“If you correct your mind, the rest of your life will fall into place.” ~Lao Tzu
I spent a lot of time in my life being angry. At one point I hated everything and almost everyone. I had a saying for a while: “God, I hate people.” I hated the people driving in front of me on the way to the store, then in the parking lot of the store, then inside the store.
I hated my job. I used to love my job. It’s what I chose to do, what I went to school …
“Give thanks for a little and you will find a lot” ~Hausa Proverb
In my early, dark days of first acquiring a disability, I didn’t feel I had an awful lot to be thankful for.
It was like I had spent my whole life getting to the point where I had a thriving holistic therapy practice I loved, an amazing social life with great friends, and my beautiful dog, who I would regularly take into the country for long walks and my adrenaline pumping exercise routine.
Life was perfect. I had so much to be grateful for, but then it …
“Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it.” ~Eckhart Tolle
I wake up. I take a look outside.
I take a breath in and just appreciate where this dream has taken me.
I want to be a ninja.
Yeah, it sounds a little strange.
Probably even weirder when I tell you I have a Master’s degree in education, am a former teacher, and I’m about to turn thirty.
You could call it a quarter life crisis, assuming I’ll live to be 120.
But I prefer to call it …
“Never let lack of money interfere with having fun.” ~Unknown
Back when we were young we may have asked our parents for money to do things, but more often than not we found creative ways to have fun without spending a dime.
At least I know I did.
My cousins and I turned their bulkhead cellar doors into a slide—and the main attraction of our DIY amusement park.
We turned cardboard paper towel rolls and rice-filled soda bottles into instruments, and entertained ourselves for hours on end. Okay, maybe not hours, but you get the point.
We didn’t wait …
“He who doesn’t fear death only dies once.” ~Giovanni Falcone
“None of us get out of here alive…” My sweet friend spoke those words, a few months before she lost her battle with Stage IV Brain Cancer at the tender age of 33.
She had a sense of humor, always, and even in the midst of her intense radiation treatments, was able to make light of a fact that is so obviously true—yet is so inherently avoided by Western culture.
Standing by my friend during her battle with cancer was the very first time in my life that I experienced …
“What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it.” ~Unknown
During the first week of July 2012, a storm left my little town and nearly one million other people in the Mid-Atlantic Region without electricity. The outage lasted eight days for Buffalo, Ohio, and we saw triple digits (F) each day.
I spent much of my free time in a hammock practicing my watching skills. I watched as I breathed in. I watched as I breathed out.
I watched thoughts pop up out of nowhere as I watched the leaves of two …
“If it’s not fun, you’re not doing it right.” ~Bob Basso
Every morning my daughter and I go for a twenty-minute walk to my workplace. For me, in those twenty minutes, I’m in transit. For my toddler, it’s nothing less than a parade of flowers, fire trucks, pebbles, and friendly folk.
I walk alongside her, engrossed in my thoughts of concern that her bouncing body might fall down the stairs, or jump onto incoming traffic.
One morning, I noticed that a sweet old man, amused by my toddler, was watching her with a smile on his face. As we crossed …
“To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did.” ~Unknown
We’ve been taught that being negative means being realistic, and being optimistic means being unrealistic. We’ve been led to believe that you are “too old” or it is “too late” to follow your dreams. We’ve been taught to associate the feeling of doubt with failure.
It’s time to bust these myths!
We need to know, and let it be known, that doubt is just a feeling that comes to us when we are about to step out of our comfort zone.
We are all familiar …
“There is no need to reach high for the stars. They are already within you. Just reach deep into yourself!” ~Unknown
I spent years searching for joy. For a long time, I thought that if I did the same things I saw in movies and on TV, I’d become a joyful person.
I also learned from my environment that I’d be happy when I acquired enough material abundance.
I got the toys I wanted and waited for joy to happen. I hoped that a new bicycle, new skis, a new TV in my room, and brand new Nikes would give …
“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” ~Robert Brault
I believe life is in the details. Ongoing small gestures can mean so much more than one grand display of love. Simple pleasures throughout the day can be far more gratifying that one amazing weekend. When you connect the dots between all these little joys, life seems fuller and more satisfying.
