Nurture your sense of satisfaction
“Unlocking a greater sense of inner satisfaction is a skill everyone can cultivate.”
When was the last time you woke up in the morning and thought how blessed you are? If you regularly read my column, you likely sit in the top 10% of the world’s wealthiest citizens.
This means we are educated, have running water, a TV, a fridge, and multiple devices. We have a wardrobe with items bought new and likely own a car. We are empowered with the ability to decide the journey of our life. We have freedom.
This makes us amongst the most blessed and privileged people on earth. Life for us is high on the global most wealthy scale. We have lots of reasons to feel satisfied.
Yet sometimes we forget this, don’t we?
When my gratitude gauge drops, I like to make time away from the bustle of business to return to the bush where I can feel the earth under my feet. Waking up where the air is filled with birdsong, not the vibrations of electronic data. Where stress is replaced by gentleness and wealth is measured in treasured relationships, not the size of my credit card balance… Satisfaction in the simplest of things is a happiness that costs nothing, and returns joy in multiples.
Research from long-running projects like the Harvard Study of Adult Development confirms three distinct drivers of happiness. These are:
- Relationships: Deep, reliable social connections and close relationships are the primary predictors of lifelong health and happiness.
- Health and Purpose: Physical and mental well-being, combined with a clear sense of personal meaning or purpose, anchor daily satisfaction.
- Basic Safety: Having enough resources so that daily survival isn’t a constant source of chronic stress.
As no one can be happy or satisfied all the time, the practice I cultivate to ‘keep the sun on my face’ is to:
- Nurture relationships and appreciate time with people who are dear to me – my work colleagues, my family, my friends. Their energy is food for my soul.
- Live a simple life. Spend sensibly, save bravely. Appreciate the gifts that are gifts – the rain, the sunshine. Spend time in the outdoors, notice the cycles of the moon and the turning of the seasons. Appreciate a hot shower, listen to a bird sing, notice the laughter of a young child.
- Care for the body. Think of your body as the rarest instrument in the world – because it is! There is only one you in the world. Staying healthy is the foundation of all well-being – eating light, sleeping tight and exercising right.
What simple things feed your soul and keep you feeling grateful in the world?
