How many moments of contentment do you allow yourself to experience in a day? Like most emotional states, contentment is created by our thoughts, most of which are life-long habits. The more we focus on a particular state of being, the more of it we create for ourselves. If we habitually focus on resentment, envy, a sense of lack or other painful states, they tend to increase, like a well-worn rut in the road. If we focus, instead on more positive states like contentment or hope, they tend, likewise, to increase.

Establishing the habit of contentment takes persistent redirection of the mind away from more gratifyingly dramatic--yet uncomfortable and draining--trains of thought. For those moments of contentment and emotional well-being to become frequent, we need to train just as rigorously as fitness buffs train for physical well-being. The hype about Five Minute Abs is probably a chimera, but Five Minute Contentment is not--it takes no more than five minutes at a time to redirect the mind from turmoil into a peaceful state.

A major key to contentment is gratitude. Being thankful for what you have leads to contentment, while continually wanting more and more leaves us feeling empty and unfulfilled. Having MORE does not, alas, make us more content over the long run--the initial high about the new car, the new wardrobe, or the vacation quickly fades. No matter what our former economic status, we become accustomed to the new level and soon it isn't enough either.

It is human to want MORE, and while that motivates us to keep moving, seldom do we have any sustained sense of ENOUGH. To be content, we need to slip out of the well-worn rut of wanting more, more, more and just experience that, right now, in this moment, we have enough.

What tools can we use to help us fully experience gratitude for what we already have? Meditation, of course, stops the mind from its continual striving and helps us experience the fullness of the present moment. There are flower remedies that help with meditation, most especially Lotus, the eternal symbol of meditation and spiritual development. Some excellent Lotus preparations are made by the Flower Essence Society (FES) and by the Aditi Himalyan Flower Essences.

Centeredness, the capacity to focus and not be led around willy-nilly by scattered thoughts, is both a technique and a result of meditation. Remedies listed for centeredness in the repertory sections of various makers' books include Living Essences of Australia's Yellow Boronia; Goatsbeard and Brown Kelp from Pacific Essences; and Cassandra and Sweetgrass by the Alaskan Flower Essence Project. Meditation, however, is a more general tool, pretty much good for "what ails ya."

In researching the various essences maker's listings, Gratitude or Contentment per se were seldom given as headers, though abundance was frequently mentioned. Under Gratitude, Pacific Essences listed Polyanthus, which is actually a remedy for shifting blockages to abundance. The description says that Polyanthus helps one feel worthy of abundance, thus increasing it. However, in her book, Energy Medicine, the maker, Sabina Pettitt raises this important point about Polyanthus:

It reminds us to recognize and be grateful for the abundance already existing in our lives; i.e. we may have vibrant physical health but be totally focused on our lack of financial resources. Gratitude for whatever abundance we already have is a way of opening to abundance in other areas of our lives.

Cynthia Kemp Scherer, the maker of Desert Alchemy's essences, expresses a similar viewpoint in her book, Alchemy of the Desert, in describing their combination formula, Celebration of Abundance. She says that abundance is the natural state of affairs in the universe, and that the key to abundance is to live every moment in gratitude for what the moment brings. With her customary wisdom, Cynthia makes the observation that when we shift our perspective from viewing our lives through the glass of lack and limitation, we experience great abundance. By trusting that we have everything we need, we find that we actually do.

Australian Bush Flower Essences' Southern Cross is more generally a remedy for those who like to cast themselves as victims. However, the maker, Ian White, also recommends it for habitual poverty consciousness that eats away at people. He finds that this pattern creates resentment of those with more affluence and robs the person of the ability to see what they actually have. Southern Cross helps to shift this pattern, along with any more general attachment to martyrdom.

The Flower Essence Society's invaluable Flower Essence Repertory does not list Gratitude or Contentment among their headings, but does contain a very useful set of listings for combating Greed, a state of being which is the antithesis of Contentment and of knowing that you have enough. They recommend Chrysanthemum for those overly caught up in materialistic consciousness, Goldenrod for those who feel material possessions will increase their social status, Sagebrush for those whose identity is too closely wrapped up in their material possessions, and Star Thistle for those who cling to material possessions as a form of security.

Among the remedies listed above you will doubtlessly find a combination that will help you begin to change to a more contented and grateful state of mind. As you take your mixture, you will become more and more aware of habitual thoughts that create discontent and begin to shift them. Training yourself in a new habit pattern of contentment and gratitude is the next step.

One tool in this retraining process, long a staple of the Twelve Step programs and recently adopted by Oprah Winfrey, is the Gratitude List. Each day, perhaps when you get up or before you go to sleep or, even more effectively, when you are caught up in feeling that you don't have ENOUGH, make a list of all the things in your life that you are grateful for. At first, especially if you are in hard financial straits, the list may be short. As you practice this discipline, however, it will grow and contentment will grow along with it.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Donna Cunningham, MSW is the coeditor of Vibration and a long-time educator and writer in the field of flower remedies. Visit her Frequent Contributor Page for her bio and more of her articles in Vibration.

The World Wide Essence Society does not mean to imply any recommendation of nor give certification to any individuals or companies above. This article is provided purely for informational purposes. We ask consumers to make their own determination as to quality of the services and products offered above. This article is not meant to be advice, and the information is not meant to replace medical or psychological treatment.

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