We feel that everyone has the potential to make their lives as interesting, fulfilling, peaceful and joyful as possible. And you are no exception! You just haven't found the right formula for you, to achieve these ends.

As The Abbotts, writers and teachers of New Age Philosophy, (Robyn and Tony) we have found that true contentment did not come into our lives, until we discovered our reason for incarnating to Earth. In other words - why we are here. Then we began living this new direction. Once we had faith that we were on the right path and began to take intuitive direction from the Universe around us, (Angels, Masters and our own personal Guides) we developed a peaceful, fulfilling, satisfying lifestyle, which made us both, fully contented.

If we can find it, so can you! It doesn't take huge finances, great intelligence or powerful contacts, but you do have to learn to change the way you usually think and act. You do have to take calculated risks - not with you finances, but with your inner self.

You have to be eager for change. You have to want higher knowledge, new experiences, quality of life, plus desire fulfillment and peace. You have to learn to question your old, ingrained concepts that hold you back, chained to the mundane life.

If you're willing and brave enough to accept this exciting life-changing challenge to become contented, read on ………

Write a brief account of your normal day. One week day and one weekend day. Next to each activity, write down the usual emotion you feel, when you are doing the action. For example -

1) I wake up. (depressed)

2) Hear bird song outside. ( cheerful )

3) I hurry through my dressing, washing etc (harassed)

4) Gulp my breakfast down, without really tasting it. (stressed)

5) Run to the bus stop and are squashed in with other stressed people until I reach the office. (unhappy)

6) Begin sorting through uninteresting files. (bored)

7) Talk to the girls in the office. (interesting)

8) Sort out a long standing problem. (satisfying)

9) The boss praises me. (pleased)

10) Find out that a much desired promotion, has gone to someone else. (devastated)

11) Go out to lunch in the park. (quiet, relaxing) etc.

Follow on with afternoon and evening activities and feelings.

12). Do charity work at children's home at weekends. (inspiring)

13). Spend evenings alone. (lonely)

14). Sleep disrupted by noisy neighbors. (irritating)

Well, I'm sure you have got the picture by now! Follow this through to your afternoon, evening, recreational hours and weekends, as well. How do you feel about the activities then? Is your recreational time full of joy, inspiration and satisfaction? Or is it spent, bored, lonely and unsatisfied? It is essential to be honest in this exercise. After all who are you cheating, but yourself!

When you have completed this long list of daily activities and feelings attached to each activity, draw two columns, as below, fill in the columns with the various activities under the appropriate headings, eg. -

Wake up - happy

Help others - satisfying

Relax with meditation - good, comforting

Talk to friends - pleasant, interesting

Etc

Wake up - sad

Hate traveling to work

Many bills -upsetting

Lost promotion - depressing

Etc.

How does your personal list look? Do the positives out number the negatives. Or like many people are your negative actions/emotions, far outweighing your positive actions/emotions?

Don't despair, you can change your life about for the better. The mundane, boring responsibilities of life, can be replaced with stimulating, inspiring activities and emotions. But first you do have to discover, just what life is really all about!

Now, how can you increase the spiritual and mental aspects of your life? (We are assuming your physical and emotional aspects are well catered to, but if these are unbalanced, increase them).

Attend New Age seminars, attend a church that offers you inspiration, learn to heal others, meditate more, pray more, join our astral missions, connect with nature, investigate ancient myths, learn tarot, numerology.

Try to increase activities which combine the four aspects of emotion, physical, mental and spiritual. Such as - Go on a nature camp where you have a time for meditation. Do a personal development course with other friendly like-minded people. Stay at a monastery. Meditate by the seaside. Do a Native American sweat lodge ritual with others. Commune with nature. Learn to paint, sculpt or carve. Learn to Zen walk. Join a yoga course.

You will feel much more contented, when your 4 life aspects are in balance.

