9 Tips for gaining contentment in your life

Gaining contentment in your life can sometimes be like a massive mountain to climb. It’s challenging to come to the point when you can tell, “I’m content with my life.” I get it; being content with who you are and your life can sometimes be like breathing underwater – nearly impossible. 

But why do we always seem unhappy with our lives and who we are? 

Maybe it’s because outer circumstances make it especially hard to achieve this grade of enlightenment. Of course, because living in a world that always wants more and more and never seems to settle for less and stops growing in a specific direction, it can be challenging to stick out of the mass and flow against the mainstream. 

But more often than the outer circumstances we all exist within, and whereby we have little control over, it’s how we perceive life and the world in general. Usually, it’s what we make out of it. 

It’s the famous ‘Is the cup half full or half empty’ question. 

And since we are the ones who are in complete control over our inner world – the thoughts we allow, the words we let out of our mouths and the actions we take daily, we are also the ones who can make a difference in our lives when it comes to contentment. 

It’s up to us to change how we perceive our lives and treat ourselves. It’s all on us to gain contentment through changing our thoughts, words and actions. 

Fortunately, there exist ways you can adapt to your already existing routine to improve the feeling of contentment in your life. Even though feeling content in your life is a massively personal topic, and everybody has different emotions regarding this, all of the below will help you make it much more likely that you can gain that feeling of contentment in your life.

Let’s dive into nine tips for gaining contentment in your life.

Do things that make you happy

If your goal in life is to be more content with who you are and the way you live your life, it’s crucial that you actively surround yourself with things that make you happy. Putting yourself in circumstances that can create more happy moments for you to enjoy is vital. 

In this fast-living world we all live in, it’s exceptionally crucial to regularly take a step backwards from this fast pace and make conscious decisions about the experiences you would love to gather in your life. 

Whenever your life only consists of chores and tasks that feel like a burden and a necessity to get done, and when you don’t take your time to generate quality time with yourself, how do you want to get the incentive to feel happy?

Your thoughts matter.

Because the emotions you feel within yourself result from your conscious and unconscious thoughts wandering through your mind the whole day. Also, your words and actions play a huge role, whether you feel mostly pleasing emotions throughout your day or rather unpleasing ones. 

Gather joyful moments.

Surrounding yourself with things and circumstances that have the potential to make you feel happiness does not have to be a massive event. Happiness is hidden in the most minor of events that happen daily. It could be a kind action towards a person you love, walking in nature and appreciating what is surrounding you, listening to a sound you cannot get enough of, or reading a book that makes you feel like you’re entering a completely different world. 

There are endless possibilities in your life that have the potential to lighten your day in the best way possible. 

My number one tip for gathering happy moments is to shift your focus to what is in front of your eyes every single day. Take the conscious decision every day to step away from your everyday life to wonder about what is in front of you. There is something to be pleased about in your everyday actions. That’s what I’m sure of. Never wait for significant events like your birthday or Christmas to take away your capability to wonder what every single day holds within. 

Do things that keep you healthy

Sometimes, the things that keep you healthy are not the same things that make you happy. Avoiding alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, and an unhealthy diet in general can sometimes turn out to be the most complex challenge of all. But long-term, working on your health is always worth it. 

Being and staying healthy is one crucial aspect of gaining contentment.

Therefore, always ensure that you, besides gathering happy moments daily, take care of your health.

Your health contains a few parts (this list is not complete):

• Eating micronutrient-dense foods
• Avoiding harmful foods
• Drinking enough water
• Moving your body
• Breathing correctly
• Getting enough sleep
• Proper stress management

Read this blog post for more valuable information about creating a healthier diet. 

This list may look terrifying, but remember that you only implement new routines that make you feel your best. But also, like with anything new in your life, start with taking baby steps towards your goal. Be very kind and gentle with yourself when it comes to new routines. 

If taking care of your health always felt like a burden, start telling yourself that it’s okay if you feel like this. It’s okay if working on your health is challenging for you or if you sometimes feel overwhelmed by what your body needs. So, is it for most people. If you struggle with yourself and your body regarding healthy habits, always remember you’re not alone. 

Your body is your home.

Let’s talk about a more holistic approach to help you gain contentment with healthy habits: Your body is your temple, your home, for the duration of this lifetime. And other than for houses, you cannot move your home. From the beginning of your journey, your birth, to the moment you leave this life, you stay in your body, your home. 

