It seems that finding happiness and contentment seems to be a very difficult thing for people to do these days. The Chinese philosopher, Lin Yu-tang, wrote:
The secret of contentment is knowing how to enjoy what you have, and to be able to lose all desire for things beyond your reach.
I think the key here is the first part of that sentence - enjoy what you have. Why do we always want more? Is it our culture? Is it conditioning?
Did you know that happiness, contentment, and joy are feelings that reside within every person already? If you think for a moment, I’m sure that you can recall a time when happiness spontaneously bubbled up as you watched puppies play. Maybe you experienced an overwhelming sense of contentment as you lay in your lover’s arms. Or think about the joy that sprang up inside of you when you graduated from college or welcomed your first child into the world. Is happiness really something to pursue, or is it something that has been there all the time? Maybe we should simply learn to take the blinders of desire off and turn our attention toward the treasure that is already yours. Be happy with what you have.
