Finding (Just Enough) Fulfillment in the Simple Things

"Happiness is pretty simple". Meh, if you're like me, that is much easier said than done. As human beings, we long for people and things to make us happy and feel satisfied. It's just nature.

For most of my life I've felt that buying the latest accessory or owning the latest technology meant I was "living up" to everyone else and therefore, fulfilling the level of potential society wanted me to reach, while simultaneously convincing myself I was fulfilling MY potential. Nope.

Just having finished my first year of college, I've realized this whole human nature thing of longing and needing more and more is just exhausting. Rita Mae Brown (author of the quote above) is right. Happiness should be simple.

Many of us have a family to love, hobbies to do that we enjoy, and events/activities to look forward to. Yet sometimes, true fulfillment with all of these things is still hard to grasp.

I for one have experienced this internal struggle countless times. It goes something like this: It's as if one day everything I should feel blessed about just isn't doing it for me and there's something else out there much bigger than myself that I should and need to be doing in order to help/change the world. Did that even make sense?

Today, in fact, which inspired me to write this, I was confronted with a similar situation. I found myself sitting at home with nothing to do and of course my brain decides to run wild and tell me I'm not doing enough or I'm doing too little and I need to get out there and just DO SOMETHING with my life. While this can be motivating to some, which I can understand, it is quite stressing and anxiety-inducing to me.

This time, I chose to shut off the dissatisfied voice in my head and started doing yoga stretches while breathing deeply. Once I felt truly present in the moment I was able to think more clearly and appreciate what I had and what I was doing then. Any outside negative influences were no longer a disturbance, because I was aware of the simple task that had fulfilled me in the moment, and I was truly happy.

This is my advice to you: focus on one simple thing each day that makes you happy, identify it mentally, and enjoy it. Consciously choosing to be present in a simple moment every day will add to your personal self fulfillment for weeks into months. It takes as little effort as pausing for a short second to tell yourself, "Hey, stop overthinking, I am enjoying this moment right now because it makes me happy."

Doing this for a small amount of time every day will change the way you think about real satisfaction and potentially help stop the negative habits- like shopping compulsively for things you'll never really need or taking a hundred pictures to try and get the perfect social media post. These things will only satisfy you temporarily, and once that short lived satisfaction is gone, you'll find yourself yearning for more.

So next time you're walking outside in the bright sun, reading a good book on a comfy couch, or laughing so hard your insides hurt, remember you are genuinely happy, and bask in it. These are your life moments, and no one can them take away from you.

Feel satisfied in your little moment of happiness and know that each one is just enough, because happiness IS simple and a fulfilling life can be, too.