“Balance is created by equal forces pressing in on an object.”
This is well known in yoga where we practice balancing our bodies.
So what can we learn from our bodies?
Often, we try to find our balance by eliminating the pressures on our life. The demands of work, friendship, and family can all feel so heavy.
But what if all this pressure isn’t what’s throwing us off, but actually what’s holding us steady?
I’ve found the key to happiness!
It hit me like a bolt of lightening after observing other cultures while traveling through South East Asia.
Here it is:
I don’t want anything more than what I have right now. I don’t wish to be anywhere else than where I currently am.
Really internalize these thoughts. When you do, you cannot NOT be happy. When you truly believe that everything in life happens exactly as it’s supposed to (and it does), you release yourself from a desire to control and thus become free to experience joy in it’s purest form (presence and gratitude).
All that you have right now is all that you need. And you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.
“In your whole life nobody has ever abused you more than you have abused yourself. And the limit of your self-abuse is exactly the limit that you will tolerate from someone else.
If someone abuses you a little more than you abuse yourself, you will probably walk away from that person. But if someone abuses you a little less than you abuse yourself, you will probably stay in the relationship and tolerate endlessly.”
-Don Miguel Ruiz
“When we value ‘being cool’ and ‘in control’ over granting ourselves the freedom to unleash the passionate, goofy, heartfelt, and soulful expressions of who we are, we betray ourselves.
When we consistently betray ourselves, we can expect to do the same to the people we love. When we don’t give ourselves the permission to be free, we rarely tolerate freedom in others.”
-Brene Brown
As the towers came crashing down
and all the bodies crushed but found…
What used to be, no more is there.
It seems our perfect lives are so unfair.
America, America.
How beautiful and kind to me.
Tragedy unites. Our pride goes on.
Home of the brave and land of the free.
Our culture puts too much value on independence. The truth is, to be truly independent, is to be alone.
Some call this strength, but really it’s often laziness. As humans, we’re designed to need other people. To believe that you can go at this world alone is like setting your soul down on a couch, never allowing it to exercise.
See, if you spend enough time alone, it soon becomes very hard to be around other people. You begin to think that the world belongs to you- that all space is your space and all time is your time.
You become so used to being able to daydream and keep yourself company, that other people are merely an intrusion. And this is terribly unhealthy.
God doesn’t want us floating through life alone, or sitting in front of our computers. He doesn’t want our lives to play out like a movie called Independence. He wants us interacting- laughing together, praying together, eating together…
If loving other people is a bit of heaven, then surely isolation is a bit of hell. While we’re on Earth, we get to decide in which state we would like to live.
“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, ‘Wow … what a ride.’ ” 
I think I know why people are uncomfortable with stillness; being alone with the quiet of their mind.
What will my thoughts be? Will I be sad? Judgmental? Angry? Hateful? What if I am tormented by my racing mind? The inevitable underlying fear behind it all remains: Who am I?
But you are not your thoughts. Nor are you your feelings. If you can grasp this truth, you can learn to separate your self from your mind. The freedom that arises from this sort of separation will change your life. You will find that your thoughts are nothing to fear afterall. And more importantly, you will learn the healing power of stillness and the truth about how amazing you are, and have been all along.
There is no cure for hot and cold.
There is no cure for the facts of life.
If we can stop trying to escape the inevitable alternation of pleasure and pain, we can simply relax and be fully present for the wonder that is our lives.
“It is possible to move through the drama of our lives without believing so earnestly in the character that we play.” – Pema Chodron, The Places that Scare You
Vehicle of Wisdom 