When you are fundamentally joyous,
when you do not have to do anything to be happy, then every dimension of your
life – the way you perceive and express yourself and the world – will change.
You will no longer have vested interests because whether you do something or
you do not do something, whether you get something or do not get something,
whether something happens or does not happen, you will be joyous by your
nature. When you are joyous by your nature, your actions will rise to a
completely different level.
10 Tools Towards a Happy Life #1 See that being joyful is your fundamental responsibility
The first and most fundamental
responsibility for a human being is to become a joyous being. To be happy is
not the ultimate aspect of life. It is the fundamental aspect of life. If you
are not happy, what else can you do with your life? Only if you are happy, can
other great possibilities open up.
Whatever you do, it is only your inner
quality that you are going to spread. Whether you like it or not, that is the
reality. Unless something of true value happens within you, you cannot do
anything of tremendous value to the world. So, if you are concerned about the
world, the first thing you must do is transform yourself into a joyous being.
 #2 Realize that joy is your original nature
It does not matter what you are
pursuing in your life, whether it is business, power, education or service, you
are doing so because somewhere deep inside you is a feeling that this will
bring you happiness. Every single action that we perform on this planet springs
from an aspiration to be happy because it is the original nature. When you were
a child you were simply happy. That is your nature. The source of joy is within
you; you can take charge of it.
#3 Put things in perspective
Today morning, did you see that the
sun came up wonderfully well? The flowers blossomed, no stars fell down, the
galaxies are functioning very well. Everything is in order. The whole cosmos is
happening wonderfully well today but just a worm of a thought worming through
your head makes you believe it is a bad day today.
Suffering is happening essentially
because most human beings have lost perspective as to what this life is about.
Their psychological process has become far larger than the existential process,
or to put it bluntly, you’ve made your petty creation far more important than
the Creator’s creation. That is the fundamental source of all suffering. We
have missed the complete sense of what it means to be alive here. A thought in
your head or an emotion within you determines the nature of your experience
right now. And your thought and emotion may have nothing to do even with the
limited reality of your life. The whole creation is happening wonderfully well
but just one thought or emotion can destroy everything.
 #4 See the mind for what it is
What you call as “my mind” is not
yours actually. You don’t have a mind of your own. Please look at it carefully.
What you call as “my mind” is just society’s garbage bin. Anyone and everyone
who passes by you stuffs something into your head. You really have no choice
about whom to receive from and whom not to receive from. If you say, “I don’t
like this person,” you will receive a lot more from that person than anyone
else. You really don’t have a choice. If you know how to process and use it,
this garbage is useful. This accumulation of impressions and information that
you have gathered is only useful for survival in the world. It has got nothing
to do with who you are.
 #5 Move from psychological to existential
When we talk about a spiritual process,
we are talking about shifting from psychological to existential. Life is about
the creation that is here, knowing it absolutely and experiencing it the way it
is; not distorting it the way you want. If you want to move into existential
reality, to put it very simply, you just have to see that what you think is not
important, what you feel is not important. What you think has nothing to do
with reality. It has no great relevance to life. The mind is just chattering
away with nonsense that you have gathered from somewhere else. If you think it
is important, you will never look beyond that.
Your attention naturally flows in the
direction of whatever you hold as important. If your thought and your emotion
is important, naturally your whole attention will be right there. But that is a
psychological reality. That has nothing to do with the existential.
Suffering is not showered upon us, it
is manufactured. And the manufacturing unit is in your mind. It is time to shut
down the manufacturing unit.
 #6 Stop pursuing, start expressing
Today we are seeking happiness so
vigorously that the very life of the planet is being threatened. Don’t be in
pursuit of happiness. Know how to express your happiness in the world. If you
look back at your life and see, the most beautiful moments in life are moments
when you are expressing your joy, not when you are seeking it.
What you save will never be your
quality. What you dispense will be your quality. If you save your joy, at the
end of your life no one will take account, “She saved every bit of joy in her;
she’s the most joyfully dead.” They will say, “This horrible creature never
even smiled in her life.” But if every day you dispensed your joy and love,
people would say, “Oh she was a joyful and loving being.”
 #7 Smile..!
When you get up in the morning, the
first thing you should do is smile. At whom? No one. Because just the fact that
you woke up is not a small thing. So many millions of people who slept last
night did not wake up today, but you and me woke up. Isn’t it great that you
woke up? So smile because you woke up. Then look around and if there is
someone, smile at them. For so many people, someone dear to them did not wake
up today morning. Everyone who is dear to you woke up – Wow! It’s a great day,
isn’t it? Then go out and take a look at the trees. They didn’t die last night
either.
You may think this is ridiculous, but
you will know the reality of it when someone dear to you doesn’t wake up. Don’t
wait till then to realize the value of it. It is not something ridiculous, this
is the most valuable thing – that you are alive and everything that matters to
you is alive. When on this disastrous night so many people did not wake up and
the loved ones of so many others did not wake up, you and your loved ones woke
up. Isn’t it a fantastic event? Appreciate it and smile at least. Learn to look
at a few people lovingly.
 #8 Remind yourself to smile..!
For many people, it just takes an hour
to forget all this and pretty soon their reptilian brain wants to bite someone.
So give yourself a dose once an hour – a reminder of the value of life. If you
are very insensitive, remind yourself every half-an-hour. If you are horribly
insensitive, remind yourself every five minutes. It takes only ten seconds to
remind yourself. You could do it in just two seconds too – “I’m alive, you’re
alive. What more?”
 #9 Transform what’s within
At present, the quality of your life
is not determined by the clothes that
you wear, the educational qualifications that you carry, the family
background that you come from or the bank balances that you hold. Rather, the quality
of your life depends upon how peaceful and joyous you are within yourself.
Definitely, somebody who does not have
food and who is deprived of the basic needs for survival can be physically
miserable. That needs to addressed. For such people, we must take care of those
things first. But for most others, their needs are an endless list. You think
the man who is driving the car is happier than the man who is walking on the
street? No. It is not decided by what you have. It depends on how they are that
moment.
 #10 Stop the comparison with others
Most people are miserable not because
of what they don’t have. It is simply because they are comparing themselves
with someone else. You are driving a motorbike, you see somebody in a Mercedes
and you make yourself miserable. For someone on a bicycle, he sees you on a
motorbike and that is a limousine for him. Somebody walking on the street looks
at the bicycle and thinks, “Wow, if I just had that, what I would have done
with my life!” It is a foolish game and it is just going on.
All those people who depend on
external situations to be happy will never know true joy in their lives. It is
definitely time we look inward and see how to create personal wellbeing. From
your own experience of life you can clearly see that true wellbeing will come
to you only if your interiority changes. If you depend on the outside to bring
joy to you, you need to understand, the outside never happens 100% the way you
want it. When this is the reality, at least this one person – you – must happen
the way you want it to be. If you did happen the way you want yourself to be,
the very natural choice is joy. That is not something that you have to pursue.
If you fall back into your original nature, joyfulness is the only way you will
be.
(Source : Isha Foundation)
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