Tiny Buddha: Wisdom Quotes, Letting Go, Letting Happiness In

Editor’s Note: This is a contribution by Jeanine Nicole

“Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.” ~Matsuo Basho

Once, one of my friends shared a line of wisdom that summed up the dance of wholeness and aspiration I often find myself absorbed in:

“Everything is quite all right; our worth secure and true. Everything’s not quite all right; we’ve worthy work to do…”

Part of the longing and neediness I tend to feel comes from a rift between who or where I am, and where I believe I should be to be “successful.”

My life has been colored by this dichotomy: the strange see-sawing dance between achievement and room to grow.

I’ve struggled endlessly with the concept of my “potential” and the frustrating feeling that potential will always add itself on to the top of any ceiling I break through, creating only more upward space in which to aim, aspire, and yearn.

And yet, any spiritual practice will allow us to see that we are whole, complete, and perfect just as we are in the very moment.

For me, yoga has been a bridge between these two places—where I am and where I want to be.

It encourages me to be grounded, to deepen, to see and experience my wholeness, to accept myself for all my facets—just as I am. It allows me to be a work in progress, allows my life to be a journey, and my emotions a process.

I have utilized yoga and meditation as a tool of self-love, one that then immediately opens into compassion for others, and an expansive sense of self. I live my day with more love, more serenity, and more grace, when I actively dedicate time and energy to tapping into a calmer sense of being. Click Here to Read More…

Editor’s Note: This is a contribution by TylerTervooren

“A diamond is just a piece of charcoal that handled stress exceptionally well.” – Unknown

Two years ago, I was sitting in my car thinking just after being laid off from the job I thought I’d probably spend the rest of my life doing. According to how these stories usually go, I should have been mad; I should have been scared; I should have wanted revenge.

But I didn’t feel any of these things. Instead, I felt an unexplainable happiness—like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. When the shock of the moment wore off, I realized why I was so happy; all of a sudden, anything was possible!

It had been years since I’d tried something new. It’d been years since I’d taken a risk on myself. It’d been years since I’d actually felt alive. And this moment had snapped me out of it.

So, sitting there in my car that day, faced with no idea what my life was going to look like starting tomorrow, I asked myself a simple question:

What would my life be like if I did something that scared me every single day?

Two years later and I’m relatively convinced it’s the best question I ever asked. It’s lead me to new and interesting relationships, up mountains, to strange countries, and into self-employment.

None of these things were comfortable—quite the opposite, actually, but they were all worth the effort.

Giving Stress a Good Name

I think it’s been a while since stress has gotten a fair shake. It’s no four-letter word—literally or figuratively—and for the bad rap it’s gotten in ruining lives, it’s also reaffirmed just as many. Click Here to Read More…

Editor’s Note: This is a contribution by Adam Alvarado

“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” ~Andre Gide

I’ve lived in Virginia all my life. Pretty much all that I remember at least.

I was a young boy when my parents moved here from Long Island, New York—away from much of our family—because life in the place they had grown up just didn’t provide the opportunities necessary to support a family of six.

Since then, nearly my entire extended family has followed—most of my aunts and uncles, and their children, and their children. And though they may live in Virginia, these older family members remain New Yorkers.

You hear it in their voices, in their attitudes. You see it in the Yankee hats and the Giants jerseys.  They’re so “New York” in fact, that I often jokingly call them Virginian just to watch the comically disgusted looks on their faces.

I’m evil. I know…

And though I myself go back to New York all the time and do enjoy it, I’m just not one of them.

I am not a New Yorker. And though my family may secretly cringe at the thought, it’s true.

I love Virginia. I love it.

I think it’s the most beautiful place. I love all the hills, and the creeks, and the forests. I love how I’m a short drive from bustling young cities around DC and rustic old farms down south. I love how nearly every road has a sign marking some long-forgotten event of the Civil War.

I love the old split-rail fences that frame the historic houses. I love imagining that these forests were once walked by Indians and settlers, Confederates and Unionists.

I was educated here at a university founded by Thomas Jefferson. I graduated on the lawn where he once walked. I lived there on land that was once owned and farmed by James Madison.

This place is so perfect to me, and I love it.

So, Long Island?

Yeesh.

It’s just some place to me—known more in my memory for the countless old car dealerships, and the endless delis, and the fact that no matter how long it’s been since I’ve been there last, it never seems to change at all, as if it’s perpetually 1985.

It’s like people never move there. They only ever move out. Click Here to Read More…

Editor’s Note: This is a contribution by Lynn Zavaro

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” ~Helen Keller

Ever since I can remember I liked to travel. It does something to me, something strange and oddly uncharacteristic: I am suddenly very laid back.

