Teaching Children Gratitude and Contentment The Sanskrit word santosha means contentment. Contentment is a slippery idea: If we say that we are not content, or feeling discontented, there are those who will look upon us as being ungrateful, or needing to work harder. If we say that we are content, there is sometimes the illusion […]
Teaching Children Gratitude and Contentment
The Sanskrit word santosha means contentment. Contentment is a slippery idea: If we say that we are not content, or feeling discontented, there are those who will look upon us as being ungrateful, or needing to work harder. If we say that we are content, there is sometimes the illusion of complacency. How can we teach our children gratitude and contentment, when we often struggle with our own relationship to contentment and what it means?
In order to teach something, it is important to fully understand it ourselves. One of my favorite definitions for the word contentment is “an ease of heart.” This implies that the need to struggle has been lifted, and we can flow with the waves of life. As parents, if we remember the first time that we settled into a chair embracing our newborn children, then we can remember the magical moment when we felt not just an ease of heart, but also a filling of the heart.