Many
religions have some form of
eternal bliss or
heaven as their goal, often contrasted with everlasting torment or dissatisfaction. The source of all dissatisfaction appears to stem from the ability to compare experiences and then infer that one's state is not ideal. In the
Tao Te Ching, this development of man from his primal state of consciousness called Tao is similarly expounded in this manner: "When the Tao is lost, there is goodness. When goodness is lost, there is morality...".
Morality is the intellectual discernment between good and evil. There is a belief that one can achieve contentment by living "in the moment," which represents a way to stop the judgmental process of discriminating between good and bad. However, attempting to live in the moment is difficult because a person's attention is not only distracted by sensory stimuli but also psychological processes that conspire to make them think subconsciously or
consciously. This thinking process is involved with memories; hence, the attempt to stay in the present is a ponderous one given that there is a subconscious struggle to break away from memories, especially unhappy ones. For this reason, specializations in this pursuit to live in the moment are found in various religious and mystical schools, manifested in forms of
meditation and
prayer. Various studies have shown prayer to promote well-being in religious people. Practicing contentment as an attitude is another way for a person to obtain it in their lives. Practicing gratitude is another way to understand what contentment as an attitude is about. Seen in this light, contentment is not an achievement but an attitude that one can adopt at any time. The American philosopher
Robert Bruce Raup wrote a book
Complacency: The Foundation of Human Behavior (1925) in which he claimed that the human need for complacency (
i.e. inner tranquility) was the hidden spring of human behavior. Raup made this the basis of his
pedagogical theory, which he later used in his criticisms of the American education system of the 1930s. In the context of present-day society, the multidimensional leisure culture evinces the desire of man to return to his core state of contentment by letting go of his hectic outer activities.
Contentment and positive psychology ,
Egypt In many ways, contentment can be closely associated with the concept of happiness and satisfaction. In
positive psychology,
social scientists study what might contribute to living a good life, or what would lead to people having increased positive mood and overall satisfaction with their life. Happiness, in positive psychology, is defined in a twofold manner, which in totality is referred to as
subjective well-being. How much positive emotion (
positive affect) as opposed to
negative emotion (
negative affect) a person has, and how one views one's life overall (global satisfaction) are the questions asked in positive psychology to determine happiness. Contentment is closely related to a person's level of satisfaction with his or her life (global satisfaction). In the 2014 book
Lucky Go Happy : Make Happiness Happen!, Paul van der Merwe uses a
chart to illustrate how being content for long periods of time, can yield more
happiness than being
ecstatic during a short period. According to
Hungarian poet
Daniel Berzsenyi contentment can come not from
wealth, but from
mother nature and your loved ones. According to him, only a poor but carefree worker can be truly content, so he equates it with
work-life balance and the feeling of settlement. In his poem of the same name, the state is personified as "Megelégedés". Positive psychology finds it very important to study what contributes to people being happy and to people flourishing, and finds it just as important to focus on the constructive ways in which people function and adapt, as opposed to the general field of psychology which focuses more on what goes wrong or is pathological with human beings.
Variables that contribute to happiness in research Satisficer vs. maximizer These are two concepts that define the ways in which people make choices. A
satisficer is a person who will make a decision once their criteria are met, and a maximizer, on the other hand, will not make a decision until every possible option is explored.
Genes There is evidence suggesting that there is a relationship between contentment and
genes. In a study done by Weiss et al. (2008) they found that genetics can be a factor in a person's overall
well-being. More specifically, genes seem to be within the layer of factors that contribute to
well-being and
happiness. The study suggested that genes have a positive relationship between personality traits and happiness traits, similar to the relationship of comorbidity in
psychopathy.
Personality Through
factor analysis, personality can be narrowed down according to the
five factor model, which holds that there are five aspects of heritable personality traits:
openness to experience,
conscientiousness,
extraversion,
agreeableness, and
neuroticism. Research has shown that personality is 50% heritable, but not always. One's level or perception of happiness, or one's subjective well-being, has shown to be related to personality traits. The other aspect of personality which has a strong relationship to happiness is the genetic predisposition to
neuroticism. The more neurotic (emotionally unstable) a person is, the more likely he/she is to be unhappy. (1897) In a study concerning the development of the positive emotion assessment, also known as PEACE, on contentment it was found that higher levels of contentment were correlated with low levels of need for materialism and greed.
Goal pursuits Reaching
goals that are important to oneself and that are in alignment with one's personality can contribute to feelings of
confidence and mastery. It is important to establish goals that are neither too easy or too hard, but that are optimally challenging. Investing energy in avoiding goals will contribute to diminishing happiness, as well as deter one from reaching one's goals, which can be quite intuitive to understand.
