Contentment

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Description

Ivo Valkenburg, citing Daniel Cordaro:

"the most life changing for me was learning about the power of contentment, an emotion which had received little or no attention in the field of positive psychology. Even the word contentment is rooted in the original Latin meaning of ‘one who is whole or complete’. The ancients spoke of contentment as the highest state of being, which is consistent across all of the cultures that our team studied. It has been talked about for thousands of years across all major spiritual and philosophical traditions of humanity. It helps us to be in the world fully present to the experience of our humanity. Everyone can cultivate it; it is a skill that we can learn.”

“Contentment is a state in which you experience inner peace and completeness, regardless of the situation around you. On the other hand, the experience of happiness always requires something outside of yourself, you want to have something more, do something more or be something more. With contentment, you experience that the sunlight inside always shines, no matter what the weather is outside. In the midst of chaos, pain, sadness or suffering, you can experience the true joy that is already within you at any given moment.” (https://medium.com/new-financial-magazine/well-being-as-a-benchmark-for-a-human-society-8e9e50a380c6)


Discussion

PASSIVITY

Ivo Valkenburg, citing Daniel Cordaro:

"Does contentment make you passive? “Not at all. In colloquial language, people often confuse contentment with passivity, complacency, or apathy. Contentment has nothing to do with these things. In fact, contentment is a very active state where we engage fully with life’s experiences, and meet life exactly as it is. Take leaders, for example. Leaders who haven’t cultivated contentment tend to be highly reactive and resistant to inevitable problems that arise. It’s hard to work with leaders like this. They get easily overwhelmed by their emotions, and often start complaining about and blaming the outside world. Remember that problems are guaranteed in life, and it’s how we relate to them that really matters. Leaders who have higher levels of contentment are calm, cool, and collected under pressure. They simply understand that a problem has come up, and they work to solve the problem. It really is that easy. They don’t have to deal with their reactions to the problem; they just deal with the problem itself.”

The serious challenges we face in our 21st century require a breakthrough leadership philosophy that can create businesses, schools, hospitals, or even entire countries inspired by a new wave of consciousness that is starting to transform the world. Cordaro strongly believes in a primary focus on children by teaching a path toward contentment.

“The next generation of children are going to have to solve enormous challenges that humanity has never faced before. This is going to require collaboration, trust, emotional intelligence, and the wisdom that we need to first be the change that we want to see in the world. It is counterproductive to improve the world out of fear, anger, or trauma. We need to change the world from an inner place of inspiration, power, and determination in order to innovate solutions driven by love and compassion. Research shows that creativity flows from peaceful minds, and it also shows that anxiety and fear shut down creativity. Contentment is the root of collaboration and the foundation behind healthy relationships.” (https://medium.com/new-financial-magazine/well-being-as-a-benchmark-for-a-human-society-8e9e50a380c6)


More information

THE CONTENTMENT FOUNDATION

Ivo Valkenburg, citing Daniel Cordaro:

“Fortunately, many organizations are focused on alleviating external poverty, a lack of essential necessities such as food, water, shelter, education and security. We differ from these organizations in that the Contentment Foundation focuses on alleviating internal poverty, the poverty of heart, mind and soul. We help children and adults to cultivate an indestructible power inwardly that is not influenced by anything in the outside world. We envision a world where people realize that they are complete and perfect as they are,” according to Cordaro.

“We focus primarily on providing evidence-based, whole-school wellbeing transformations that support the entire educational ecosystem from the inside out,” says an enthusiastic Cordaro. He sees childhood education, adult development, and scientific research as the basis for the transfer of knowledge in the field of human wellbeing.”

“We have developed an extensive online library with the very latest and most advanced practical accessible scientific knowledge. The library is provided with a curriculum around 48 themes concerning the physical, mental and emotional well-being of people. All aspects of wellbeing are discussed and a wide range of practical exercises in skills teaches how the knowledge can be integrated into the daily practice of life.” “We also help schools, organizations and governments with measuring well-being. We work together with researchers from some of the best universities in the world to continuously study the impact of our work. In addition, we publish our own research and popular articles about the universal philosophies that unite all cultures.” (https://medium.com/new-financial-magazine/well-being-as-a-benchmark-for-a-human-society-8e9e50a380c6)