The Secret to Happiness

There are many different tips and techniques that help one to lead an enjoyable lifestyle. The problem that American society often struggles with is an accurate definition of enjoyable. People in America tend to believe that enjoyable means what seems to be more accurately understood as lavish. Corporations entice people left and right to spend their money on a vacation, new car, or some other item that will make their life more enjoyable. Does this item help to make the person's life more enjoyable? It does, but if it is a material good, the amount of time that the good is enjoyable is fleeting. A new car, for example, produces a large amount of fun and enjoyability in one's life, and is not necessarily wrong to have, but it does not produce an amount of enjoyability that is timeless - meaning that the enjoyability of the possession would last for the rest of the person's life.

But, there is one abstract concept that exists that does produce a level of enjoyability that is timeless, and that is good for the person. This concept, and this is nothing new although it is rarely spoken, is contentment. Contentment means that a person is happy with his or her material possessions and in general it means that one is satisfied with what one does have in life. A person who learns to be content with comparatively meager things in life is a very rich person indeed.

Starting at a much more important level than the material level, look at the man who is content with his marriage. He is very happy simply to have his wife and to be living with her because of all the things that she does that tell him that he is loved. Compare the content man to the man who sleeps with different women on a regular basis. Is this man content or happy with his relationships? No, he is not and this is obvious because this man feels the need to move on to a different relationship on a frequent basis.. He may brag about it and it may increase his status in the eyes of certain people, but inside, he is not a happy person, and this is due in large part to his inability to feel content with a particular relationship that makes him content. .

The same concept then applies on down at the material level. At the material level, especially in Western society, people in general always need the next best thing, whatever it happens to be. The new MP3 player seems to be a blast to have, but then its excitement wears away, only to resurface again once a new accessory for it has been released to the general public. People need to have more and more and the next greatest thing, which creates an insatiable appetite for the latest and greatest device. The device promises that the person's life will be better, and it is evident people believe this myth because they continue to purchase new products. This ability to feel content with things that are more basic but that still fulfill a person's need alleviates this appetite for the next best thing.

The bottom line is that when one is content, he or she does not need any more in life. The next emotional high does not have to be pursued. The previous examples showed how the process works. The danger of continually pursuing the next emotional high is great. In the case of relationships where one does not take the time to connect with others, one hurts his or her own human need to connect and be intimate with others, which causes severe emotional consequences, whether the person wants to admit it or not. In the case of material possessions, the danger that occurs is that one may feel the need to spend time with his or her possessions instead of with other people, which harms both that person and others, and that person runs the risk of harming his or her finances to the point where he or she lives in a cycle of perpetual debt, which leads to a lower quality of life, much stress, and a large amount of unhappiness.

Contentment means that a person is happy with what he or she has and feels as though he or she does not need any more. This person may choose to buy more material goods, but he or she will not pursue the acquisition of material goods to the point where he or she hurts him or her self and the people around him or her. Contentment leads to only positive consequences for the person in question, which gives that person more power over his or her life. Contentment, clearly, is the key to happiness and is a feeling for which everyone would be wise to strive.