Focusing on Contentment

Tags

bliss, contentment, focus, joy, walking

I am sitting on the hilltop of the bird reservation, surrounded by water on both sides of the narrow path that brought me here, immersed in the sounds of geese calls and wrens, the silent flight of a pelican, the occasional screech of an orange-breasted blackbird, and more. An almost warming breeze blows from the East as the sun reaches high enough in the sky to cast a shadow longer than me on the bench in front of me. I try and pick one element to focus on, to let it all absorb me on this Friday morning, perhaps to even fill me with contentment.

It isn’t happening. My senses are all over the place.

A pair of great white egrets takes off from the western side of the marsh, flies within a few dozen feet of me, and circles around to the eastern side of the waters, gaining height with every flap of their four foot odd wingspans, and disappears on the far side of the marsh where the forest is thick and they perhaps have nests with babies. The swathe of their wings and their soundless flight helps with focus, as I only engage sight and sound.

Getting closer to contentment?

There are a couple of humans on the far side of the western marsh, towing their ten thousand dollar camera rigs with zoom lenses as big as the egrets that just flew by. The day is perfect for their excursion, and I am sure they are doing better with focusing in their own activity than I am. You can tell the ones who have been there for a while, the experienced photogs — they seem a lot more relaxed than the newbies.

Maybe I need to just relax and contentment will follow?

A pair of geese emerges from the waiter into the grassy shore in front of me, chaperoning their five newborns between them for safety. I don’t know how much of contentment they have, but they have surely have parenting work to do. How can parenting, or any type of ‘work’ bring us contentment? Maybe I digress.

And so goes the morning. More water fowl, more music, more light, another pair of pure white geese floating by, geese pairs in various stages of nesting and resting, and so much more. I could stand on this hillock all day long, keep writing, keep absorbing, keep taking photos, and keep renewing the heart — and maybe some day I will just do that.

The work of relaxation, of focusing on the heart rarely ever gets old because of the result is the feeling of contentment that one feels within. Sometimes, the work involves detours. My regular Friday morning trail was closed due to all the rain this week – and so I decided to come to the bird reservation instead. As I walked back, as slowly as I possibly could, absorbing it all like i do at the end of every morning meditation, I am filled with gratitude that this nirvana exists, is accessible within a few minutes of where I live.

It is said that if we can focus on what we truly want in life, if we develop a single over-arching spiritual purpose or goal in life, contentment will want to be with us and within us. Maybe that’s the question from today’s walk for me — can you primarily focus on one thing at a time, maybe even for all time? Would you be content with That?

P.S. join us for our weekly twitter chat, Sunday May 7 at 9amET / 1pmGMT / 630pmIndia in #SpiritChat. Namaste – @AjmaniK

Focusing on the walk… we can start to see the light of contentment

A Spiritual Return to Work

Tags

calmness, clarity, compassion, contentment, courage, spirituality

It had been almost a year since I had the opportunity to walk some of my favorite nature trails close to my workplace. The work-from-home life-change had disrupted my almost daily visits to the rivers, bridges and forest spaces of renewal.

All of that changed in an instant this past week, as I took some time off to ‘return to work.’ The work of visiting with some of my ‘best friends’ and checking on their health. It was a wonderful return, a visit that reminded me of how much I had missed this essential part of my spiritual practice.

The trails are the type of friends who never ask you how long you’ve been gone – they just welcome you back with open arms. This felt true about the section of the river that was in spate after the recent rains, as also the section where a mother and her toddler were soaking their toes in its quiet flow under a bridge.

The welcome felt true about the narrow fisherman’s trail where the dense over-growth grabbed your ankles as you walked by, and the tall oaks invited you to hug them in the wide clearings. An hour and a half later, playing and visiting with the damp earth, waters and river beds, clouds in the sky, sunlight among trees, and the ‘ether’ that flows warmth from nature’s heart to mine, I felt while again.

I realized that this is the part of ‘coming to work’ that I had truly missed over the past year. I realized that the daily connection to nature plants seeds of contentment, which grow into branches of calmness and the leaves compassion. Courage and clarity are the flowers and fruits become the tree of spiritual work.

Our real work is perhaps to remember our nature. Connection with nature can remind us that we have the potential to be living, breathing, loving, ever-welcoming, radiant hearts full of joy, awareness and contentment. May we all include That connection in our ‘return to work’ plans.

Namaste,

Kumud

P.S. Join us for our weekly Twitter chat, Sunday June 13 at 9amET / 630om India in #SpiritChat. I look forward to connecting with all of you. – @AjmaniK

The ‘bike path’ through the forest…

On Creating Contentment

Tags

abundance, contentment, creativity, giving, sharing

It is perhaps not an accident that one of the newest, if not one of the youngest members of the community shared the change that a shift to abundance mentality can bring into our lives. She first joined our monthly Zoom chat in November. In the December conversation, she wisely shared:

“Every morning when I wake up, I say to myself – there is enough for everyone” – @Quratulain

This simple and straightforward affirmation reflects a profound truth that we often tend to forget. Yes, we all have our daily challenges and conflicts. On some days, it may even seem that some parts of us are living contradictions of what we were just yesterday. And yet, it is when we find the courage to be open to the big abundance that is the nature of the universe, we take a small step toward creating contentment.

