The-Accountant-Jul-Aug-2016

INSPIRATION
By Angela Mutiso, cananews@gmail.com
BE CONTENT
Accepting Who You Are
‘He who is contented is rich.’ ~Lao Tzu
“I have learned in whatsoever state I am in
therewith to be content.”
Philippians 4:11
When we are in our comfort zones, it is
hard to imagine that something can remove
us from there. Indeed many people take
contentment for granted until something
goes terribly wrong.
Contentment is a mental or emotional state
of satisfaction. It may be drawn from being
at ease in one’s situation, body and mind.
Contentment could be a state of having
accepted one’s situation and is a milder and
more tentative form of happiness. Joyce
Meyer in her writings on contentment gives
us some food for thought over the following
topics: 1. Have no anxiety or care, 2. Tell
God your need, and 3. Be thankful. In
several citations of the bible her underlying
theme is “Stop allowing yourselves to be
agitated and disturbed; do not permit
yourselves to be fearful and intimidated and
cowardly and unsettled.”
Zenhabits.net in a post written by
Leo Babauta and quoting Lao Tsu, gives
an amazing and life changing guide on
contentment, when you read his story, you
begin to look at life from a totally different
and refreshing perspective. In his little
guide to contentedness he notes that; There
has been little in his life that has made as
much an impact as learning to be content
with his life, where he is, what he is doing
and who he is. This little trick changes
everything. He said before contentedness
he loved junk food, was overweight and
unhealthy and bought too many things on
impulse. He did not like who he was and
wanted to change to be like other people,
in the process, he tried several books and
different programmes.
Do what makes you happy
He was always concerned that he was
missing out on exciting things, and
wanted so much to be out doing the fun
things everyone else was doing. It looked
greener on the outside. But as he learned
to be content, he learned to be happy with
healthier food, with less food, and his
health improved and waistline shrunk. He
read books he loved, spent time with people
he loved, would go for a nice run; his debt
began to be reduced as he learned he didn’t
need to spend money to enjoy himself.
With contentment came happiness, with
himself, with what he was doing, and he
no longer needed self improvement books
or talks.
He became happy with himself and
with those around him, and with what he
had and so didn’t need to struggle to change
everything; Letting go of goals, helped to
simplify things; so there was less to worry
about and less to do.
Accept and love yourself
That’s just the start. Zenhabits.net says
further that there is no way to account for
the tremendous change that happens when
you learn to accept who you are, when you
tell yourself you are perfect just as you
are, when you love yourself and everything
about yourself. You stop criticizing yourself,
you are happier, you are a better person to
38 JULY - AUGUST 2016