contentment

Contentment is a relatively positive emotional state of satisfaction and inner peace. Colloquially speaking, contentment could be a state of having accepted one's situation and is a milder and more tentative form of happiness.Contentment and the pursuit thereof have been a central theme across a diverse range of cultures, religions and philosophies throughout human history:

Siddhartha, the founder of Buddhism, once said "Health is the most precious gain and contentment, the greatest wealth".John Stuart Mill, centuries later, would write "I have learned to seek my happiness by limiting my desires, rather than in attempting to satisfy them."Marcus Aurelius wrote "Live with the gods. And he who does so constantly shows them that his soul is satisfied with what is assigned to them."Hebrews 13:5 reads "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.'"Chinese philosopher Zhuang Zhou once wrote in the 3rd century BCE, "A gentleman who profoundly penetrates all things and is in harmony with their transformations will be contented with whatever time may bring. He follows the course of nature in whatever situation he may be."The literature above all states that contentment is a state which is ideally reached through being happy with what a person has, as opposed to achieving one's larger ambitions. Socrates described this by saying, "He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have." There are a number of elements of achievement that make finding a state of personal contentment easier, such as a strong family unit, a strong local community, and satisfaction of life's basic needs as expressed in Maslow's hierarchy of needs. In general, the more needs in Maslow's hierarchy are achieved, the more easily one might achieve contentment.

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