Episode Transcript
We Americans enjoy a wonderful and powerful way of life, but internally and in relationships, we may wish for better. Join me as we look beneath the surface and gain insights to transform every aspect of your life. My name is Dr. Ann O'Hare, and this is The Spiritual American. Hello and welcome to the Spiritual American. My name is Dr. Anne O'Hare and I'm your host and today we're going to be talking about contentment. It's a very beautiful topic, and I have a few new ideas to add to the mix but before we get started, please consider like sharing and subscribing. Also make some comments. This will help us grow the channel and also make sure that this content is available for many, many others. And also please consider sharing with your friends and family so they can benefit as well. So today we're talking about contentment and The thumbnail said free your heart with contentment. So what do we need to free our heart from? And you can take a minute to see what that is. And as usual, we're going to look underneath the surface, like what's going on here? Why am I not content already? What is in going on inside my mind in my heart that now I need to free myself from? So I'm going to say there's a few main ones. One is judgment. One is right and wrong, the big one, right and wrong, comparing, and the consciousness of needing something, needing. So we'll go one by one. So what is judgment? So judgment means that I am looking at something and saying that shouldn't be that way. It should be another way. Or I'm saying I don't want to be near that person because they're less than me. So I'm making a judgment about their worthiness or something like that. All of these things, by the way, that I'm going to talk about now are based on some teaching or some ideas that we picked up along the way. So none of it is, you know, nobody wakes up in the morning and says, I'm going to be really evil and horrible today. Nobody wakes up and says that. So give yourself a break as we look at this, cause we definitely want to change it, but we have to look at it in order to change it. So one thing is judgments. There's a lot of judgments going on, whether it's political friends work, even I'm judging my own body. I'm judging my family members. I'm judging behaviors. I'm judging my own behaviors. This is right. I should have done this. I should have done that. So there's a lot of judgment going on. When I'm judging, I don't feel content, right? Right and wrong. We have a sense of right and wrong. There's also a sense of like a big right and a big wrong and a little right and a little wrong. And there's all kinds of justifications and ideas that go along. But the whole idea of right and wrong, Also does not lend itself to contentment. So for instance, let's say if I'm in a argument with someone and I know I'm right, so I'm forcing the issue and I'm saying, yeah, I know I'm right. So I'm going to now, you know, push it. And I'm not content at that time. We're going to talk about what contentment is in a minute, but I'm not content. I'm definitely having a different experience. The third one is comparing. And this is. a recipe for sorrow, right? Like we can probably all relate to this, a recipe for sorrow. I see something that someone else is doing or some achievement and I say, Oh, I wish I could have that. Or I'm judging myself based on others, what others are doing or what others are achieving, what others have and I don't have or I'm thinking that I have more than them. So I'm judging them as less than me. All of that is still comparing. Do I feel content? in my heart when I'm doing that? Absolutely not. And then the consciousness of needing. This one is very subtle because we at the moment are kind of in this external body consciousness mode where we're thinking, Oh, I need this. I need to make sure the bills are paid. I need to make sure that, obviously you have responsibilities, but this, this idea of because I have to get it done and it needs to happen. And this heightened sense of worry and fear because I need something. I need you to like me. I need this relationship. Otherwise I'm gonna die or whatever. When I have the consciousness of needing something, the heart can't be content. The heart is upset at that moment. my feelings are upset because I know I need something or I think I need something. So what is contentment? Contentment is when the self is in a peaceful state in a self contained sense of wellbeing. So it's, I'm not depending on anything else. I'm content. I don't need anything. Right? So as soon as I say, I'm content, the first thought that comes is I don't need anything. So I lose that sense of needing. So if I don't need anything, and I have a sense of well being inside myself, I very likely would not be judging others. I wouldn't be judging myself if I feel well being, I'm not judging. If I feel peaceful and well being, then I'm not comparing because I'm kind of enjoying this feeling of peace and well being inside myself. The other thing about contentment is it's naturally harmonious with everything. So if I feel peaceful and content, I'm not interfering with anything else. So the thought came to me just now,, let's say you go to vacation on a beach and you're sitting on a beach and you're enjoying, and you're just sitting there, there's nothing to do. Maybe you're reading a book or maybe not. Maybe you're just sitting there looking at the water and you feel maybe a sense of wellbeing and contentment. At that moment, you're not doing anything, but your energy is stable. You're peaceful. You're not needing anything at the right. Can you think of An example like that from your own life. Think of the situation, maybe on vacation or something where the responsibilities are lifted temporarily, where you feel like you really don't need anything. And then all of a sudden you're just being and you feel okay. In those moments, you're naturally peaceful. You naturally feel good inside and you naturally are in harmony with everything around you. Okay. So free your heart with contentment. So how do I get content? So if right now, if I'm in this judgment comparing if I notice that I'm doing that, how do I make the transition from that to content? If I have right and wrong going on, if I have ideas about what shouldn't, shouldn't be done going on all the time, the other one that I have, this is interesting, maybe you can relate to this. Do you ever do some, you'd be doing something and you're thinking to yourself, I should be doing something else. These are really like sorrow pain generating thoughts, right? All these things that we're talking about right now, judgment, right and wrong telling myself I should be doing this, that it's all of it is sorrow generating. So what we want to do is we want to access that contentment. And I thought of a great way to think about that might help us break out of this old way of operating, like snap us out of it. And I thought, look at nature, nature