Happiness Resides Within

It seems that finding happiness and contentment seems to be a very difficult thing for people to do these days.  The Chinese philosopher, Lin Yu-tang, wrote:

The secret of contentment is knowing how to enjoy what you have, and to be able to lose all desire for things beyond your reach.

I think the key here is the first part of that sentence - enjoy what you have.  Why do we always want more? Is it our culture?  Is it conditioning?
 
Did you know that happiness, contentment, and joy are feelings that reside within every person already?  If you think for a moment, I’m sure that you can recall a time when happiness spontaneously bubbled up as you watched puppies play.  Maybe you experienced an overwhelming sense of contentment as you lay in your lover’s arms. Or think about the joy that sprang up inside of you when you graduated from college or welcomed your first child into the world.  Is happiness really something to pursue, or is it something that has been there all the time?  Maybe we should simply learn to take the blinders of desire off and turn our attention toward the treasure that is already yours.  Be happy with what you have.

Success is Not a Doorway, It's a Staircase

What is it that we all want? Isn’t it success and happiness? So, it’s no surprise that a reader in Iran is interested in success. Arash (not his real name) is a 35-year-old married carpenter who wants to become extremely successful. That is, he wants to be free from financial worries, free to travel anywhere, and free to do anything he and his family choose to do. To that end, he listens to Brian Tracy audio programs in his car and studies books on success. Arash is asking for help because he doesn’t know where and how to begin. He would like an action plan or roadmap to success that will end the confusion and clearly point out the steps he needs to follow. So, let’s begin.


The Staircase to Success

Step 1. The first step is to understand what is required for success. And what is that? Hard work! You've got to work harder than most people if you want to be more successful than them. To emphasize this point, let me quote William A. Ward (1921~1994), “The recipe of success is to study while others are sleeping, work while others are loafing, prepare while others are playing, and dream while others are wishing.” It is essential to realize that success is not a doorway that you walk through, but a staircase that requires effort to climb.

Step 2. After acknowledging that it will take hard work to succeed, you must be willing to make the effort and determined to do whatever it takes to succeed. In other words, you must be committed.

Step 3. You must understand that some difficult tasks are harder to do than others because of subconscious interference. Here’s an example of what I mean. Arash already has the self-discipline to exercise, but when it comes to taking steps for success, he feels powerless to act. Why is that? It is because when he tries ..............read more

Original Articles. Constant-Content.

Reasons You Can't Afford to Not Meditate

I used to have to deal with sub-clinical depression.  Even when my life was going really good, my emotional body would be laced with an underlying feeling of sadness and even utter hopelessness at times.  A few years ago, however, I started meditating and my world changed in some astounding ways.  I rarely ever deal with depression any more and I have learned to enjoy each life experience that comes along.

Somebody once likened meditation to the water that flows over rocks in a river.  The rocks are slowly smoothed and shaped by the continual running water.  Your life is a lot like those rocks that get transformed.  It happens slowly, but one day you wake up to find that your life has really changed.  Some of the jagged edges have been smoothed away and you are experiencing more peace. 

Here are a few reasons why your life should include daily meditation:

• Meditation gives your brain a much-needed rest and allows for divine presence.  When we learn to manage the barrage of thoughts that clamor for our attention during the time of meditation, we are also learning how to listen to our deeper, wiser selves.  Through meditation, we can develop our intuition and hear directly from God.
• Meditation returns us to center.  The nature of meditation itself involves the art of letting go.  And that includes practicing detaching from our charged emotions.  When we are engaging in emotional extremes, we are pulled into the past or catapulted into the future.  By letting go of those extremes in meditation, we can return to a more balanced state of being.
• Meditation is good for your health.  By learning to become calm in meditation, you will automatically find yourself utilizing that skill when you are faced by the stresses of the day.  Research has shown that meditation lowers blood pressure, reduces the likelihood of having migraines, and reduces other stress-related symptoms.

Meditating is easy.  Sit in a relaxed position and close your eyes.  Become aware of and focus on your breathing without trying to control it.  When you can do this for about 5 minutes, then you can begin to repeat a spiritual mantra like God is love, or simply the word peace.
 

Original Articles. Constant-Content.