When I travel I’ve got the right mind-set. I know I will stand in lines, have to schlep heavy bags, or perhaps have delays. I know that I will be eating at restaurants for the first time, without knowing if I will like them.

At home, when I am stressed out and worried, my mind likes to give me lists of things to do that I can’t keep up with. It juts me way out into the future, compels me to question myself, and stops me from being present with the task at hand.

The trick for me is to do one of the following:

• Not believe my mind
• Acknowledge it, and then put my attention on something else
• Remember how much I like traveling

When I travel, I expect the unexpected and have faith in the fact that things will not always go my way. This is part of the whole adventure.

I often wonder when traveling with my husband if he thinks to himself, “Who the hell is this person?” He must wonder it because I wonder it myself.

Travel is just the most obvious place for me to accept that I do not have control. I relax because I realize I never have control over anything anyway, so why not anticipate or even marvel at the ways my vacation may be going “wrong”? Click Here to Read More…

Editor’s Note:  This is a contribution by Caroline McGraw

“It’s not who you are that holds you back, it’s who you think you’re not.” ~Unknown

Have you ever paused at a podium, feeling your hands shake as you speak to the senators before you? Have you ever laced your skates, shuddering as you heard your name announced as the next skater to compete? Have you ever found out about an amazing opportunity (say, a chance to post on Tiny Buddha), only to realize that you’re terrified to try?

I’ve been in all these risky scenarios, so I know how intimidating they can be. By definition, risk-taking doesn’t guarantee that you’ll attain your desired result. However, there are a few things you can do to optimize your chances of succeeding when an opportunity comes your way.

1. Get yourself prepared (and keep your eyes open).

Malcolm Gladwell said it in Outliers, and I’ll say it again:  It takes time to achieve expertise. To be precise, it takes about 10,000 hours of practice to become a true proficient. This is no small investment of your life energy.

As such, it pays to spend time thinking about the kinds of opportunities you want to prepare yourself for.

If you’re an advocate, what do you want to say to those senators? Start saying it now, even if you’re speaking to an empty room at first. If you’re a figure skater, what elements do you want in your Olympic program? Start practicing those elements every day.

Once you have seriously invested yourself, and have discerned what kind of opportunity you’re looking for, keep your eyes open, because opportunity has a strange way of showing up once you’ve prepared. Said opportunity may be unexpected (the best ones are), but if you’ve put in the time beforehand, you can seize the opportunity when it arises. 

Nevertheless, it’s also essential to… Click Here to Read More…

Editor’s Note: This is a contribution by Mike Krass

“Your current safe boundaries were once unknown frontiers.” ~Unknown

It was a few months into my semester abroad during my sophomore year in college when I realized how special the experience had become.

On the way to class, I strolled past the Pantheon and snacked on homemade gelato.

Preparing dinner consisted of purchasing fresh-picked produce and a fresh-cooked baguette. As my homemade pasta sauce slowly came to a pleasant boil, my roommates and I would sip the finest Chianti 5 euros could buy while eating salami and formaggio (cheese) so delicious it makes your mouth water just thinking about it.

The five months I spent abroad in Europe molded me into the individual I have become today. I learned more about myself than I had in the previous 20 years of my life.

I learned to laugh at jokes in more than one language, cry when parting with the city I had grown to know and love, and develop lasting friendships that bring a smile to my face every time I see the person’s name on my caller ID.

My experience abroad taught me how to live a life free of second guessing and regret. Here’s how.

Click Here to Read More…

Editor’s note: this is a guest contribution by Prime Sarmiento

Next year, I plan to visit two countries as part of my 2011 “Travel Resolutions.” First is Indonesia as I’ve always wanted to see Borobudur and of course, Yogyakarta, center of Javenese culture.

In the second half of the year, I want to reward myself with a big overseas trip because by that time, I’m hopefully done with my master’s thesis (woo-hoo!). It’s a choice between Europe  and Egypt.

I will visit at least two Philippine provinces. And since I live in Manila I want to do my part in promoting what this city has to offer. So I’m joining some guided tours and visiting museums.

To make this happen, I have set up a separate savings account without ATM access; this will hold a portion of my monthly income, automatically transferred. I will continue brown-bagging my lunch and will only eat out once a week.

I’ll be monitoring my calendar to see where I can include those short trips in and outside of Manila during a long weekend. I signed up for price alerts in several airlines and bought a couple of guidebooks. I’ll be setting aside some time to research the places that I want to go to next year and what papers I need to prepare to obtain a visa.