Our World Plan, works in many ways similarly to our Life Plan, but it is oriented more towards how we can help humanity, as a whole. Although, it may mean some karmic repayments, it is more likely to be an unselfish offering of our talents and gifts, to the betterment of society. For instance, you may decide to donate your healing services to an organization such as the Peace Corps or World Vision, for a period of time, in order to help those people suffering, in medically under serviced lands.

Others may choose to work as amateur counsellors, healers or spiritual teachers, as part of their World Plan. Often, our chosen professions may complement the activities in our World Plan, but sometimes, they are completely different. The local postman may be a wonderful healer in his spare time or the pensioner down the road, may be an excellent spiritual counsellor. The caring teenager may visit a children's home and help the staff entertain and look after the children.

Our World Plan draws upon our interests and special talents and unselfishly, funnels them towards where they are most needed. Through meditation and prayer, we can ask the Divine to direct us towards understanding our World Plan.

Freewill is the most important aspect of all incarnations. No matter what our higher intentions may be, before incarnating, it is decided that - we are allowed to make our own mistakes, while we are here. Because, we incarnate in an amnesiac state, forgetting all our higher aspirations, we often fail to take the opportunities to repay karma or create positive karma for the future.

Once, we have some understanding of our Life Plan, we realise everything is meant to happen, as it does. This is what we asked for! We learn not to resent any supposedly negative situations and not to try to manipulate people and events. By treating everyone, as a potential opportunity to repay karma, positively, we do not create any further negative karma or create enemies in this life or the next!

To understand our World Plan, we look at our gifts and talents that we have developed over our many lives, and examine them carefully. What fields are we drawn to, in order to fully express them as a loving gift to humanity? Often, we are given little nudges by life, to use our talents in this way. Don’t let these nudges go unnoticed! We may not all be able to fully commit our lives to the service of others, like the late Mother Theresa of India, but we can join local charities or work groups, to help others in need. We can learn healing techniques and attempt to heal our families and pets and we can lend a sympathetic ear, to friends in trouble. The choices are endless, just follow your natural loving inclinations!

Now how do you find out exactly what your own personal Life and World Plans are?

Knowing your work skills. Objectivity about yourself, is often very difficult to achieve. But try to be self - analytical. What are you really like? What are your best skills? What are your weakest skills? We want you to imagine that you are a researcher and your project is researching yourself! Look at yourself, both critically and admiringly and draw a similar table and fill it in.

Tom's story can inspire us all!

I was bored being unemployed. One day a friend told me that I had many skills, I wasn't aware of. I was a great gardener with real green thumbs. I could make almost anything grow. He told me that the youth centre he worked at, was surrounded by barren, gravel yards. He thought I could volunteer my skills and make it more attractive. We got permission from the directors and a subsidy to buy plants etc.

Soon, I was busy creating flower beds, planting shrubs and trees. A few of the teenagers there, offered to help and after a few weeks we had a full crew of dedicated junior gardeners. The place now looks great and the kids and staff really appreciate the new surroundings. I won a regional prize for my efforts. Through the publicity, I was then offered a well paying job with a firm of landscape gardeners. I still do charity work at the weekends. Life's great! Tom. 

Never underestimate the importance of where you live. If your home is noisy, uncomfortable, overly hot, cold or crowded and the surroundings unsympathetic, you cannot help but feel discontented.

Most people buy or rent their apartments or houses due to economic pressures, rather than personal choice. But often, while they have purchased somewhere that they can afford, it is still not right emotionally or spiritually, for their peace of mind.

Take the following story. Susan was a seascape artist who had been sharing a large, attractive apartment with a girl friend, at a small, friendly seaside village. She was very happy there. She had many interesting friends nearby, joined in local activities such as yoga classes and meditation groups and had a ready outlet for her paintings, at local tourist shops. Her income was small but sufficient.

