3 Steps to Cultivate Contentment

I have three steps to share today which will help you cultivate contentment in your everyday life. These are small, easy practices that can make a huge difference in our mental and physical well being.

What is Contentment?

What is contentment? Do we just wake up one day, happy with the way our life is going?  Is happiness like a light switch which we turn off and on?  When we hit the pillow after the end of a long day, what components of our day create a feeling of contentment?  

I don’t think it is reasonable to expect that we will be happy all the time.  There are very real challenges that come up in our lives which can have a strong impact on our emotions and well being.  My overarching source of contentment  centers around my faith in God and the belief that He knows what He is doing, even when I have questions.  Faith is a big component of my  deep sense of contentment. While my deep sense of contentment is pretty stable, I find that at times, I lack that spark of fun in my daily life.

I wanted to write a post that talked about some of the daily things we can do in our lives for fun!! Yes, we are allowed to have fun as adults!

 These are small ideas that you can integrate into your day, even when you are going through a challenging time in your life.  I found that sprinkling some fun into my day during my cancer treatment improved my overall well being and mood.  So, I thought I would share some of these ideas with you.

Why We Must Cultivate Contentment:

Today we are going to explore the idea that contentment in our lives is something which we have the ability to cultivate.  Contentment is not magical fairy dust which lands on us mysteriously. That would be great, but not very practical…

 If we want to be content, then we need to take deliberate action in order to produce it!

Cultivation is an active process.  When it is used in the agricultural sense, it means to prepare and use land for crops or gardening.  This is active!  The ground requires the breaking up of the hard soil so that it is transformed into fertile ground for flowers or crops. 

When we cultivate in our lives, it is an active process.  We must continually take steps toward that fertile ground.  We do not wake up one day and find contentment waiting for us.  We need to take steps towards contentment!

3  Steps Towards Everyday Contentment

So, how do we do this?  I have three key steps which will help you move closer to everyday contentment in your life.

1. Identify What Makes You Content

This is such a basic idea, but it is absolutely critical to your success in this journey.  Each of us has different things which make us happy.  Personally, I love sitting outside, listening to the birds chirp while sipping a fresh cup of coffee.  Give me a good book, a blanket, and a cozy couch, and I am a happy camper.  I love going for long walks with my husband.  I enjoy crocheting, using my Cricut to create new things for my home, and talking to my good friends on the phone.  

What makes you happy?  Do you have a hobby which you love doing?  Do you like watching your favorite show on TV?  Do you like going to the beach and surfing?  Do you like listening to a certain type of music?  Maybe you like going for a long bike ride or rollerblading.

Whatever you like to do, I want you to take some time right now and create a list.  Yes, I want you to write these things down on paper, or digitally if you prefer.  Make sure you place this list in a place where you can easily reference it.  Do not write it on a paper scrap and then let your dog eat it! 

This list may change with the seasons, or with your phases of life.  Maybe you enjoy skiing in the winter and fishing in the summer.  Perhaps you like sitting by a roaring fire when it is cold, and going swimming when it is scorching.  Write it all down and then as you find more things which make you happy, add to that list.  This is designed be a living document which can help you in your journey to cultivating contentment.

Do you have your list yet?  Great!  Now let’s move on to the next step.

2.  Plan Time Everyday for Something on Your Happy List

Now that you have this list, you can’t just let it sit around and gather dust.  In order to actively cultivate contentment in our lives, we need to do things each day which make us happy.  

I want you to look over your list right now and pick one thing you could do today which you would enjoy.  It can just be a small thing which doesn’t take much time.  Maybe you enjoy burning sweet smelling candles.  So, pick one, and light it.  Perhaps you enjoy going for walks.  So, plan a time today where you go out for a walk.

You won’t be able to do everything on your list every day.  Our modern lives are too busy to be filled with fun all the time.  However, we ought not to be so busy that we neglect to do a few fun things for ourselves each day.

No matter what phase of life you are in, whether you are a new mom, or a busy professional, you will benefit from doing something each day which you enjoy.  

Have you picked out what you will do today for fun?  Excellent.  Now on to the last step.

3.  Consistent Practice for Long Term Contentment

Do something everyday!

In order to cultivate contentment for the long term, it is absolutely critical that you are consistent in your practice.  We cannot do one fun thing on Monday, then do nothing fun for the rest of the week.  Invariably, we will remember all the days which were not fun over the one day where we did something fun.

You may not be able to to the same things each day, because each of our days have different schedules and priorities.  I enjoy walking with my husband each morning. Our typical weekday walks are about 40 minutes long.  These walks fit into our weekday schedule well.  But, on the weekends, where we have more time, we take much longer walks.  We might be out together for an hour and a half.  These are the walks where we can sort out and make our big plans together.  I love looking forward to those long walks!  I don’t resent the weekday walks because they are shorter, rather they add to the anticipation I have for the longer walks on the weekend.  

Perhaps you work full time during the week and don’t have a lot of flex time.  That is ok.  Find something on your list which will take under a half an hour to do.  Maybe you can read a book for 15 minutes during your midday lunch break. Perhaps you have a funny show you can watch in the evenings with your family. 

If you have a lot of items on your list you love doing, then maybe you can decide that you do certain things on a particular day of the week.  Crochet on Monday, Bike ride on Tuesday, Quilt on Wednesday.  

Sprinkling a bit of fun into our day can help us enjoy our lives a little more!

I encourage you to take the time today to identify some things which you love doing, and then begin the cultivation process by doing one of those things before you go to bed tonight. 

Today, I think I’m going to make something with my Cricut.  I haven’t done that in a while and I think I could use some crafting in my life!

What are you going to try out? I would love to hear what you do for fun!  Feel free to share your ideas with me in the comments.