“There is no end of craving. Hence contentment alone is the best way to happiness. Therefore, acquire contentment. —-Swami Sivananda, Indian Yoga master, Physician and Monk****************************Not too long ago one of my boys said something that I couldn’t get out of my head. He said: “”I wish we would win the lottery someday.”” As adults, I can clearly see the logic in saying and maybe even wishing for this to come true, but why would my 10 year old say that? His favorite thing to do is play outside in our neighborhood, which he does every chance he gets. Both my boys have made me promise on numerous occasions that I would never make them move OR that I won’t move when they are gone so they can come “”home”” to this house when they are grown! Haha. They don’t seem to notice our house isn’t very big. We have a yard the size of a postage stamp, yet they tell me we have “”the best yard for wiffle ball ever””. So I asked him, “”Really, Chase? How would your life change if our family won the lottery?”” His first response was “”Well I wouldn’t have to go to school anymore.”” Ok, NO, that’s not true, I quickly informed him. To his dismay, I explained that if we had that kind of money I would probably expect him to go to school even longer and earn MORE degrees! Bummer, he thought. Next he said “”I could buy anything I want.””, but when we talked about what “anything” would be, he couldn’t really nail down any one thing that he HAD to have that he doesn’t have already. The fact is, that even as children, I think we are programmed to want. Just want for the sake of wanting. This can manifest into uncontrolled eating for some of us. If we eat when we are not hungry, we are attempting to fill some void that we are feeling. That “”void”” doesn’t have to be some deep, dark secret longing or unresolved issue-it could be as simple as boredom. Or procrastination. Or habit. Whatever it is, the means do not match the end but it takes some of us a long time to figure that out. No matter how many peanut m+m’s we eat, if it isn’t hunger we are trying to satisfy, we are still going to be left feeling something missing inside. The only difference is that we have a tummy ache to go along with the void and the next time we step on the scale we find there is “”more of us to love”” the longer we continue the behavior.—–I love this quote. Really, I do love it because it’s about managing expectations. One thing I’ve learned about Terra Marie Ayres is that I do much, much better when I have an idea of what to expect. Learning that in this life, there is no end to cravings, whether it be food, excitement, money, Coach handbags, clothes, WHATEVER, then I can stop trying to quench the craving. It’s unquenchable by material standards! We will never have “”enough””. There will always be more, new, improved, better, etc. There, done! NOW we can stop trying to find contentment from outside and focus our efforts on finding contentment WITHIN instead. Not easy-I know. So much easier to go the M+M route but the kicker with that is that it isn’t effective. If you have not yet noticed, it DOESN’T work! Unfortunate, I know, but now that we know better, we can do better by making better choices. Leave the poor M+Ms alone and find your way to happiness through contentment that lasts. We each have to find our own way but its worth the effort. “”Contentment alone is the best way to happiness.””