You’ll Find Contentment The Moment You Stop Looking For It

I believe that trying to figure out what happiness really means is setting yourself up for a death sentence.

We spend our entire lives googling “What does happiness really look like?” and “What does it mean to be content?”

We spend our entire lives looking for materialistic things to bring us happiness. We spend our entire lives looking for one person to make us happy. We spend our entire lives looking for happiness in sex, drugs and alcohol. We spend our entire lives looking for happiness in our career.

We do all of this knowing that it’s toxic, unhealthy, and it will lead us to the opposite of what we’re truly craving. But for whatever reason, we still do it.

I’m sure you have asked yourself things like, “What really is happiness? Is it feeling content? Is it Feeling joy? Is it smiling? Is it laughing?”

How do we find one answer to such a powerful question?

It’s tricky, isn’t it? It’s quite frustrating and overwhelming. It’s even more frustrating when we taste glimpses of happiness and before we can really taste it, it’s gone again.

Happiness can be felt in the big things but also in the little things. It’s extremely difficult to attach one thing to something so significant.

Happiness can be felt in contentment on your porch every morning with a coffee in your hand. Happiness can be felt in the joy you feel when you see your children be the mothers and fathers they were meant to be. Happiness can be felt in the gratitude you feel when eating your favorite meal with a glass of wine. Happiness can be felt when you’re getting lost in the music at your favorite concert.

But are those lasting feelings or just temporary? I guess that’s your call to make.

To me, happiness can come and go, but contentment is what we should truly crave. But how do we feel content?

To me, contentment is felt in the people we love. It’s felt in the eyes of your innocent and caring brother. It’s felt in the arms of your mother, who hugs you tightly on the days you want to give up. It’s felt in your sister’s smile when she talks about the people she loves. It’s felt in the heart of your significant other, who has mended your broken heart just by loving you so deeply. It’s felt in the soul of your best friend who supports your goals. Contentment is felt in the hands of your loved ones who wipe away your tears.

It’s important to never look for happiness, joy, or contentment in other people. We need to find our own happiness in the little and temporary things, but the only way to turn temporary happiness into consistent contentment is by surrounding yourself with the right people.

You struggled on your own for years. One day, you have a drink in your hand with a view of the water with all of the people you love. You can’t help but cry. You can’t help but feel so much joy, contentment, and gratitude in your heart because you know this is what it feels like to be okay. This is what it feels like to be content. There’s over 7 billion people in the world and you found yours. You found the people that have been there for the darkest days and who will stay for the bright days.

You never thought you would escape the black hole. They knew you would, and every day they told you that you would. They never gave up on you, and therefore, you never gave up on yourself.

Feel happiness in the arms that have held you. Feel love in the eyes that would never betray you. Feel joy in the hands that would never hurt you. Feel contentment in the lips that would never lie to you.

For some reason, we look for happiness and contentment in such extravagant moments. Stop looking for it in general. Let it find you. When it finds you, you’ll stop looking because you’ll feel it in every inch of your body.