The better you take care of your home, doing all the chores necessary to keep it clean, welcoming, and well-functioning, the better it can serve you to reach your goals. No matter if you like to keep your home neat or if it feels like a burden, you have to stay there. You cannot leave. 

Therefore, don’t you deserve to live in a beautiful home? Don’t you think you deserve a home that serves you well? Don’t you think you deserve a home that is welcoming and cosy? 

You deserve all of these things and so much more!

And to get this kind of dream body, you must be active. Not exaggeratingly, but you must take some actions every day to keep your home (your body) welcoming for yourself. And you are the host of your home, no one else but you. You are the creator of the home of your dreams!

Meditate regularly

Meditation is crucial for reaching that destination of gaining contentment in life and feeling good about who you are. 

With meditation, you can learn how to quiet your brain. Usually, there can be a lot of chaos in your mind when mastering each day. Keeping an overview of what’s happening in your brain can be a real challenge, especially when managing several daily tasks, like work, chores, social life, personal projects, children, etc.

And a brain that is busy all day long, surrounded by chaos, can suddenly become a problem. Suppose negative thoughts take over your mind and influence how you feel, or when the stress you may experience throughout your day starts to manipulate your relationship with yourself. In that case, this is the time to train your brain to be quiet for some time actively. 

Meditation has many health benefits. 

Meditation has many health benefits, such as lower stress levels, decreased anxiety and depression, and several physiological benefits, such as reduced blood pressure, heart rate and cortisol levels. It benefits your body and mind, but the biggest reward of practising meditation is getting back control over your thoughts and emotions. 

By practising meditation regularly, you train your brain to get rid of most of your thoughts for a specific time. It’s like decluttering your closet of old, unused clothes you no longer need and wear. 

And as with an empty and well-organised closet, you suddenly see how much room you have for new things that make you happy; you’ll know that you can fill your mind with positive and fulfilling thoughts that’ll uplift you and support you in strengthening your relationship with yourself. 

Meditation can support you in creating a life you adore.

If you want to know more about how meditation can support you in creating a life you adore, I highly recommend you read Dr. Joe Dispenza’s book “Becoming Supernatural.” There, you get in-depth information and guidelines on how to upgrade your life with the support of meditation.

Make steps towards your goals.

And like with every new skill we can learn in life, be prepared to make tiny steps towards your goal. If you seek support with those steps, you could get a meditation app for guided meditations, like Calm (not sponsored; I love this app), or you can search the internet for free meditations. 

You don’t have to walk the path alone; always remember that. But if you want or need help, you must ask for help. Also, be very patient with yourself while learning a new skill like meditation. It can be overwhelming, especially initially, because your brain is used to the constant shattering inside your mind, and it will likely hate being shut down initially.

But with patience and kindness, you will eventually reach your goal. Always remember that you are capable of learning new things.

Learn something new

By challenging yourself and your brain with learning new and unknown skills, you teach yourself not only a helpful asset but also one that can come in handy in your personal or even professional life.

But the most critical aspect of learning something new is that by putting yourself in such an uncomfortable place, like becoming a student of life again, you’ll learn how to improvise, be resilient, discipline, and train your brain.

Making a habit out of learning new skills can help you keep that spark going in your life, and by constantly learning, you develop a lifelong learner mindset. Gaining such a mindset is vital for achieving contentment in your life.

Become a student of life.

Because, even though you’re grown up and school is over, there is always something new to learn. Often, the longer you wait to learn something new and the more you stay within your comfortable and known bubble, the more challenging it is to get used to being confronted with a new and unknown situation again.

Learning a new skill can be exceptionally uncomfortable. And while being exposed to being uncomfortable, this is where you can evolve into a new version of yourself. This is precisely when you broaden your comfort zone. You can also deal with more unknown situations with a broader comfort zone. The more you can deal with problems, the more content you can get in life because, with a broad comfort zone, you are less likely to be overwhelmed by certain uncomfortable situations.

A new skill does not have to be something wild. It could be as easy as learning how to cook, bake, keep your plants alive, or learn a new language. Whenever you decide to be open-minded about learning a new skill, you will find ways to pursue this way.

Practise gratitude

Practising gratitude is the most important habit for gaining contentment in your life. It’s the most potent routine you could implement in your existing ones. 

