Contentedness

Another positive emotion, a good feeling emotion is contentedness, the state of being contented. One definition of this is being satisfied or showing satisfaction with things as they are. Another definition said it’s being satisfied with your situation in life.

I have a hard time with this emotion. It’s not that I’m discontent or dissatisfied with life. It’s more that life as it is, is not all that I want it to be. I want more. It reminds me of the AT&T commercial on television with the little girl saying that having less is not fun because “we want more, we want more.” I want more. More is illusive; I’m not sure what I want more of. I generally have an uneasy feeling that if this is all there is I’m missing out on something else.

One alternative meaning for contentment is complacency. I guess I don’t want to be complacent and accepting that things are the way they are, and they won’t get any better. However, I don’t think contentedness has to mean complacency either. It can mean being satisfied, for now, with the way things are. Maybe it is something that’s temporary and it’s meant to be. I guess the key word in all of this is satisfaction. It means having a job or a situation be as good as it can get for the time being. It doesn’t mean having to stay in the same place all the time. Change is possible and often good, and can lead to a new place of contentedness.

Another way of looking at contentedness is thinking of it in terms of gratification. For instance, doing a job well can lead to gratification for the effort and results of the project completed. In a sense it’s saying it’s good enough for now. It’s saying it’s a job well done and good enough until next time when I can do something again or different and better.

I feel like I don’t really experience much contentedness the way I’ve described it here, but when I’m journaling my emotions, I often put content. Maybe I’m more satisfied with my life situation than I think I am. Maybe the emotion of contentedness is present but fleeting. Maybe I need to think about it more when I write it down. Maybe I should ask myself if that is what I’m really feeling.