2022-11-13 Welcome discontentment

What is your first impulse when you’re not feeling happy or content?

• When you don’t enjoy your job.
• Or you feel stuck with people who don’t allow you to grow, whether they’re family, a significant other, friends, and so forth.
• Or you just feel bored and want to “kill some time.”

Most people deal with those feelings by distracting themselves. They browse their phone, binge-watch Netflix, go out every night, etc.

But discontentment arises for a reason. That’s your body and mind telling you that you need to make a change. Krishnamurti puts it well:

“Don’t be afraid of discontent, but give it nourishment until the spark becomes a flame and you are everlastingly discontented with everything — with your jobs, with your families, with the traditional pursuit of money, position, power — so that you really begin to think, to discover… without this flame of discontent you will never have the initiative which is the beginning of creativeness.”

Instead of drowning feelings of discontent in distractions, we take better control of our lives when we listen to those feelings.

Don’t run away from it. Listen to it and get comfortable with going through life that way.

When you’re no longer surprised by negative emotions, you won’t react anymore. That’s a huge step.