Metropolis Death and Being, 8th Day of Autumn, 526 M.E. (Helios): Here's another thing about contentment. When you settle for contentment rather than strive after happiness or joy, happiness and joy can still arise in your life. In fact, they might even arise more frequently than in a life spent constantly pursuing happiness and joy. 

Here's the secret to happiness, folks: just enjoy the spontaneous moments of happiness as they arise, and don't try to cling to them or make them last longer than they naturally occur. Clutching happiness is like trying to hold water in your hand - the tighter you squeeze, the more it slips away. 

A life spent in constant pursuit of happiness and joy is a life of discontentment - you're either not happy at that moment, or you're not happy enough, or you have a lingering suspicion that you could somehow be still more joyous or ecstatic. Ultimately, it's discontentment.

Of course, choosing to try contentment in order to experience more happiness and joy is a trap, as it's still seeking out the latter. It's not really contentment. True contentment is accepting life as it is, warts and all, in sickness and in health, taking the good with the bad. Contentment is enjoying a book, laughing with your children, kissing your beloved, a rainy day, and receiving a bad health diagnosis. It's accepting life as it is.        

Stop trying to be so fucking happy all the time. Just be happy when you're happy and sad when you're sad. Just be whatever life hands you. Just be.