Week 24 – Reverse engineering contentment.
Greetings!
This week I’ll be a part of the Enneagram Global Summit 2015 that brings together leading thinkers and teachers from around the world to discuss this powerful psychological and spiritual typing system. You can learn all about it here.
There are still some cabins left on our Alaska cruise in August for the Speak, Write, Promote workshop. If you’ve been toying with the idea of joining us, it’ll be a great chance to be a part of a small, intimate exchange about the nature of your business and the ways to increase the audience for your work. For all the details, visit here.
Have a great week!
Love,
Cheryl
p.s. – Need a little Divine Direction? Use the “Touch of Grace” button on our homepage here.
Reverse engineering contentment.
I’ve just come in from a run through our neighborhood on this beautiful, spring morning. We’ve had rain here all week (which we really needed) and it’s good to have the sun back for a visit.
As I walked out the front door and began my warm up, I stopped to breathe in the sweet smell of lilacs and wild honeysuckle that surround the yard.
God I love those smells.
When I got about 100 yards from the house, I realized I was feeling a feeling that I’ve spent so much of my life chasing after.
I felt contentment.
Contentment: A state of happiness and satisfaction; ease of mind.
How did I get here, I wondered. What had to happen for me to feel so happy and satisfied in this moment?
As I started to jog, I began to reverse engineer the path to contentment.
Fewer appointments in my calendar.
More time alone.
Doing what my heart wants to do first, rather than following the hyper responsible voice in my head.
Slowing down and trusting that there’s always enough time when I keep my focus and energy in the present moment.
Allowing others to take care of their own needs while I take care of mine.
Saying no to things I’d really like to do in order to protect the spaciousness my soul needs to occupy center stage in my life.
Yes, my feeling of contentment was a by-product of presence, discipline, and the successful practice of being alone in my own company.
Within no time, I saw evidence that these strong, positive feelings had kindled an energetic force that pulled in more reasons to feel content.
As I crested the first hill, I came upon this:
Peonies are just happy flowers, aren’t they?
I kept running and feeling good, when I came across a chipmunk sitting at the side of the road munching on a piece of food. As I approached, rather than scampering away as they always do, he looked up at me and stayed right in place.
I swear I saw a smile on his tiny, whiskered face 
.
Contentment.
You know, it’s so easy to write about what doesn’t work and how to fix it. Or about the challenges I face and the fears I’m trying to overcome.
We spend so much of our lives focused on fixing and conquering and getting through.
But today I celebrate what’s good and right and okay with the world.
Actually, more than okay.
Contentment is the Holy Grail.
And it lives right in our own neighborhoods.
In the last quarter mile of my run, just before I returned to my driveway, I rounded a corner and found this beautiful image…
Wanting to respect her contentment, I didn’t get too close.
Instead, I stopped, stared into her eyes for several minutes and said a silent prayer of thanks for the serenity of our shared moment.
My takeaway on this Sunday?
It takes so little to feel so much good.
This Week’s Video
If you love deer as much as I do, you’ll appreciate this documentary. Check it out here.