The key to fulfilling any New Year’s resolution is to plan ahead, make sure that it’s aligned with your personal goals, and not to just list it all down, on a whim, on New Year’s Eve. No wonder a lot of people end up not doing anything they put in that list.

A study spearheaded by Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the U.K.-based University of Hertfordshire, revealed that most of the 700 people they interviewed failed to stick to their New Year’s resolutions.

Interestingly, while the study showed that the lack of willpower is one of the main reasons why people fail to keep up with their resolutions, those who managed to stick to them don’t necessarily have a stronger willpower.

According to Wiseman’s interview with the Guardian, “many of the most successful techniques involve making a plan and helping yourself stick to it.” Click Here to Read More…

Five months ago, my partner Mike and I were offered jobs as English teachers in a school in China. Excitedly, we moved everything we owned into storage, organized our passports and visas, said farewell to our loved ones, and left our home in Melbourne within a month, not to be home again for a year.

We had just started to settle in to our new home in Daqing, in the Heilongjiang province of northern China, when the unthinkable happened: I got fired.

I still don’t know exactly how it happened, but the principal had hired both of us to replace only one teacher. When he realized his mistake, he decided to just fire me. No explanation, no apology for inviting me to pack up my whole life and move to the other side of the world and then firing me after a month–not even the decency to pay me for the work I did.

Nothing.

To make matters worse, they withheld our passports after they’d been processed so that we couldn’t leave the city. We had to get the police involved in order to get them back.

This was a very confusing time for us. We didn’t know whether to stay in China for the rest of our year or just go home. But Mike still had a job with the school, and I knew that I would be giving up if we went home after only one month, so we decided stay. Click Here to Read More…

by Bobbi French

“The saddest summary of life contains three descriptions: could have, might have, and should have.” ~Unknown

This is a phrase that had become a central theme in my life. One night, during one of my all too frequent bouts of insomnia, I sat at my computer and decided to write about my discontent, my middle aged angst.

I have no idea where the words came from but once I typed the first sentence it was like a river overflowing its banks. Turns out, this was the key, the cure for my crisis. Yes, I am 42 and a walking cliché, a woman on the edge, a burned out physician whose career has become all consuming.

I have always been an artist at heart. Nothing moves me more than music, art, books, anything that is the product of the creative process. I actually had dreams of being a theatre performer. But for whatever reason I never believed I had enough talent.

No, my lot in life was passionate bystander. So of course I went to medical school. This was a perfect way to please my parents, to defend against financial insecurity, to prove to anyone in doubt that I was indeed intelligent and successful.

See, the thing is I took a path that seemed right at the time—and who wouldn’t want a career chosen by a 17 year old kid?! I followed all the rules. I listened to my parents; I behaved myself and embarked on a life that was clearly meant for someone else. Click Here to Read More…

by Sonya Derian

“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” ~Lao Tzu

Ever since my birthday in December, I’ve been changing things up. I think it’s good once in a while to take inventory and make new decisions.

You don’t always have to analyze why you decided to do something, or where you went wrong, or where it all started. Sometimes, you can just stand where you are, decide you want something different and then do something about it.

I realized in doing this, even though change can be scary, it can sometimes feel downright refreshing!

The thing we sometimes don’t realize is how in charge of our lives we really are. We think change has to come from the outside—that we have to be the recipients of change. Something needs to happen to us before do something about it.

You have to lose weight because your blood pressure is too high. You have to look for a new job because you got laid off. You have to move because your job requires it.

But what if you initiated the change in your life because it was simply time? Click Here to Read More…

by Lori Deschene

“To get something you never had, you have to do something you’ve never done.” ~Unknown

Maybe you feel stuck. Or bored. Or frustrated. It’s not that you don’t like the life you live, it’s just that you suspect there’s something more. Some greater sense of meaning or excitement. New connections. New adventures. New possibilities.

The truth is those possibilities are always within your reach. You may not be able to quit your job or develop new skills by osmosis; but every day contains within it countless opportunities, all dictated by the choices you make.

Some of those choices may seem inconsequential when you face them. They’re the little things, after all. Why not do it how you usually do? Why not stay in your comfort zone when it’s just so comfortable there?

Do it for the possibility. The possibility that if you make one minor change you may set the stage for major fulfillment. Sometimes even the smallest shift in thinking or doing can create the biggest opportunity. Here’s how to get started: Click Here to Read More…

by Melissa Kirk

“It is better to travel well than to arrive.” ~Buddha

I have this thing about road trips. I love them, can’t get enough of them. I could never step on another airplane for as long as I live and be perfectly fine with that—but I love having all the experiences that can only happen on the road.

