Tips on achieving contentment

The dictionary defines contentment as being "peaceful, happy and satisfied". Through many years of living, I have found that contentment comes from within oneself. Depending on others to provide your contentment is useless. Others have their own lives to lead. Their concerns will and should claim their primary attention. Here are a few suggestions for attaining containment that I have found helpful:

1. Develop your religious faith. Attend services. Do some spiritual reading. Recall all the "close calls" you've had in life thus far, when you avoided misfortune by the skin of your teeth. Meditate on the fact that you are the precious child of a loving Father, who is the King of the universe and in charge of all the circumstances of your life. Turn everything you can't handle over over to Him, and trust Him to take care of it.

2. When you find yourself becoming worried or upset, count your blessings. They always outweigh the problems of the moment. If you have clean water to drink, a roof over your head and you know where your next meal is coming from, you're already more fortunate than many people in the world.

3. Remember the people in your life whom you love, or who love you. Each one is a treasure to be cherished. Plan to do something to enrich the life of each one within the next few days. Bake cookies to share, write a cheery letter, make a thoughtful phone call, invite someone to lunch. Show each one you appreciate their presence in your life.

4. Take up a hobby, one that is creative and gives you a sense of accomplishment: knitting, crocheting, sketching, wood-working, writing, even paint-by-number sets will produce items in which you can take pride, display in your home, or use as gifts.

5. Volunteer in the community. Each of us of has special gifts which were meant to be shared with others. Working in a soup kitchen, with an "Out of the Cold" program, visiting the sick or shut-ins, reading or writing letters for the blind, all of these and similar activities will reward the volunteer with well-deserved feelings of satisfaction and contentment.

6. Work on making your immediate environment a haven of comfort, attractiveness and tranquility. Even if you only have one room, it should boast comfortable furniture, a pleasant blending of your favourite colours, pictures of your loved ones, and a collection of books, puzzles and your current project or hobby. Your private area, though small, will ward off depression and that old " there's no one to care and nothing to do" mood.

7. Be aware of local and world events, via television, radio and/or newspapers. Even if your life is uneventful at present, matters of great import are probably occurring elsewhere. If you are lucky enough to have access to a computer you can "put in your two cents worth" at network news sites, where your views will be read by thousands of people, and maybe more.

All of us have periods of discontent. Spouses are thoughtless, children ignore you or treat you as an unpaid servant, friends come and go, and the pup you thought was house-trained has regressed, but you can possess contentment nevertheless. Use some or all of the above suggestions and work towards being perfectly comfortable in your own skin and within your own little universe. Then you'll be ready to reach out and share your peace and tranquility with others when they are sorely in need of it.

Fortify yourself with contentment, for this is an impregnable fortress. Epictetus.