I don’t know if deep satisfaction is constantly available to us in life. I suppose it depends. I have felt deeply satisfied at various times. But the feeling didn’t always come from where I might have expected.
Sometimes it came with accomplishments. After earning a university degree, I wasn’t 100% sure whether it was satisfaction or relief. They seemed very similar.
Other times I have felt deep satisfaction after a physical workout, like a hike or doing a circuit in the gym. Or sex.
I have a better sense of feeling deep satisfaction when I take away certain activities, than when I add them. Getting rid of clutter gives me deep satisfaction. And room to breathe. That should give me some insight into where to invest my energies in seeking said satisfaction.
I see satisfaction as one of those elements that gets deposited into your emotional bank account with which we all are equipped. I’m not sure if it is unrealistic to think we should live every waking moment in a state of satisfaction. But as a feeling to dip into it and savor every once in awhile when time and space permits, it is most desirable.
A mom might find deep satisfaction when the kids have gone to bed and the dinner dishes have been done and she can look back on a busy, happy day. A writer might feel deep satisfaction as s/he ends her novel and writes the last sentence in her manuscript. A father might feel this feeling as his child successfully ends a challenging school term.
That makes satisfaction seem more like a consequence of accumulated acts preferably in a supportive environment. The achievement of desirable goals. A profound sense of safety and protection. A certainty about a belief in god or other spirit guides. Stability inside and out.
I see satisfaction as a state that comes and goes. At least for me it is.
I understand objectionable people awash in self-satisfaction wander the earth. That is something entirely different. It seems for those people that they have built a tidy little fence around their psyches.
They are the kings and queens of their own internal kingdoms. They feel they were born to a state of perpetual satisfaction. But generally only of the external kind, not the internal. And they rebuff any challenge to their tightly held beliefs.
They can have it. Denial is a place. The only issue that the letdown for them will be intense if their illusions of grandeur are badly damaged. No matter. That’s a life learning, too.
As for me, last night I chose to sink into a state of deep satisfaction just from the day’s labors. And the labors of recent weeks if I am honest. I intend to enjoy it all by relaxing for a while.
Rest is a nice respite from the labors that will inevitably rush in tomorrow and the day after that ad infinitum. Rest is also deeply satisfying. Here’s to it.
Expressive Compulsive 