Newborn,
I'd like to try a different angle. If you think it's too off-the-wall, just ignore it.
Is "contentment" what we really need or look for in life, kind of a settled-in, warm and fuzzy feeling? The things you describe in your first post about your living surroundings and apartment, or whether you're single or attached, are all environmental things, and not directly related to happiness or contentment.
What we need is to feel EXCITED about life, to have new challenges, to have a reason to wake up in the morning and say "I want to do that". While it's important to eliminate factors in life that we are discontent with (bad relationship, bad religion, unfulfilling job if we can find a better one), these alone do not lead to contentedness.
We need to try new things, break new ground, and help other people in ways meaningful to us.
Those of us who belonged to a high-control religion know what it's like to have others try to define life's meaning for us -- it was to serve THEM. Now that we've become free, we must define our own purposes and what is interesting and exciting to us. It has little or nothing to do with circumstances, and everything to do with our goals, our progress towards them, and our interactions with others.
Thats my 2 cents, and I'm glad I spent them here!