I’ve created a list of all the little things that fill me with bliss. Here’s what I’ve got so far:
1. Breakfast in bed. You don’t need someone to …
“If it’s not fun, you’re not doing it right.” ~Bob Basso
I spend a lot of time contemplating and philosophizing about life. According to my mother, I spent the first year of my life silently observing the events around me with a serious stare and a furrowed brow.
I’ve always leaned toward reverent acts of self-discovery and introspection. In high school I studied Buddhist texts and on Sunday mornings. At age eighteen, when my college classmates were nursing hangovers, I was shopping around for a spiritual home, which I found in the form of my Unitarian-Universalist church.
For most of …
“Count your joys instead of your woes. Count your friends instead of your foes.” ~Irish Proverb
I’ve always believed that happiness is a choice. I thought that I was the only one who could truly make me happy.
That was before my life disintegrated before my very own eyes.
My husband and I built a business together. For four years we poured blood, sweat, and tears into it. We lived and breathed it. Before we knew it, and a lot sooner than you would probably imagine, it had consumed us.
I felt like it had eaten me alive. I …
“Maybe the key to happiness is to focus less on making moments last and more on making them count.” ~Lori Deschene
Over the years, I have had my fair share of trials, many having to do with being bipolar and having OCD and ADD.
These illnesses combined have made for a rough go. One day I might feel spontaneous and want to take a trip to Disney World, the next day I may want to end it all.
Going back and forth with happiness and despair is an emotionally draining process. Knowing that it’s all in my mind is the …
“If we look at the world with a love of life, the world will reveal its beauty to us.” ~Daisaku Ikeda
If you asked an eight-year-old version of me to list all the things I loved, it might have looked something like this:
In fact, I’m sure I could have created an inventory longer than my usual Christmas list, including a ton of things that either tasted, felt, or looked good.
It didn’t occur to me until later in life that some of the best things are …
“Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.” ~Dalai Lama
I have recently come face to face with mortality—not my own, my friend’s. At only thirty-seven, Daniel left behind an army of people whose lives he had touched in some way, including my own.
At thirty-three I have just qualified as a psychotherapist and hypnotherapist. At the time Daniel passed away I was working as a human resources manager, a profession I had originally trained in and remained in for over ten years.
A number of factors and events led me to make the leap and …
“Begin at once to live and count each separate day as a separate life.” ~Seneca
“Where do you envision yourself in five years?”
This is a common interview question. Managers like to find employees who set goals for themselves. They think it is a sign of a person who is motivated and wants to get ahead in life.
I used to believe this too. I constantly badgered myself, “You should be further along in your career.” “Everyone else your age is in management positions, why aren’t you?” “Maybe I should get an MA so I can get a better job …
“Kites rise highest against the wind, not with it.” ~Winston Churchill
A little over two years ago, I wrote these hopeless words in my journal:
“All around me, I’m noticing people perpetuate patterns they claim to hate or end up in situations they’ve always dreaded. And I can’t seem to break free. When I take steps to make a new life or forge a new path, barriers pop up left and right. I don’t know what to do differently.”
At the time, it felt as if my repeated attempts at changing the trajectory of my life toward joy and expansion …
“There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept responsibility for changing them.” ~Denis Waitley
Even though I am just 20, I’ve always been one of those people who is constantly waiting for my life to start. “When I’m older I’ll do this” and “In a few years I’ll do that.”
My Dad took his own life when I was very young. Due to my age and the fact my family struggled so much with the loss, I grew up thinking he died of natural causes and learned the truth by accident when I …
“Turn your face toward the sun and the shadows will fall behind you.” ~Māori Proverb
Imagine a graph showing the number of hours the average person spends out of doors today compared with 50 years ago. Imagine another graph showing how many people suffer from depression, stress, and anxiety compared to 50 years ago.
I’m confident that there would be a direct correlation between the two graphs; as one has declined the other has risen.
As we’ve turned our backs on nature we’ve lost our natural source of happiness. By turning our faces back toward the sun we find lasting …
Update: The winners for this giveaway have already been chosen. Subscribe to Tiny Buddha to receive free daily or weekly emails and to learn about future giveaways!
The Winners:
Have you ever felt like the present moment is passing you by while you’re caught up worrying, analyzing, planning, and trying to protect yourself from pain and loss?
It’s one the pitfalls of the human condition: we often paralyze ourselves in the pursuit of happiness and abundance, and in the process, miss out on the joy right in front of us.
Shyalpa Tenzin Rinpoche has devoted his life to …
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