When Enough Is Never Enough: How to Cultivate the Natural Wealth of Contentment

in an era of unprecedented abundance-where many of us have far more than the essentials of food, shelter, and social connection-dissatisfaction remains pervasive. We find ourselves restless, disgruntled, even chronically disheartened, as if no amount of material or relational comfort can soothe the unease within. Why is this the case? In When Enough is Never Enough, author Dr. Oliver Ross examines why we frequently suffer from our own habitual "more, better, different" thinking, which fixates on the past or future. It explains how this mindset traps us in a cycle of dissatisfaction as we constantly yearn for something beyond what we currently have-whether it's material possessions, personal achievements, or other things. This relentless pursuit for external fulfillment leads to rumination about missed opportunities in the past and anxieties about future uncertainties, creating a persistent sense of inadequacy and incompleteness. Ross introduces a practical mindfulness method designed to cultivate contentment rather than self-inflicted suffering through present-moment awareness. By practicing mindfulness, we learn to disengage from the habitual preoccupation with the past or future and instead focus on the here and now. This shift allows us to recognize that peace of mind and contentment are not distant or elusive goals but are available in the present moment.