More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Science has proven that happiness is a choice. It depends on what we choose to focus on. Choose happiness. Choose to focus on all the good things that surround you. Smile a lot. Be thankful for what you have in your life. Meditate for five minutes a day. Exercise for 30 minutes three times a week. These are the scientifically proven exercises that will make you happier if you do them over a period of time.
No person or circumstance can make you happy. Only YOU can make you happy.
‘Life is 10 per cent what happens to you and 90 per cent what YOU do with what happens to you.’
One of the phrases attributed to Buddha, and widely repeated in social networks, tells us that ‘pain is inevitable, while suffering is optional.’
The connection that meditation provides is not only the best balm for pain, but it allows you to experience suffering without so much anxiety or added bitterness.
The ‘poison’ that clouds genuine suffering is called guilt, arrogance, or denial of our inherent vulnerability.
Remember that if you resist, it persists; if you accept, you transform.
The secret lies in not being carried away by inertia, by attitudes and beliefs that we are not even aware of, and which undermine our morale. When we have an open attitude, with our own stimulating and well-established beliefs, our mood cannot be other than the right one.
Remember: what we avoid grows, and only what we accept is transformed.
Gratitude, kindness, acceptance, and authenticity are the sum of four interlinked successes to which we all have access.
Being authentic implies knowing oneself well, knowing one’s strengths and weaknesses, nurturing the former, and tempering or recycling the latter in favor of humility and the search for support.
Taking full responsibility for what concerns us and accepting what does not belong to us prevents the breakdown.
Distinguishing small setbacks from obstacles, adversities, or even particular dramas will allow us to face the occasional tragedies that may happen to us or happen to our loved ones with greater strength. Raising the level of our pain threshold makes us less ‘whiny’ and wiser. Lowering our threshold of satisfaction makes us happier and more empathetic.
Perfectionism forgets that without error there is no innovation, and without innovation, there is no evolution or improvement. ‘Done is better than perfect,’ as Mark Zuckerberg says, and he knows all about it.
Arrogance prevents you from enjoying life and become yourself. ‘As soon as you start to feel important, you become less creative,’ states Mick Jagger. Relativism makes doubt grow, which is the main trap that can embitter our lives. It’s better to make a mistake than to laugh
Eternal procrastination leads us to lose all options. We lose all our energy in maintaining the ‘pending issue’ without actually ever knowing if it would have worked had it been approached with full conviction.
Everything is one, just like inhalation and exhalation are an inseparable part of breathing. Joy and sadness, courage and fear, anger and calm, fullness and emptiness are all expressions of life.
