Dear loving people,
If
you asked every ten people you meet, chances are high that you would get a I
would say that what goes on inside you (in your mind) is much more important in
determining whether you're happy or miserable than any of the outer
circumstances of your life. Did I just say that? Yes of course and does what
you just read sound reasonable? Do the inner workings of your mind really have
a greater effect on you than, say, your possessions or your surroundings? After
all, big companies spend billions every year trying to convince you that the
opposite is true! In their eyes, your best shot at achieving happiness is to
buy whatever they're selling. They appeal to the "if only" mentality:
If only you drove a fancier car, lived in a bigger house, wore the best clothes
you can find in the market, and used a softer perfumed toilet paper — then
you'd be truly happy. Even if you don't believe everything advertisers tell
you, don't you believe that the external conditions of your life determine how
well off you are?
To get a picture of what I mean, consider the
following situation. Two friends of yours, call them Jovi and Joni, take a
vacation together to Zanzibar in Tanzania. They stay in the same luxurious
guesthouse, eat the same food prepared by the same master chef, and engage in
the same recreational activities. But, when they get home and tell you about
their trip, their stories sound like they vacationed in two completely
different worlds! For Jovi, Zanzibar was heaven on Earth, but for Joni, it was
pure hell. For every wonderful experience Jovi brings up, Joni tells you about
two awful ones. This situation is hypothetical, of course, but doesn't it sound
familiar? Hasn't something like this happened to you or your friends? True stories
like this scenario aren't rare, so how can you account for them?
The example (and relevant ones from your own
experience) demonstrates that the outer circumstances of your life aren't the
only factors or even the most important ones in determining whether you're
content or not. If external conditions were more important than the condition
of your mind, both Jovi and Joni would've loved Zanzibar, and no rich and
famous person would ever contemplate suicide.
The
more closely you look, the more clearly you'll see that your mental attitude is
what mainly determines the quality of your life. This is not to say, however,
that your outer circumstances count for nothing, any more than a person has to
give away all of his or her possessions to be a sincere spiritual seeker. But,
without developing your inner resources of peace and mental stability,
no amount of worldly success, whether measured in terms of wealth, fame, power,
or relationships can ever bring real satisfaction. Or, as someone once said, "Money
can't buy happiness; it can only allow you to select your particular form of
misery."
Cancer survivor Lance Armstrong says: “Real healing meant getting my mind
in shape; it meant getting my confidence and priorities in shape, too.”
Carolyn Warner adds, “I am convinced that attitude is the key
to success or failure in almost any of life’s endeavors. Your attitude, your
outlook, how you feel about yourself, how you feel about other people, determines
your priorities, your actions, your values. Your attitude determines how you
interact with other people and how you interact with yourself.”
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