can help us snap out of it. So for instance, I was thinking, let's say you have a bird, right? Is the bird thinking, well, you know, I spent five hours building my nest and I'm really exhausted. I really need to go do something for myself. And I'm telling the other bird, no, I really don't want to do any more nest building and you have to take care of it tonight because I'm going to go take care of myself. I'm going to go fly over to that cloud over there because I need a spa day over at that cloud. And, and then, and, uh, I don't like your attitude. Birds don't do that. Right. Think about a tree. A tree is there, A tree is alive? Is the tree thinking? Well, you know, that tree over there has, 1700 apples and I only have 1500 and a hundred of mine are spoiled, and they went down. So, I don't know, that's, I'm kind of like, uh, doesn't make me feel good about myself. I wish I could be like that tree. You know, it just makes me feel like it's almost humorous. that we spend so much time in these negative mental states. When we can just take a look outside our window, take a look at the water, the sky, the birds, the trees, the grass. I was walking this morning and it said that blade of grass is alive and it's totally fine. It doesn't have any thoughts about life or death or worries about how good it is or how bad it is or what the other you know, blades of grass are doing. We have a lake near our house and I'm In the morning, I walk around the lake and it's very nice. So I'm walking around the lake and every morning for a couple of days in a row, there was this bird. I don't know what kind of bird it is. It's like a little, it has a long beak. It's not a stork, but it looks like some kind of bird like that, but it has a pretty big wingspan. And for the, for several mornings, it was sitting under this tree at the time that I was walking and it just sat there with its wings open like this. And it's just sitting there like this. And it's like there, I'm walking around the lake like twice. So it's like 20 minutes, 30 minutes, and it's still there. And I'm like, it's sitting there like, so I'm thinking to myself, what is it doing? Why does it do that in the morning? I'm thinking maybe it's drying its wings. Maybe it's getting some sunshine or whatever. But do you think that that bird is worried about what another bird is doing? Or does it have to pay its bills or? You know, what else, right and wrong? Well, I better hold my wings up this high and not this high because this is the right way to do it because this is how I was taught how to do it. And think about how, I'm going to use the word crazy. Think about how crazy we are compared to nature. So think about how crazy we are compared to nature and think about how orderly and harmonious nature is. We're alive on this planet just like nature, right? So I want to offer that as a little wake up, like a snap out of it moment. And just say to yourself, look at the tree, look at the sky, look at the air, look at, something natural and say, wow, there it's alive and it's not experiencing this. So this contentment, we can just say, you know what, I'm here, I'm alive and everything's okay. It doesn't mean that we're not going to handle problems and it doesn't mean, you know, but This kind of sorrow generating way of thinking is very hard on the mind and the heart and on the body too, right? Isn't they say that illness is all about stress? Yes. So this stress that we have, so I'm not saying it's going to go away overnight, but I'm saying that what contentment does is even for moments, if we can just like release all the rest of that stuff for a few minutes and just say, you know what, truthfully, nothing is wrong right now and everything is fine. Can I allow myself to feel this contentment? Can you visualize that underneath the tree? Just like sitting there. I mean, it was such a nice. Nice thing to see. I'm here in Florida. We don't see that many squirrels. You know, when I was in New York, we saw squirrels all the time. So it wasn't a big deal. It was like, they were there all the time. But yesterday I saw a squirrel and it was like, wow. It was, wow. I was happy to see the squirrel. Does the squirrel have these kinds of thoughts that we have? But anyway, my thought was like, oh, wow. I was happy to see the squirrel. So like, I'm part of it too. This is the other piece that contentment is part of this harmony, right? That when I'm content, I'm in harmony with everything. Just like nature is in harmony with everything, right? So we can leave that other stuff out and we can still be alive and still be happy and content and natural and in harmony. So I put here, can I be as peaceful in my day and activities as the animals and the plants and so forth in nature? So as I'm going through my day, just like the chipmunk does what a chipmunk does and a tree does what a tree does and a bird does what a bird does. And none of them do it with any of that stuff that I just said. They don't judge. They don't do right and wrong. They don't compare. They don't have the consciousness of needing And even for those Christian friends who are listening, Jesus used nature examples all the time. Look at the birds, look at the flowers, right? He used that as an example. Like, why are you worried? They get fed. Now, again, let's be reasonable. We know we have to do something to get fed, right? But, but the point is to not have the worry. So can I go through my day like I'm a human being? That's a bird. That's a, you know, that's an animal. I'm an animal. Let's say I'm a human being, but it's still on the planet and I'm here and I do things every day that I do. Can I do them in a peaceful, content, relaxed? way. I just had another thought, in Florida, we have alligators everywhere. I saw him while I'm outside. There's a little alligator in the, in the pond, in the lake outside and his little head is sticking up. And I thought to myself, wow, he's just sitting there. Everything's fine. He's just sitting there. Think about it. It makes perfect sense to me. And we have the examples everywhere. Nature is our example. They are alive and they don't have any of that. So think about that and see if that can help you try to snap out of that old way and move into this natural harmonious contentment and well being. So I'll leave it there. Like I'm feeling it now. I'm feeling the contentment now. It's not hard. It is a natural state. All we have to do is shut off that other thing. Not as hard as it sounds. we're attached to it because we think we're trying to be good and we're trying to be right with meditation, with spiritual effort, with looking at things different ways, which is what this podcast is about. Looking at things in different ways. Maybe I can try to see it differently and snap out of these old patterns and feel something different in this case contentment. So I'll leave it there. Remember our slogan is heal, empower, and serve. So until next time, take care. You
