This week’s musings are on cultivating contentment and recognising what is important to us right now, and equally, what is not important. This is not about giving up on progress but about simply accepting where we are.
Try the wee exercise below and see if it helps you feel more content by recognising and releasing demands and expectations on certain areas of life. This started with me journaling my thoughts and it turned into an interesting format – it reminds me of a lot of the book of Proverbs in the Bible, with the two opposites shown in the one line.
It is enough to trust God – I don’t need to worry.
It is enough to be a homemaker – I don’t need a career or a business to be complete.
It is enough to be wife to one man – I don’t need to look for or at others.
It is enough to be a mother – I don’t need to be perfect.
It is enough to be me – I don’t need to be like others.
It is enough to be kind – I don’t need to compete.
It is enough to have enough – I don’t need more stuff.
It is enough to be content – I don’t need to want.
It is enough to be rested – I don’t need to run myself ragged.
It is enough to be creative – I don’t need to sell.
It is enough to improve slowly – I don’t need to stay still.
It is enough to have a home – it doesn’t have to be fancy.
It is enough to be a Christian – I don’t need to pay it all, Christ did.
Cultivating Contentment Excercise – Try it yourself
It is enough to be/ have/ etc. – something you wish to accept or be content with.
I don’t need to… – something that causes you to feel pressured or stressed.
Try to write four or five of these line pairs – it might be a bit tricky to start but once you get going it’ll get easier. It’s amazing how much more content and accepting I felt after writing through these.
We put so much pressure on ourselves and receive so much pressure through our perceptions of others’ expectations and through the media. It’s OK to decide a lot of these things for yourself – it doesn’t all have to be the “best potential” option for now.
For example, I wrote “It is enough to be a homemaker – I don’t need a career or a business to be complete.” That doesn’t mean that I will never have or don’t want a career or a business, but, I know that it is not the best thing for me right now. I am recognising it and releasing myself of the expectation to do-it-all right now. I do not have any less worth as a woman if I don’t have these things. This is something that had been bothering me recently and I feel better now that I know where I stand.
It is so helpful to accept where we are, choose where to improve, and move forward with love and grace whilst cultivating contentment.
Kathelle x
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Diary of a Highland Homemaker 