“I just had to send you a message,” a client we’ll call Marla wrote to me. “Normally this time of year I’d be feening to shop for myself and other people. Like I had to stay plugged so that I wouldn’t miss major sale announcements, but instead I feel totally unbothered!”

We’d worked with Marla extensively to edit her space. We talked at length about how she used every excuse in the book to rationalize her overconsumption. We removed bag after bag of items she’d purchased and never used. Our mission was to reduce the amount of time she was spending in a state of Empty Acquisition and get her to spend more time being Present & Content, and it was working.

“The more we clear out the more I realize and enjoy what I have!” She’d said.

Months later, she was more conscious than ever about the amount of time she was fixating on acquiring the Next Thing versus practicing deep contentment for all she had.

Empty Acquisition mode places the focus on what is lacking: your imperfections and the products that promise to solve them, your lack of fulfillment and the shiny objects you try to fill that bucket with, your fear about not having enough that causes you to collect more than you reasonably need, and on. It’s a mindset that convinces you that you’re not good enough, that you need to be more impressive, must keep up with the latest and greatest in order to remain relevant, and that you need something or someone else to validate your worth.

Present Contentment is a state of awareness and gratitude for all that you do have. It’s allowing yourself to enjoy what you’ve worked to create or bring into your life. It’s centering yourself in the knowing that your worth begins within and radiates without.

As it reaches the end of the calendar year, the fever pitch of the holidays, and the final tallying of the year, we have the choice, like Marla, between fiending and breathing, between getting sucked up into chaos and holding our calm, between emptiness And Contentment.

We don’t have to fear that contentment will melt into complacency, either. The appreciation for things as they are is what paves the way for future growth.

Let the goodness in your life register. Take a second longer than normal to connect to the people around you, to feel grateful for your belongings, and to relish the elements of your daily rituals.

All that you have and all that you are is enough to elicit contentment.