The Art of Contentment

I used to want everything and now I want nothing.
No, this is not a post about depression and despair, it’s about how there’s nothing I want anymore, and all my needs are met. That is an amazing thing to realize.
There is a certain deep satisfaction that comes with being content. Many confuse contentedness with apathy, settling and an all around lack of ambition.

In my experience, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Contentedness is about feeling good with where you are in your daily life. It means you are happy with where you are and what you have. It means you don’t need the latest fill-in-the-blank material item.
It means you don’t care about “The Joneses” and you have no intention of playing the game of keeping up with them.
I’ve lived the life of being an uberconsumer, and all I found was I was stuck on a want-spend and work-spend cycle. There are not enough words to describe the chaos I felt during that phase in my life.
I never felt happy. I was miserable nearly every day and I felt as though I lived my life inside a tornado. I think a big part of the problem was the area of the country I was living in during this time.

I lived near an exclusive county in Southwest Florida that, at the height of the boom years, was the wealthiest county in the U.S.
It was nothing to see $100,000, $200,000 and even $500,000 cars on the street every day. High end shops dominated the retail scene and there was no shortage of places to get a little retail therapy. I think all of these factors normalized the over consumption and the constant need for more stuff.
I thank a change in scenery (I moved across the country), the recession, and a struggle with employment for helping me change my ways for the better.
Each of those experiences opened my eyes to just how dissatisfied and unhappy I was in my old life as an uberconsumer. They have led me toward a happier, contented and more environmentally sustainable lifestyle.