In every life, there is something to be grateful for. No matter how challenging times are, no matter how doubting it is to walk the path of life, there are events that you can be grateful for daily.

Usually, the problem is not that things to be grateful for don’t exist, but the challenge is to shift your focus to acknowledge these special events.

Practising gratitude is a crucial part of life.

Therefore, to gain contentment in your life, practising gratitude is crucial to achieving that goal. Of course, like any new skill you can learn, you must be patient and resilient.

The learning curve is sometimes linear but often feels like a rollercoaster with many ups and downs. With practising gratitude, you’ll likely feel the same. There will be days you are surrounded by things you can be grateful for, and on others, you’ll barely find your morning coffee worthy of your gratitude. 

Experiencing excellent and challenging days is normal. Never doubt whether yesterday was a good day, but you cannot feel it today. On these difficult days, keep your resilience ongoing. Better days are ahead of you.

Appreciate the little things in life

Like practising gratitude, a shift of focus to appreciate the little things in life is crucial to gaining more contentment.

Suppose you always wait for significant events, like birthdays, Christmas, weddings, parties, etc. In that case, it can be exceptionally challenging to appreciate the little things that happen to us daily.

The key to gaining more contentment in your life is to shift your focus to acknowledge the small details your days are made of. Like your neighbour who always greets you in the morning whenever you leave the house, the sun shining through your windows and lighting up your apartment, the music you listen to every day on your way to work. 

Stop the waiting.

The key to success here is to stop the waiting. Stop waiting for specific dates to appear on your calendar and start acknowledging what is already in front of you. Start appreciating every day for what it is and make it your mission to fill your days with wonders, with small miracles. 

If you shift your focus to acknowledge more details, you will find many things you can appreciate daily. And even though your days look similar every day, who says it must be something new you can only enjoy? 

You can appreciate the daily little things, even though you already appreciated them yesterday. Just because they repeat daily doesn’t make them less worthy of your appreciation. 

The key here is to shift your focus to be fully present in the present moment.

Train to stay in the moment

To gain more contentment, think about your prominent thoughts each day. Think about all the topics you’re interested in and are thinking about regularly. Now, think about where these thoughts and interests originally came from.

Is what you think about primarily rooted in your past? Or in the future? 

If you conclude that most of your thoughts and topics are not rooted in today but events that happened in the past or even in the future and, therefore, did not yet happen, I want you to take a step back from all of these thoughts and interests. 

Think about how these thoughts and interests make you feel: if your primary thoughts are based on the past, are they linked to some heavy feelings? The same goes for future events that bother you but only exist in your mind since they have not happened yet. Do these thoughts uplift you or cause you to experience heavy feelings in your heart?

If you think about all the topics that are genuinely relevant for today, how do you feel about them? 

If you’re lost in the past or even in the future, let me tell you the following: the past events are done, and there is no chance for you to change what belongs in the past. Holding on to these events, to these heavy thoughts that don’t want you to let go of, will not change anything about the past. 

The future events you’re bothering so much exist solely in your mind. You are the one who keeps them alive. They did not happen; they are only rooted in your imagination.

Let go of everything that is not serving you well.

And I know it’s hard to let go of situations linked with such heavy feelings that you’re unwilling to let go of them. Also, don’t do it if you get sick about letting go of something you’re thinking about regularly. Keep these events alive in your mind for a little longer if this is what makes you feel content. But if you’re ready to let go of some topics that live rent-free in your mind, hear me out: it all starts with a decision.

You don’t have to get physically active today. But you can decide today to focus more on the present moment. You can let go of what belongs in the past and the future without actively moving in this direction. 

It’s just a decision you make for yourself, but it’s the most powerful move you can make today. 

Train your empathy muscle

Aiming for contentment in your life also means eventually stopping to seek something more. Being content with your life means saying, “You’re enough the way you are,” therefore, training your empathy muscle is a crucial aspect of gaining more contentment in life. 

How come?

Training your empathy muscle and your ability to be kind to other beings and compassionate towards others gives you the ability to treat others the way they deserve to be treated: with kindness and respect. 

But to be able to treat others this way, you also must remember that you’re also a being. You are also someone. Therefore, you deserve to be treated in the best way possible as others do.

