3 Reasons Why It’s Important to Feel Content Right Now
What does it actually mean to feel content?
If I had to define it, I’d say that feeling content is about being in a state where you accept and are satisfied with what is, right here, right now. This includes accepting yourself, as you are, right here, right now.
The older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve realized how important it is to feel content in the present moment and here are the 3 reasons why:
1) It’s erroneous to think, “I’ll be happy when…”
Happiness doesn’t exist somewhere in the future.
It exists right here, right now.
Thinking that happiness exists in the future when X happens is setting yourself up for disappointment. For example: You think you’ll be happy when you land a new job. Sure, your level of happiness will increase when you land the new job. However, shortly afterwards, your level of happiness will return to its baseline and before you know it, you’ll be chasing the next thing that’s supposed to bring you happiness.
If you think that you’ll be happy when X happens, you will spend your whole life getting caught in a vicious cycle, chasing things that you think will make you happy.
What to do instead: Remember that your happiness doesn’t have to be contingent on X happening in the future. Happiness is a choice and you can choose to be happy right now, despite your external circumstances. You have the power to choose happiness in this moment rather than giving your power away to a future scenario, which may or may not happen.
2) Things will happen in your life that you can’t control. What you can control is how you respond to said things.
If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that there are things that are simply beyond our control. We like to think that we’re in control but there are things in life that aren’t within our control.
Let’s say that you go on a job interview, you ace it and you leave the interview feeling good about how it went. A few days later, you hear back from the company and it turns out they’ve decided to hire someone else.
In this case, you did the best you could and the outcome was beyond your control. They could’ve hired someone else for a variety of reasons and at first, it may sting and you may label this rejection as a “bad” thing.
The thing is, resisting what is won’t change the situation. Instead, it will just cause negative emotions to arise. If that’s the case, make it a practice to accept what is, rather than labeling something as “bad.”
3) Comparison is the thief of joy
If you’re not content with what is, including yourself, more likely than not, it’s because you’ve found yourself in a state of comparison, comparing where you’re currently at with someone else’s journey. If you compare your progress to others’, you will never feel content because there will always be someone who is performing “better” than you. Nothing you do will ever feel like enough when you compare yourself to others — It’s akin to trying to fill up a bottomless cup.
What to do instead: The only person you should compare yourself against is…yourself! Compare the present-day version of yourself to who you were a year ago. Reflect on how far you’ve come and this will bring about more self-acceptance and acceptance of where you’re currently at in life.
May you experience contentment and happiness, right here, right now.
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