By Arshia Nisar
It is in human nature to never be fully satisfied. Instead of living in the present and fully enjoying it, we moan about our problems completely disregarding the countless blessings that Allah has bestowed upon us.
We should get this in our heads that as humans it is in our nature to always want more. If you are not content due to the fact that you do not have a certain thing today and you believe that you’ll be happy once you get that thing, you are completely wrong.
Desires are never-ending. If you get what you want now, you’ll have a new aim tomorrow and will be running after that. So instead of always running after “things” we should take some time off and enjoy the things that we have already attained through our previous struggles. As reported by Anas bin Malik:
If there were two valleys of gold for the son of Adam, he would long for another one, and his mouth will not be filled but with dust, and Allah returns to him who repents. (Sahih Muslim 1048)
If people only focused on what they had instead of what they hadn’t, they would be more content and thus happier. You only realize how truly blessed you are once a catastrophe hits you.
So it is better to realize our blessings before we are in some horrible situation. We are always running after one particular thing not realizing we might lose what we already have in the process.
The main reason for every single person not being satisfied with his life is that all of us are in this rat race to be the number one, to beat everyone else and to be the best.
If we just stop once in a while and count the blessings that we already have, we will realize how ungrateful we are. We should definitely work hard towards attaining our goals but should be happy in doing so.
Often, we look at other people and think how their life is all perfect while there are numerous flaws in ours. We fail to realize that EVERYONE has problems. Everyone tries to show a photo-shopped version of their life.
Social media plays a huge role in putting up this façade. So occasionally, give yourself a social media detox. Avoid all social media platforms for a week. During this time, you’ll find that you’ll have a lot of time at your expense which you can spend in more fulfilling tasks which will make you feel happy.
Do not think about what if something better would have happened instead, I’d be happier. You are a human if what you wanted did happen you would have wanted something even greater than that. Human desires are like tiny stones piled into a deep abyss, you will never ever run out of them.
Instead of being miserable about your life and shrinking into a hole hating your life, you should own your life. Be happy and satisfied with what you have so that you can at least enjoy the things that you have instead of crying and moaning about your problems. The sooner we realize it the better it is for us and the happier we’ll be.
Here are a few things you can do to attain satisfaction in life.
- Focus on the trivial things in life. Maybe waking up to a nice sunrise or enjoying the smell of the rain. Look around you and take it all in.
- Count your blessings (literally). Then look around at the people who are not lucky enough to be blessed with those same things that you take for granted and be grateful to Allah (SWT).
- Dwell in the moment and make the maximum out of it as these moments will not return.
- Learn to live in the present.
- Being content is something that comes from within you. So take a moment to relax and take a break from all worldly things. You can do this through Dhikr of Allah (SWT).
The happiness you’ll experience following these activities will come from within and will turn around the most dismal of days making you feel satisfied and content.
No one’s life is perfect. But the beauty of an imperfect life is that you always have something to look forward to and work towards.
(From Discovering Islam archive)