And whenever you start treating yourself and the ones surrounding you in a more uplifting way, you automatically head towards contentment. Because with empathy in your heart, you eventually stop with unrealistic expectations. Instead, you’ll start seeing everyone as they are: Worthy of love.

This will eventually lead to more contentment in your life. 

Move your body

When it’s your goal to gain more contentment in your life, I hate to break it to you, but moving your body regularly, aka daily, is non-negotiable.

Your body was made to be moved daily.

Getting to a place where you feel comfortable getting in that movement your body craves naturally can be the biggest challenge and accomplishment. It took me the majority of my life (I’m 26 at this point) to shift my belief system about moving my body. 

I always struggled a lot when it came to moving my body because, in my mind, moving my body felt like a punishment to me. In my mind, I needed to move my body to be accepted by the world and, even worse, by myself. Therefore, I was frustrated when I didn’t move my body, and I was frustrated as well when I did get some movement in. The result was that I felt highly frustrated whenever I got active because it was active punishment time for me. 

Change your belief system.

If this resonates with you, let me tell you what helped me change my belief system: I let go of the belief that I could actively change my body by exercising. 

I know this sounds so wrong, but let me explain: There is no exercise where you can see a change in your physique right after you do it. You could run for 10 km and still would not see much change in your body or lift extremely heavy for once, yet no muscles would pop out of nowhere. 

You will have to do specific movements repeatedly to finally see some changes in your body after weeks or months. And that’s natural and the way it’s supposed to work! 

But rather than moving my body for my physique, I quit this thought about changing my body by exercising because, for me, it never worked. The only result I could always count on was my frustration afterwards. 

Instead, do you want to know what worked out for me to make moving my body a positive experience? Focusing on how I feel after I finish my workout. I have this result immediately after I finish my workout; I can measure and feel this one result: I feel excellent and content whenever I have a great yet exhausting workout behind me. 

Work out for the feeling rather than the appearance.

Therefore, if you struggle with a similar belief system as I did, I highly recommend that you say goodbye to the thought of influencing your figure with the workouts you’re forcing yourself to do and instead welcome the idea of doing exercises for the uplifting and fantastic feelings you will experience afterwards. 

Nothing is better than accomplishing a workout, exceeding your limits and reaching your goals. Also, the peace you feel after a great workout is worth the effort of moving your body.

Trust me, it’s possible to change your belief system from a negative and abusive one to a positive and uplifting experience. The main issue here is to get rid of everything the outer world was trying to teach you about how to treat your body and what you must do to move your body “properly.” 

There is no such thing as “the right movement.”

The proper and correct way to move your body is whenever you feel your best. For everyone, that’s, of course, a different thing. Some may feel their best when they dance while listening to their favourite music. Others may feel best when swimming, running, climbing, walking, riding, etc. 

There are endless ways to move your body, and it does not have to be what your sports teacher or parents considered the best when you were a child. 

For inspiration, I love Yoga and Pilates, and sometimes I like running. Also, I adore inline skating. Nevertheless, I’m not a pro when it comes to moving my body, and I for sure will never be crazy about exercising. I move my body daily, yes, that’s true, but do you want to know the magic word of this topic? Moderation aka. Balance.

Moderation and balance are key.

You don’t have to overdo it when moving your body. Consistently moving your body every day with moderation is much more effective than overdoing it on day one and then suffering from sore muscles the next week and quitting the movement journey for the next month. 

I highly recommend that you find something you like to do that requires very little equipment and that you can do it spontaneously to start being consistent every day, even if it’s for just 5-10 minutes.

Always remember, it does not matter (especially in the beginning, when you first get used to a new routine) how long you move your body, but doing it consistently and showing up for yourself every single day is the key to a routine that supports you in your goal of gaining more contentment in your life. 

Gaining contentment in your life is a journey like everything else in life. It comes with highs and lows, times of motivation, and times when you need to train your discipline muscle. 

But going on this adventure will always be so worth it. You’ll see massive results with a few changes in your routines. And feeling better and lighter will always be worth the effort. 

With every new routine and with every change you make in your life, always remember only to consider implementing what you’re resonating with. Following tips online mindlessly does not make sense if you don’t want this for your life. 

Now is the time to take action!

Therefore, go out, be intentional, make some effort, and make changes to upgrade your life today!

Until next time, 

Keep evolving into your most glorious self!