Stay Out of Places that Steal Your Happiness

In the moment you find yourself stressed, tense, worried, irritable, or angry -- when you find yourself in a negative state, thinking about what to do about your negativity -- all you have to do to break free is realize that you're in the wrong place. Don't think about what to do with where you are. Admit to yourself you're in the wrong place, and then... just don't go there.

You may, at any moment that you wish, become aware of yourself sufficiently enough to know where you are inwardly. When you find yourself living a resentment over again, all you have to do is see that you're surrounded by thoughts and feelings that were produced by your resistance to a remembered event. That's all you have to do. Who made you remember what you now wish hadn't happened to you? Who made you picture the person you resent? Who brought up the failure from your past? Who did any of that in the moment you're sitting by yourself, or driving in your car, or eating your cup of coffee.

How it saved me from feeling stuck and miserable about my life

“I don’t know what to do. I’ve put all my eggs in this law school basket and I just dropped it,” said Christy Plunkett, a character in the television sitcom Mom. Her mother Bonnie yelped in excitement, “That’s why you don’t put all your eggs in one basket. I just got that!”

How often do we learn something and not really get what it means? We read countless books about a particular subject, watch experts talk about it, maybe even take courses so we can put it into practice. We think we understand but at the back of our mind, there’s still a paradoxical layer that leaves us confused, struggling to fully grasp its true meaning — until the proverbial penny finally drops. Most people call this an aha moment, and this is one of mine.

I’ve been meditating for many years. It has made such impact on my life. It gave birth to profound experiences that were life-changing for me. One of the things that meditation taught me is to focus on the present moment. In addition to that, I’ve also read many materials, among them Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now and The Art of Mindful Living by Thich Nhat Hahn. I’ve also been listening to Deepak Chopra’s guided meditations for years where he talks about being present over and over again. Their teachings made sense to me. Partially.

In reality, I was struggling to reconcile the difference between embracing the here and now and accepting my current situation. I want something else for myself. I want to follow the path to a “life with purpose.”

The other day I had a conversation… Well, I listened to her as she talked via this awesome app called Marco Polo. It probably has been around forever and I am just now getting into the shoestrings of it.

What can I say? I am not a techy.

Anyways, the app is a way to keep in touch with people in a more personal way than texting or even sending a pic of yourself on your latest adventure. You record your message and the recipient can listen to it whenever they get a chance and actually see your darling face! It is like having a real conversation with a real person.