Contentment

I may have covered this briefly before but it's on my mind from the previous post. 

"Contentment" seems realistically defined as "enjoyment of whatever may be desired". That definition is realistic because the more contented an individual or community becomes the less extreme so more acceptable their desires will be. Contentment is an intuitive natural concept, whereas "peace" is a civil and so non-intuitive concept dependent on restriction, whereas contentment was and is self sustaining. (Wikipedia)

Does it make sense that we first have to be content with our current state in order to progress?  I grapple with this because I've studied (via observation) when people change.  It seems like (now this is not scientific so don't quote me-just an observation) whenever a person loses weight or changes their eating or adds exercise into their weekly routine on a consistent basis they were content when they started their journey.  Now stay with me here.  Think about it.  People who are already content have a healthy state of mind from the get-to.  People who aren't content but think they will be content if they lose the weight might not be in the most healthy state of mind.  Here's the kicker though, I think there are varying degrees of contentment.  I don't think it's black or white.  I think it's something that we're either mostly content or mostly not content. 

So try something for me.  Do it on your own and then tell me about your experiment months or years from now.  Here's my proposal: take a hard look at your state of mind.  Are you always nagging on yourself, putting yourself down (either thinking it or saying it out loud). If you answered yes to any part of that question also answer this: does it parallel with your inability to lose weight and/or eat healthy and exercise regularly?  Just because I firmly believe in the definition of insanity (doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results) how about trying something different?  The mind is a powerful thinking organ.  If we pollute our brain with nasty thoughts and words it's not going to work nearly like it should.  Maybe this isn't an issue for you but something else is.  Or maybe it is an issue and you need input from someone else.  Check out www.insightkc.org.  I betcha they can help!