Then her friend decided to get married and offered Susan the lease of the apartment. Susan could not afford to keep up the rent repayments and did not want to share with a stranger. She decided instead to rent a small cottage 40 miles away in a large town, where she could paint in spacious and affordable surroundings.

Within a few weeks Susan was aware that she had made a big mistake. Certainly, her cottage was spacious, but her neighbours were noisy and disruptive. The heavy traffic outside, kept her awake at night. No longer being close to the sea, it was now a long, expensive drive to her usual painting spots. Susan also missed her old friends and relaxation groups. She realised that she had placed privacy, space and cost, above all the other things that gave her contentment in her life. And she was very discontented.

What did she do? She sat down and asked Spirit to help her find a more contented home, where she could live and work successfully, while maintaining her social life.

She made a long list of all the things that gave her contentment in her life. These included friends, groups, sea air, quietness, privacy, space etc Then she wrote a list of what she wanted in a home to provide all these conditions. These covered - proximity to her old village, quiet, some space, etc. She decided to try to achieve the top four on her list. She placed an advertisement in the local village newspaper, seeking shared or smaller accommodation for a quiet, artistic person. Within a week, she had found the right place for herself - a granny flat in the garden of a large house, close to the sea and near all her old friends. The rent repayments were within her limited budget. She lived there in contentment for many years.

What had been Susan's mistake? She had not really understood what made her contented in life. Do you know where you would like to live and what would offer you the most contentment? What are your living requirements?

Some suggestions - If luxury is important to you, work as a live in nanny, chauffeur, private secretary or housekeeper in a wealthy home.

If you are a gardener and enjoy park land surroundings, apply for a position as a live in gardener in a national park or large estate.

If free time for your activities is important, offer your services in exchange for accommodation and small wages. This could be child minding, helping an elderly person, running errands, house sitting, maintenance work, gardening etc.

Forget your own large house and consider granny flats, caravans, shared accommodation. It is better to have a smaller, happier home than a large, lonely one!

Explore other areas. If you live in the city, look for a job and home in the country. If you are lonely and are artistic, move to an artists' colony.

Take a chance, you may find true contentment!

To many people, true contentment cannot be found, unless they have successful relationships. These may be with family and friends or with lovers in their life. Yet the most important relationships that they often never pursue, are with themselves and with Spirit. Let us look at these various relationships and see how they can be improved, to gain you true contentment.

Friendships are important to us, but it is unlikely that you hold onto the early friendships that you make as a child. As you grow as a person, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually, it is usual to change friends and find people more like you. It is also common that at certain times in your life, you may find yourself without close personal friends and find instead that you have around you, only pleasant acquaintances.

Some people panic at this point and try desperately to make closer friendships, but this is not always possible. Many people on the spiritual path, find that their new interests attract new, like minded people to them, but at the same time, bore old friends. This is growth and is not to be feared. You are blossoming as an angelic person and you will attract other angels to you, for comfort and support. It will just take a little time and a bit of effort on your part.

Most friendships are karmic. You have known these people in past lives, where you were either a friend or enemy or owe them a debt or they owe you a favour. Often when the favour is repaid, they will move on. Many spiritual friends come in, to teach you a special spiritual lesson and then will move on. Hopefully, you also will help and teach others.

Other friendships may last a lifetime, treasure them, but you should learn not to demand that they do! Live in the moment.

How then do you attract new, interesting, like-minded friends?

By getting involved in clubs, groups, areas where these type of people meet or live. Obvious isn't it? But many people just join any group, club or band of people, hoping to make friendships, without having similar interests.

Take my friend Stella. She was interested in painting, art galleries, symphony music and antiques, yet she spent every Saturday night at the local football club, listening to a rock band and hoping to meet like minded friends. How likely is that? Had she travelled to the largest nearby town, joined the art society, bought yearly tickets for the symphony orchestra recitals, joined an art class and got a part time job in an antiques shop, she may have made many new similarly minded friends. Do you do the same?

