The key to happiness, Part -2

Excerpt from the art of effortless living by – Ingrid Houston PH.D

The drug addict takes drugs to change his internal state, to get rid of pain, anger, anxiety, anger, and feel more pleasure, more freedom, more joy. Like everyone, he wants to find happiness and release from the pain. But he has a low criterion of success and is prevented from learning and growing.

The addict is also dependent on something external for changing his internal state, which produces short-term satisfaction that leads to a long-term disaster. He does not meet his real needs that have to do more with feeling safe in the universe than with feeling high. Imagine the extreme opposite of a drug addict, the Tibetan monk, who wraps himself in wet sheets and sits in sub-zero temperatures in the Himalayan mountains. He practices an intense inner discipline by training himself to heat his body with his mind.

There is a similarity between the monk and the addict, both of them are working on how they feel on the inside but the monk is looking at doing the same thing from the inside out and what is outside of him does not matter to him. He is using an adverse external circumstance to develop an internal skill. Instead of changing from the outside, he changes from the inside.

The ability to maintain control of our internal states in the face of difficult circumstances, instead of being tossed to and fro by the winds of the moment, is basic to leading a fulfilling life. And there is more, inner balance is a key ingredient for meaningful external achievement. People with inner balance train their minds to be powerful allies in the pursuit of their goals.

When we focus on being instead of doing, we explore and strengthen the power of our minds. The mind is the greatest resource we have. Over time because our culture asks us to focus excessively on doing, it neglects the cultivation of our greatest resource, the internal faculties of our mind. What is more, is when we over-focus on doing, we end up achieving far less in the outside world than if we focused on being.

Just like that sleeping is also something that we need to be able to do first from the inside, by being and not forcing ourselves to an external outcome.

Start by practicing self-discipline with small habits on a daily basis and focus on getting them in order and before you know it, a good night’s sleep will come to you as an outcome of the effort you put in.

As the age-old adage says, hard days work & a good night’s sleep.