Gratefulness and the Power of Contentment
Generally speaking, any kind of awareness practice serves to remind us that we can choose to point the spotlight of our attention on that which we value and want to tend. The practice of living gratefully invites us to shine light on all the gifts already available and abundant in our lives — from the tiniest things of beauty to “ordinary” miracles to the grandest of our blessings — and in so doing, to truly take nothing for granted. Over time, this practice helps us notice that every single moment offers us an opportunity to be grateful for something, even if it is simply being grateful for the rhythmic, nourishing breath which grants us life. Contrary to the ways gratitude can sometimes be taught, gratefulness is not intended to keep us from acknowledging what is difficult and challenging in our lives. Instead, it is a both/and proposition that helps to deliver balance and perspective. Living gratefully, we become more capable of holding the “great fullness” of all that is true in our one “wild and precious”, and also messy and magnificent, life.
In powerfully consequential ways, learning to direct attention to all that is worthy of your wonder and appreciation can guide you to a lived experience of “enoughness,” and even more than enough. When we take nothing for granted, we are far more able to be awake to life’s gifts and blessings, and to our privileges and true wealth. Suddenly, we can see the neglected corners of our homes as rich with things for which to be thankful. What seemed lacking in our relationships can now seem full to overflowing. Our bodies become nothing short of stunningly miraculous. What we might have seen as mere conveniences now seem like luxuries. The earth offers an endless interplay of inspiration, beauty, and teachings. When we live gratefully, our days can be one discovery after another of awe and abundance, and the most important part is that — once our basic needs are met — it does not require having (or being) anything more, better, or different.
Gratefulness helps us to develop an intimate relationship with sufficiency and contentment. We are able to offer our attention to the many ways in which we are fortunate and replete. When we are in touch with this kind of fullness — when we feel like we are and have enough — we become far less susceptible to cultural norms of consumption, comparison, and complaint; all sources of painful separation from ourselves, each other, and the planet. Separated from what matters, we easily get caught in a “more is better, more is the answer” mentality and it gets very difficult to step out of this trance . We get so busy unconsciously striving for the next, better thing, as Soul of Money author Lynne Twist says, that we continually rush right over all of our “enough-points” without even noticing them. Contentment gets lost in the dust of a relentless quest for more.
Living gratefully is a powerful antidote to scarcity and insatiability precisely because the practice shines light on, and helps us to notice, how much is already available and abundant to us. It invites us to experience the exquisite truth of enoughness and the serenity of contenment that flows from it. Since scarcity and insatiability are drivers for our economy and fuel so much that is unsustainable and unjust in our world right now, contentment can be seen as not merely a means to self-satisfaction, but as a powerful path to making a difference. When contentment itself begins to feel like enough to us, we are more likely to question the need to “pursue” happiness, success, and other things we are told we should strive for. In this way, contentment can be seen as a rather radical stand to take in our society.
We do not need to wait for more, better or different before we show up to life with our hearts and hands wide open. When we are awake to all that is already enough in our lives, we can more readily turn our attention beyond ourselves. Living gratefully functions as a protective impulse that wakes us up to actively appreciate and act on behalf of the earth, one another, all the things for which we are grateful. When we know and tend what we treasure, it helps us to cultivate robust conditions for generosity, kindness, compassion, and the impulse to serve — all so very needed in our world right now. Gratefulness energizes our ability to engage and give, and has the ability to awaken us toward upholding the values we know are worth cherishing, and all the fragile blessings of this life that are charged to our care. So, if you think of contentment as a kind of pablum, you might want to think again. Contentment just might intrinsically generate the kinds of changes that you - and we - have been longing for.
