The Recipe For Being Self-Content

Photo by Alejandro Alvarez on Unsplash
Since childhood, we become part of this never-ending race of achieving things in life. Better grades, excelling in extracurricular activities, getting into a great college and so on. By the time we become adults, our expectations pile up, our demands and urge to own more things keep on increasing.

Continuously growing and exploring new avenues is human nature. If it wasn’t for the curiosity and urge to learn new things, there wouldn’t have been so many breakthrough inventions and discoveries in our history that we have witnessed so far. 

However, there is a difference between seeking improvements in life and being greedy for more things without being actually grateful for what you already have.

Instead of continually pursuing one thing after another, slow down and appreciate all the amazing things and experiences you have acquired so far. 

Being happy with what you already have is a great way to boost your self-esteem. It will drive you to work ahead with even more passion.

So what does it take to be truly happy with yourself?

The recipe for being self-content is quite simple. You just got to add a few positive ingredients and get rid of the negative ones.

Limit- Anger. Being angry every once in a while is completely natural. But holding on to anger for a prolonged period of time is not healthy. It affects you as well as people around you. 

When you are angry, you give off negative vibes that will make people around you unhappy. It will hurt your relationship with them, as they won’t be able to connect well with you. 

Bad relationships will, in turn, affect you negatively. In order to be self-content, you need to become a peaceful individual who thinks and works rationally. Holding on to anger emotions will hamper your peace and positive state of mind.

Add- Truthfulness. Be truthful. Being truthful makes you a better person. Lies never stop at one. One lie leads to another. Also, you would constantly need to make an effort to cover up the lies. 

Lying and making up stories take up unnecessary space in your mind which is not even worthwhile. When you focus on being truthful, you will have nothing to hide, and you will become a genuine person. Being honest will make you truly happy and content. 

Limit- Desires. If you keep running after unnecessary desires, you will reach nowhere; as this craving for achieving more things and more pleasure is insatiable. It’s important to keep unnecessary and unachievable desires in check because they keep you from acting upon the things you really need to focus on.

Add- Forgiveness. Don’t hold on to for one thing for too long. Let go. Get moving. Free yourself from past resentments. Moving on is essential for a contented life. 

Life is too short for focusing on people who make you feel unworthy. Try to be more forgiving and allow yourself to receive more positivity. 

Limit- Dependency. Don’t depend too much on material things for happiness. You would always want to buy more and more things if you only rely on material things for happiness. 

I’m sure it must have happened with you-you wanted to buy a particular thing badly, and you became really happy when you actually got that thing. But after some time, you got bored with it and went after something else. 

And the cycle continues. The greed for material things is insatiable. Limiting your dependency on unnecessary material things will make you more content and happier with what you already have.

Add- Kindness. Be more kind to others. Help out others and practice empathy. Being able to help others is a great feeling and makes you a better person. Even your small gestures of kindness might have a big impact on someone. This will make you as well as the people around you happy.

Being self-content means easily accepting yourself; your strengths as well as your weaknesses. When you are self-content, you are guaranteed to be happier than otherwise, because the source of this happiness is you. 

Invest in yourself, become skillful at what you do. External circumstances and expectations are not in your control, but reciprocation to those situations is in your hands. 

Self-contentment makes you better equipped to respond to such unexpected situations. And you can be completely sure that you have the ability to deal with them.

What did you think about this recipe for being self-content? Is there something you want to add to the list? 

Share your thoughts with me in the comments below.

Liked this article? Don’t forget to share it with others.