I won’t lie. Sometimes, life sucks. When I went hiking in Nepal’s Himalayan Mountains, there were many very hard climbs, followed by very easy descents. This is the nature of any journey: there will be constant ups and downs. The more we understand this, the more we can enjoy the journey. Here’s the secret to facing good news and bad news without getting swept by our emotions. 

We think that it is the negative events in our life that upset us, but this is not so. It is our desire for positive events, and our aversion to negative events, that cause our suffering. It’s not unfairness that makes us unpeaceful. It’s our desire for fairness that disturbs our peace. Here’s how to be at peace despite the seemingly unfairness of life.  

If we are to stay peaceful and calm during the downs, we need to first observe how strong desire has swept us away. Desire often consumes us and we become blind to ourselves and the world around us.

We see this happen the most at airports. We’re so close to our dream vacation, we’ve worked too hard for too long, and all we can think about is a pina colada on the beach. Then, our flight is delayed or canceled. That beach is now gonna be delayed by a few hours. That’s when we see those poor ticket counter employees get abused like I’ve never seen. It’s not the flight cancelation that upsets us though, it’s the strong desire to be on that beach.

This week, I want you to keep those desires and aversions in check. It’s ok to have goals, to have plans, and to book that amazing vacation. Desire has nothing to do with what your life looks like from the outside. It’s all to do with the level of peace we have on the inside, and whether things go our way, or don’t. 

Here’s What I Want You To Do This Week:

1. Take an inventory of times you’re most frustrated, and see what underlying aversion or desire may be there.
   
   
2. Visualize how you would respond to that frustrating moment in the most ideal way. Is it patient and calm, or screaming and embarrassing? Usually, with some distance from the situation, it’s easy to see what our higher mind would do. The more we visualize, the more we will that optimal response becomes automatic.
   
   

So give that a try, keep up the assignments from week 1 and 2 until they become a habit, and great work! I love hearing from so many of you how this has already been helping. Have a great week.

Much love,

Todd

PS – If that inner voice is making your life tough, here’s how you can make it a little quieter, a little more pleasing to be with, and a little less like that guy at work who never shuts up and is always complaining.