Money Many people strongly associate money with happiness, and they believe that being rich will contribute greatly to making them happier, and the American society reflects this growing
materialism. Although wealth is associated with some positive outcomes, i.e. lighter prison sentences for the same crime, better health, and lower
infant mortality, and can act as a buffer in certain instances, as mentioned previously, the overall relationship between money and happiness is marginal. However, beyond a low threshold where the basic needs are met, money has a very small impact on happiness. There is also the concept of the diminishing marginal utility of income (DMUI), which is that money has no effect on happiness once a certain income level has been reached, and which represents wealth and happiness as having a curvilinear relationship. This common misconception among society regarding the relationship between money and happiness guides people down the path of chasing success opposed to a life of contentment and happiness from other sources. Indeed, when one has met his basic needs and have more to spare, it is time to spend or give some to experience happiness. This is because happiness is really a state of in-and-out flow of one's energy. Using or giving money is an expression of out-flowing of one's life-state. Attempt to just hoard more and more in the belief that it brings more happiness can lead to the opposite result if only because the means – that is the pursuit of money for happiness – has unwittingly become the ends. ====Leisure (also
Leisure satisfaction)==== The concept of
work-life balance is now well-accepted. The 'life' aspect of this 'work-life' concept includes activities devoted to one's personal life which sometimes calls for the kind of commitment and effort no less than that demanded from one's work-life. In some societies, this 'life' aspect might include looking after the elderly and infirm, sending children to and from schools, preparing the meals, cleaning the house and doing the laundry. They are as much work as the work life, and in the midst of all these, the need for
leisure activities is simply an alien concept. Leisure as a culture is not a universal societal value although the younger generation in developed or near-developed societies seems more inclined toward it. Overseas trips, lounging in a cafe with friends, attending concerts, relaxing in a spa, karaoke-ing and similar activities after office hours are now prevalent among that generation. In fact, over the last 15 years, the market has seen a tremendous surge in demand for such leisure services. In his book "In the Era of Human Capital", Richard Crawford charted the exponential growth of the Business & Leisure sector in the
post-industrial society. This trend might look like an offshoot of a more affluent society; however, the need for leisure is intrinsic in humans and only through the demands of modern economic life – run as it were by the clock, timetables, deadlines and schedules – did this need fade into the background. Humans' need for leisure is intrinsic because that is the state they were born with, or rather, that is the state of life in the natural world. Leisure implies that one is not pressured by others or oneself to deliver a certain result but that life is lived to enjoy the simple pleasures of exploring the world that one is born into. This happy state of life is that generally experienced by the pre-school child and is gradually lost when duties and responsibilities of school life and subsequently the adult work-life enter into the picture. Not all societies have embraced the leisure culture whether through certain public policies like having a universal welfare system, and psychological and financial preparedness on the part of individuals for retirement wherein leisure is the salient feature. This even applies to developed nations. For example, the US has a "retirement crisis" in which a large percentage of Americans do not have sufficient savings for retirement. Economic productivity being often if not always equated with work, the culture of leisure is seldom recognized as a major contributor to a growing business sector. For this reason, many societies do not have in place an infrastructure that strongly supports the leisure culture – such as represented by a universal
social welfare system, a wealth of products, services and amenities for retirees. Such societies even if they were to become more affluent may continue to find happiness elusive even for retirees. Leisure is intrinsically sought after as a way to release the tensions of work-life. It is often used to indulge in activities meant to reduce stress, such as surfing the Internet, watching movies or playing games. Leisure also allows people – without the need of any modern gadgets – to re-connect with family and friends and experience the happiness arising from interactions such as chatting over a drink or meal.
Health Historically, major Eastern mystical teachings on human development, like those from India and China, do not make a separation between the spiritual and physical. Happiness or contentment was never viewed as an isolated state from physical health. Physical health-enhancing practices such as
Hatha yoga and
qigong – and their respective herbalism known as Ayurveda and TCM (
traditional Chinese medicine) – were consonant with and fully integrated into those mystical teachings in the implicit belief that the attainment of the ideal state of consciousness requires a healthy body as a launchpad or basis even. Personal development and health in these systems are understood more as a holistic development of the various aspects of the multidimensional human being. The concept of body and mind interplay (including relationship factor) now known as
psychosomatic medicine has always been present in these "mystical teachings", particularly in TCM. An unhappy, angry patient may be told by a TCM physician that there is a lot of trapped heat in their internal organs and then treated accordingly with herbs or acupuncture. At times, if the TCM physician is a qigong practitioner, they may even recommend some qigong exercises for the patient to practise. However given that adepts in such complex holistic analysis and treatment are hard to come by, Eastern health maintenance practices may not necessarily be always adequate, reliable or even safe. Mainstream Western medicine and a good personal knowledge into the common health issues and how to treat them safely at home should also be included in the total package to ensure good health so that the human body can be fit vehicle for optimal and positive performance – the foundation of happiness. Outer success and material possession are secondary when health is compromised. One cannot be happy or contented when the body is broken, although there are rare, exceptional individuals who are able to rise above their physical predicament. However, for the vast majority having a good knowledge and an effective protocol for personal health is critical to happiness not just to oneself but also to one's family and friends.
Universal social welfare Contentment has also been studied as a cultural or political phenomenon. The Nordic nations, which have repeatedly appeared near the top in Happiness Index surveys like
World Happiness Report – and most likely correlated economic performance as well – contend that higher rates of happiness are rooted in their
welfare system, the "
Nordic model", which not only fulfills the healthcare, social and other essential needs of their people but also is proposed to provide a high sense of security. Other research indicates a substantial portion of Scandinavians exaggerate their sense of happiness or contentment when asked informally or in surveys, due to social prohibitions against expressing negativity or unhappiness. The region's rates of alcohol abuse, among the highest in Europe, have also been cited as an indication that the positive social effects attributed to the Nordic model are exaggerated. == Judaism ==