contentment–serenity

I’m participating in a year-long journey of inviting contentment into my life. As part of our first practice, we were asked to find a word or phrase that fits us best for “contentment.” Jan gave us a bunch of synonyms and invited us to find explore.

I tried on a lot of words for contentment and finally landed on serenity. It’s actually really cool because this is the Virtue, or quality of awakened heart, for my Enneagram type, type One.

The dictionary definition includes “unruffled, tranquil, dignified, unclouded, bright, and fair” from the Latin: serenus meaning “bright, clear.” I really like the combination of tranquil with bright and clear. It seems to capture the lightness with the groundedness I feel when I am content.

Then I looked up the Enneagram explanation of serenity and found it really fits some of the other words I was considering like acceptance, ease, well-being, yielding, love of the truth. In Riso and Hudson’s Understanding the Enneagram (p. 63-64), the Virtue of Serenity is described as the state of accepting reality exactly as it is, being open and receptive to self and other and connected to others, trusting the moment, comfortable with self—body and feelings, relaxed, allowing the energies of life to move through without resisting or controlling, without effort or striving, flowing, calm, and balanced. YES! I am looking forward to welcoming this into my life over the next year!

Author: Katy Taylor

I am a regular person, like you. I am an earth lover, a seeker, a singer, a gardener, a partner and friend. I have attended a lot of trainings and continue to do my work to grow and deepen and become a more loving person. If you're interested, you can read more about me on the About page. View all posts by Katy Taylor