How is energy of contentment different from the energies of happiness and joy? In order to create and sustain happiness, we may often invoke an energy of ‘doing’. Our accumulated life experiences inform our heart and mind that certain people, communities, things, events, actions, seasons, holidays and such tend to make us happy or unhappy. Our natural inclination to avoid pain feeds into our ‘pursuit of happiness’, no matter how temporary that energy of happiness may be. “Do that which makes you feel good” – haven’t we all heard that mantra?

Ah. I have now infused ‘feeling good’ into the energy of happiness. If ‘feeling good’ equates to ‘optimal health’, then, yes, it would indeed be a welcome infusion. The good health of our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual containers energizes and elevates us towards joy – a more permanent energy beyond happiness. We move from merely ‘feeling good’ towards ‘feeling better’. After moving from ‘good’ to ‘better’, the natural question to ask would be, what’s next? (My gratitude to @GaryGruber for asking that question in our December zoom meeting).  

Perhaps the answer to the “what’s next” question can be found in our attitude towards abundance and  an evaluation of our state of contentment. On self-examination, if we find ourselves in a better state of contentment than we were a month ago, a year ago, or even a decade ago, then we are closer to the answer. If not, then we perhaps need to examine the breadth and depth of our discontent. What is its root? Where did its seed come from? What feeds it? What feeds on it? What role do happiness, joy and abundance play in our state of contentment?

The journey to answer these questions often raises more questions than it answers. And yet, content is the traveler who remembers that joy can be infused in every twist and turn, every spring and autumn, every dawn and dusk, every breath. And that there is enough for everyone. Namaste.

Kumud

P.S. Join us for our weekly twitter gathering – Sunday, December 8 at 9amET / 730pm India. We shall share on the topic of (dis)contentment, and start planning on our “what’s next” for the forthcoming decade. Bring some answers, will you?! – @AjmaniK

A state of contentment flows from a walk along the river (Dec 6 2019)

Inner Contentment and the Spirit

Tags

contentment, discontent, spirit, spiritchat

What is the reason for our discontent? If we examine this question, in the silence and stillness of our heart, and do our best to be honest with ourselves – the answer will perhaps reveal to us what is it that truly fills us with contentment. While the dictionary defines contentment as a “state of happiness and satisfaction”, I believe there is more to it than that. Or is there?

As we live our daily lives, most of us wear various hats and play various roles in our home, work and community. We deal with our own inner struggles as we walk on our path towards creating inner peace and contentment. We can call this our “internal” input. Our hearts and minds process the inputs that come our way in the form of news events – positive and negative – that may be local, national or international in nature. We can call this our “external” input. I would posit that our reaction to the sum of the internal and external inputs determines the state of our mind, in every moment. When we are in a dominant positive state of mind – fed by a net sum of positive inputs, and positive actions on our part, we add to our “savings bank” of contentment. When the reverse is true, we withdraw from it.

So, our goal seems straightforward. It would be to keep adding to our contentment savings, and only withdraw from them, if and when necessary. Eventually, the balance of our inner contentment level, the state of our heart and spirit, would be so high, that minor withdrawals – those negative moments, or hours, or maybe even days – would not affect the balance by that much. It would be like a millionaire making a withdrawal to pay for a cup of coffee – an insignificant change in the overall balance. We would have reached a state of awareness where our inner contentment becomes our sanctuary – a place where we can retreat to at will – to reconnect with our truth, our heart, our joy.

As with every goal, it takes work, and it comes with obstacles that we need to overcome. So, what is the work necessary to get to inner contentment? What are some of the obstacles? How can we overcome some of these obstacles? Is it selfish to seek inner contentment in the context that it may take us away from the path of action? What would it mean to you if you were in the “millionaire” state of inner contentment?

I invite you to join me and the #SpiritChat community as we examine some of these questions in our weekly chat on twitter – Sunday, August 18th at 9am ET. I hope that we all move forward towards greater inner contentment with your engagement. Namaste!

Kumud

Update: Here are the questions asked during the chat. Enjoy, and feel free to answer in the comments… The full transcript and statistics are available at http://bit.ly/sc-tr-0818. A searchable pdf transcript of the Q and A is also available. Please leave feedback on whether you found these useful, or if you have ideas for improvement. Thank you!

Q1. Contentment. A big word with many meanings. What does it mean to you? #SpiritChat
http://twitter.com/AjmaniK/status/369082661643382784

Q2. What are signs of inner discontent? What is your typical response to them? #SpiritChat
http://twitter.com/AjmaniK/status/369084246083657729

Q3. Can inner discontent be ‘managed’? If so, how? If not, why? #SpiritChat
http://twitter.com/AjmaniK/status/369085972664684548

Q4. Healthy discontent is a prelude to progress. -Gandhi. How does this apply to spiritual progress? #SpiritChat
http://twitter.com/AjmaniK/status/369087253236051968

Q5. How do our material wants and desires affect our level of contentment? #SpiritChat
http://twitter.com/AjmaniK/status/369089234235179009

Q6. What are some healthy ways for us to practice contentment for growth? #SpiritChat
http://twitter.com/AjmaniK/status/369091183189827585

Q7: How do our families, communities get affected by our level of contentment? #SpiritChat
http://twitter.com/AjmaniK/status/369092890917474304

Q8. Action step. We can create balance of contentment and progress by… #SpiritChat
http://twitter.com/AjmaniK/status/369094327315619840