Awakening to see this cycle of discontent for what it is not only empowers us to cancel it, but it also brings to an end the strain of living under the unseen contradiction in our consciousness: the hope that one’s discontentment can be resolved by the very nature that creates and sustains it. Clearly a whole new order of solution is required.

First, we must be willing to see the futility of our struggle to acquire more of those things in life that have already proven themselves powerless to please us. In concert with this effort comes the inner work of deliberately detaching ourselves from the familiar sense of self that promises us comfort even as it continues to sow the seeds of our discontent.

In spite of how daunting such an effort may seem at first, we can succeed with our wish to let go because we are beginning to act from the power that our own awakening grants us. Nothing is greater; no force can frustrate such a light as it dawns within. Here is why this holds true: We are starting to see through the source of discontentment. We now understand how the thought-self habitually perceives what its conditioned natures sees as not right about our lives, and then compares this negative image to what it further imagines ought to be taking place. And presto, we are in pain of some sort! These are the opposites at work within us. This is what has been working on us, dragging us into ever-deeper stages of discontentment with life.

But we can declare, “Enough is enough.” The divided nature that embodies these opposites is not our True Self; it is but a shadow, a single aspect of our own original contented character. We can learn to call upon a new I within that understands the futility of continuing to vest ourselves in the “hope of things seen.” Rather than giving ourselves over to these malcontent feelings with their empty promises of a better tomorrow, we can let them go instead and gain possession of ourselves in the Now.

Our new intention to consciously detach ourselves from this discontented nature and the objects of its life is not an act of denial or resistance to whatever we may be feeling in the moment. This shift in the sense of “I” is a deliberate re-placement of our attention. Instead of trying to escape this discontented sense of self, we bring it — along with its troubles and plans for freedom — into the new and higher awareness of our True Nature. By daring to bring what would displease us about our life into the light of our new self-understanding, that light itself sees to it that we emerge victorious.

The knowledge you need to start letting go of this discontented self is in your hands. Use these truths to help take yourself beyond that unhappiness that comes with living from a nature that only knows about an imagined contentment to come. Start right now by knowing that the contentment your heart longs for already dwells in you and only waits for you to prepare a place for it by your remembrance of its peace.