How to change your life
Do you love your life? Or do you sometimes feel dissatisfied, certain that you’d be a lot happier if you had a bigger home, better relationships, more money, exciting leisure activities, the respect of your peers…
So many of us keep striving for happiness, convincing ourselves that a new computer game or outfit, a pay rise or a vacation, will somehow bring us closer. Many of us equate happiness with success – and success with money. But plenty of rich people aren’t happy.
As I’m sure you’re well aware, our minds are amazing tools. In humans, we’ve been able to use our minds to understand how earth began millions of years ago, build space shuttles that can take us to the moon and understand the most complex of mathematical problems.
Without our mind we wouldn’t be able to survive. However, there are some aspects to our mind that aren’t so beneficial. As a race, our minds have led to the deaths of millions of people around the world. And many people are so depressed, and in so much pain, that they feel the only way out is suicide.
Before you think this is going to be a negative post, don’t worry. It isn’t. My aim today is to help you see how our mind is often simply a filter to how we view the world, and that we have the power to change our outlook on all situations. Hopefully, by the end of this post, you should have a better understand of how this works, and how you can use your own mind to create lasting happiness, positivity and joy inside yourself.
What can we do to become more successful? How can we excel in all areas of life, whether professional or personal? A vast body of literature has been written on this subject over the decades, but here are five points which I regard as being fundamental.
1. Be Proactive
Viktor Frankl said that between stimulus and response there is a gap, and within this gap lies all our freedom. Even as he was suffering immense privations in a Nazi concentration camp, he realized that he was responsible for his thoughts and actions and was not simply a bundle of conditioned responses.
Breathing is the one thing we all do the moment we emerge into the world and it’ll be the last thing we all do right before we leave. Breathing as we all know is a constant necessity for continued physical existence. We must all breathe a number of times a minute and when you take a moment to consider the beauty of breathing a number of important facts become readily apparent and can act as a grounding force to bring you back from being caught up in day-to-day trivialities.
For instance, when I contemplate breathing the very first thing that strikes me is how very interdependent the whole process is. The breath is actually the main method of waste disposal used by our bodies. We expel what to our bodies are toxins and take in what we need to live. The toxins we expel are used by other organic life forms such as plants and they in turn expel the oxygen we need to live. The deeply interconnected and lovingly symbiotic relationship is there for each of us to see and fully experience each and every moment.
“If you realized how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought.” ~ Peace Pilgrim
Although I do often write from a personal perspective, I rarely reveal specifics surrounding my daily life. Today is different. I lost my job on Thursday. I am now among the millions of unemployed … a number that we all know is growing daily. While there is intellectual comfort in knowing that we are not alone, when faced with looming bills to be paid, those numbers mean little.
As I sent out emails, letting friends and old contacts know of the situation (ie: Help! I’m looking for a job!!), many wrote back expressing sorrow and talking about the difficulties of finding work in these extraordinarily challenging economic times. One, in particular, stood out … “Glad to see that your spirits are up!! Mine were down when XXXX let me go. However…. persistence will prevail.” Yes, persistence will prevail, no doubt, but that’s not what struck me. What made me stop for a moment was the comparison … that in my note to him it was evident that I looked at things differently. That I wasn’t going to let the reality of the situation change my attitude toward life. Why, or why not?
“This is an invitation to dream”
So begins Reclaim Your Dreams, the new e-book by Jonathan Mead of Illuminated Mind. The word “dreamer” has negative connotations in some circles, but I (like Jonathan) believe it is the dreamers of this world that are truly happy and most powerful (assuming you are dreaming with your eyes open).
One of the great things about Jonathan’s e-book is it lives up to its subtitle, “An Uncommon Guide to Living on Your Own Terms”. After all, it’s not often you hear someone tell you to stop listening, stop caring and quit (these are properly explained in the book). I found it refreshing to read a different approach to personal development, and I’m sure you will too.
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