When someone suggests something to you that conflicts with your conditioning, rather than responding with, "that’s ridiculous; we all know that’s impossible," say, "I’ve never considered that before. I’ll think about it." Open yourself up to the spiritual ideas of all people, and listen with an open mind to crazy schemes and ideas that at first seem to be outrageous. If someone suggests that crystals can cure haemorrhoids, that natural herbs can lower cholesterol, that people will eventually be able to breathe underwater, or that levitation is possible – listen, and be curious.

Release attachments
Let go of your attachments to what you’ve been trained to believe. Open your mind to all possibilities, because whether you believe something is possible or impossible, either way you’ll be right. How can that be true? Your agreement with reality and all that’s possible determines what you’ll become. If you’re convinced that you can’t become wealthy, famous, artistic, a professional athlete, a great singer, or whatever, you will act upon that inner conviction that prevents you from manifesting what you’d really like. All that you’ll get from your effort is being right. When you need to be right, you’re attached to your conditioned reflex of the way things are and always have been; and you assume they will always be.

A mind that is open to everything, and a mind that is attached to nothing. Your attachments are the source of all your problems. The need to be right, to possess someone or something, to win at all costs, to be viewed by others as superior – these are all attachments. The open mind resists these attachments and consequently experiences inner peace and success.

To release attachments, you have to make a shift in how you view yourself. If your primary identification is with your body and your possessions, your ego is the dominant force in your life. If you can tame your ego sufficiently, you’ll call upon your spirit to be the guiding force in your life. As a spiritual being you can observe your body and be a compassionate witness to your existence. Your spiritual aspect sees the folly of attachments because your spiritual self is an infinite soul.

It’s possible to have a burning desire yet not have attachments. You can have an inner vision of what you intend to manifest and still detach yourself from the outcome. How?

Consider this observation in A Course in Miracles, "Infinite patience produces immediate results." It sounds like a paradox, doesn’t it? Infinite patience implies an absolute certainty that what you’d like to manifest will indeed show up, in perfect order, and exactly on time. The immediate result you receive from this inner knowing is a sense of peace. When you detach from the outcome, you’re at peace and you’ll ultimately see the fruits of your convictions…. This is an open mind – and an absence of attachment.

12 Ways to Lighten Up!

Approaching your life with a non-serious attitude gives you a clearheaded view of difficulties and the energy to deal with them. Problems are easier to solve, people are more cooperative and you feel more relaxed. You probably live longer, as well.
Try these ideas until you find one that lightens you up.
1. Deliberately turn a molehill into a mountain. Make a big deal out of a little problem. "I would feel much better if these papers were stacked exactly like this! Not like that! Like this! Not this! This!"
2. Ask yourself, "Is getting serious about this situation really going to improve it?"
3. Focusing on the positives. "What is right about this situation?" "What else is right?" "What else?"
4. Consider a complete, major change. For example, go back to school, move to the ocean, start a new career.
5. Ask yourself, "When I’m on my deathbed, will I be glad I was so serious about _______?"
6. A challenging game is much better than no game at all. So consider losing all aspects of the problem. Examples: You feel serious about family problems. You ask yourself, "Well, what if I had no family at all?" You feel serious about your investments. You ask yourself, "What if I had no money to invest?"
7. The size of your problem may match the size of your game. So get a bigger game. For example, if you get uptight about paper clips being in the wrong drawer, your game size is tiny. Double your amount of responsibility. Set some huge goals. Succeed by thinking much, much bigger.
8. Stop trying to solve the problem that is making you so serious. Certain types of problems solve themselves if you leave them alone. Your problem may be one of those.
9. Compare what you are doing to other careers. Imagine being a septic tank drainer or a tax collector.
10. Make everyone around you lighten up. