Realizing such contentment and self-peace is a continuous journey.
In our personal lives, we should recognize the value of contentment and sufficiency and realize that, after a certain modest level, additional consumption, material wealth, and power will not bring happiness.
You realize what balance is, what sukha is, what contentment is, what joy is".
What I've started to realize is that success has more to do with contentment than perfection.
Not unlike my mother, as I came to learn more of her story, I realized there was some contentment to be found.
Only then can we realize and accept that we are the arbiters of our life and our contentment, and that everything can be ok right now if we allow it to be.
When we think back at what we were able to live on, and the contentment we experienced with much less than we have now, we are able to realize that the adjustment may not be as bad as we imagine.
Her book, Wander Woman: How High-Achieving Women Find Contentment and Direction, is full of exercises and real stories designed to help you face your challenges and realize your potential in this crazy, busy world.
Yet we often suspect that their joys are fleeting or superficial when compared to the contentment of adults who have earned their way, like trust funders who party away their 20s only to become depressed at 40 when they realize they will never share the professional pride of their agemates who are now reaping the rewards of two decades of early-career grunt work.
As I've thought back on it, I've come to realize that the melancholy I was feeling that morning was due to not having a complete sense of my own belonging, nor of contentment or tranquility.
As we talked and joked, anxiety was transformed into contentment, as we realized that we had already become good friends.
