way of approaching life …….the old proverbial half empty or half full glass! Ultimately, the way we feel about ourselves, our identification with our PURPOSE in life as we see it, and how we go about growing and further advancing our individual PURPOSE will show up in our level of contentment.  However, it is more than this. I believe it is really about what’s in your heart. Gratefulness, humility, and peace lend themselves well to contentment, no matter what the outward accomplishment may or may not be at any given stage in our lives. From this we can find peace and JOY!

“A grateful heart is a beginning of greatness. It is an expression of humility. It is a foundation for the development of such virtues as prayer, faith, courage, contentment, happiness, love, and well being.” (James E. Faust)