It may be something like this -

There is an old saying, " that you can choose your friends but not your family!" Yet, I would say to you that I believe you do choose your family members, before you incarnate to Earth and you do so for a special reason. This is that - only these unique people (good or bad) can teach you many valuable lessons that you need to learn, to grow as a spiritual being!

You volunteer to enter the dysfunctional family, the sick family, the karmic family, just as others choose to enter a loving, kind family - to learn life lessons. Those that have a secure, loving family, may find their lessons (good and bad) occur later in life. Those that enter a dysfunctional family, may be repaying karma or just exceptionally brave! So please, don't despair if your childhood was rocky, it has taught you valuable lessons for the future.

Families are wonderful training grounds for life. They give you dramas, kindness, hate, envy, jealousy and lots more. You interact with the same people for years and must learn some tolerance, gratitude, peace-making abilities, give and take and selflessness. When you go out into the big world, you are well prepared for anything!

So many people, over the years, have come to us with sad stories and tales of disputes with family members. What is our advice to them? Make peace where possible and forgive them! No matter what they have done, how much they have hurt you, forgive them! If you don't want to physically be with them, leave them, but don't take hurt and grudges with you. It hurts you more than it ever hurts them! Value even the negative lessons that they have taught you, and vow never to repeat them with your own children.

Many dysfunctional families are there to show you - how not to behave, with your own husband, wife and children!

Try to lessen the heart chords that go out to family members that you dislike, otherwise you will take these karmic blocks with you, into future lives, where they will be replayed many times. Ask for spiritual guidance in doing this.

Forgiving your enemies and making peace with them, will help towards you developing a contented life!

Many people spend their entire lives, loving and catering to others and yet, never have time to spend loving themselves. Unless you respect and honour yourself, how can you expect others, to do like wise?

Begin to treat yourself better. Not in a selfish way, but as if you are someone special - which you are! Don't take second best when you can take first. Don't say yes, when you mean no. Express your feelings and desires, in a loving, respectful way to others. Spirit has told us that we should give 51% to ourselves and 49% to others. Care for yourself. Make your life contented and special. No one else, will do it for you!

Many of us have unfulfilled fantasies that make us discontented. Yet, they are attainable at some level. It's just that many of us fear stepping outside our comfort zone, to fulfill them. Some times it seems easier to leave them as, impossible dreams. Here are several stories from people like you, who were not satisfied to just let their fantasies go unexplored! Ask Spirit to help you attain your own fantasies!

Many people fill their leisure time with numerous activities that they like to do, such as sports, gardening, socialising etc, but they don't find time to just sit and relax. Contentment often comes when we sit and do nothing! But many people feel uncomfortable doing nothing. They feel that it is somehow wrong or wasteful. How can you really say that you have found true contentment, until you can fully relax and spend time alone?

Everybody needs some space to herself or himself. A few hours a week, but more preferably a day, when they just sit down and leave the third dimension behind them. After all you are an angelic being at heart and angels exist in the dimensions above the third. This is why many people feel so relaxed after meditating. They have raised themselves up to the fourth or fifth dimensions in their meditation, which refreshes the mind and body, as well as the soul. Then they take this great feeling back into the 3D world.

Sitting in your garden or favourite spot in your home alone and uninterrupted, while you forget your everyday problems for a while and just relax and BE, is a sure way to find inner contentment. No matter how difficult life can be in your assumed role as a human in the 21^st century, remember - you are more than this! Relax, put your feet up and don't take it all too seriously!

Now do it!

Now that you have discovered the art of contentment, why not pass it on to others? By example, you can show them that a contented life is attainable. When they ask you, why you are so happy - tell them! Show them how you did it! Share your contentment! Remember everyone has a different idea of contentment, but the basics are the same -

Self love, balanced life, good relationships, happy satisfying job and lifestyle, somewhere nice to live and true spirituality, plus living your fantasies! These are attainable by everyone.

Copyright, The Abbotts 2001.