Like my mom and I sleeping in our car in the parking lot of a closed motel on our way to Sedona, Arizona. We foolishly decided to forego the hotel strip outside of Phoenix and look for something more “quaint” – until, at 3 am, we realized we were in the middle of nowhere and the quaintest thing around were saguaro cactuses.

There’s something wonderful about having the experience of arriving somewhere understanding exactly what it took to get there; understanding the land, the people, the culture, and the weather in a way you can’t experience flying.

There’s also something about exploring the winding roads of my own country that intrigues me. The small differences and similarities are fascinating – driving from Tahoe City and ending up, after 3 hours on the road, in a tiny, one-horse town in Nevada eating BBQ and drinking beer with cowboys—these experiences keep the mind fresh and life interesting. Click Here to Read More…

by Alexa Hart

Last year, I graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a major in Communication Studies and a minor in Business Writing. During my college career, I created public relations material for both my Business Writing minor and the public relations firm where I interned. As I thoroughly enjoyed my minor and the internship, I decided to apply to more PR positions.

About a month into the job search, I was hired to work at a reputable public relations firm. Excited to start the next chapter of my life, I thought I had it all – a new apartment in San Francisco, great roommates, new friends and a stable job. Wow! This was the real deal. However, the excitement of my first “real” job quickly wore off. Although I may have enjoyed my experiences in college, I failed to ask myself an important question: Was I really passionate about agency PR?

As much as I loved San Francisco and the new friends I was making, I discovered that PR didn’t give me a sense of fulfillment. I got no thrill from bouncing around client accounts doing tasks like monitoring media coverage, drafting pitches, researching speaking opportunities and reading about client competition. I couldn’t spend my days working in an office doing something that didn’t make me tick. Thus, I quickly realized that in order to be happy, I needed to make a change. Click Here to Read More…

by Nadia Ballas-Ruta

“Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is.” ~H. Jackson Browne

When I was fifteen, I “died” for about a minute or so and then came back to life.  A very severe case of bronchitis that lasted for over a week caused my brush with death. What complicated the situation was my allergic reaction to one type of medicine.

I had what’s known as a near death experience, and it was typical of all other near death experiences. There was bright light, lots of love and a huge reluctance to come back. I tried to negotiate with the dude in charge about letting me stay but he told me I was still needed and that my time was not up. He told me a few more things about my life, things that were too private to share. Interestingly enough, they all came true.

The last thing I remember before coming back was that I saw my body in bed, and I remember thinking that I looked so peaceful. It was kind of weird to see myself from the ceiling of my bedroom and to watch what was happening as if it were happening to someone else. I then opened my eyes; and life as I knew it was never the same.

Prior to this experience, I didn’t have much awareness of death. I knew that it existed but it didn’t seem like it would happen to me any time soon. It was like a distant relative that I knew I would meet in the future—which was many years away.

My childhood was bad for a variety of reasons. When I was born, I had a defect that made my head look like it was on crooked. Kids made fun of me daily. When I was nine, the defect was corrected but the scars of the pain remained. To complicate matters even more I was the first ethnic kid in a neighborhood where racism was rampant.

As a result, I didn’t like going to school. I went through most of my days complaining or lamenting about how miserable things were. When I first got the case of bronchitis that practically killed me, I was happy because it meant that I could stay home from school. Click Here to Read More…

by Michael Reeves

“I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures.” ~Lao Tzu

In March 2009, I purchased a return ticket from Melbourne, Australia, to Osaka, Japan—my first overseas adventure. My first solo adventure. For the five months prior, I was completely stressed. I’d never been alone like this before, and wasn’t sure how I’d handle it. The outcome surprised me: I grew far wiser and more spiritual than I could have possibly anticipated.

As a 22 year old Buddhist, I see myself as very calm and relaxed. I seldom stress or worry. But this trip was one thing that threatened my calm. I found solace in reading A New Earth—a magnificently written book—as well as reading the numerous Tiny Buddha quotes. When it was time to board my flight, I was mildly panicky, and even made myself sick. I didn’t want to fly, but I forced myself, for there was no turning back.

The flight was long, and I constantly checked the time. Nine hours later, I had arrived in Japan.

At first, I was thrilled. However, my exceedingly cheap hotel was located in the homeless district. It was late evening, so I couldn’t tell which direction was which. I had to find my hotel before the curfew, or else I’d be spending the night on the streets with countless other homeless people. I eventually found someone who pointed me in the right direction, and I was saved for the evening.

Over the course of the next few days, I explored the area. Despite being on the biggest adventure of my life, I felt little depressed and homesick. I was desperate to meet some fellow Westerners, but I couldn’t find anyone. I was in a sad mental state—complaining, and ruining my adventure.

Until I found myself. Click Here to Read More…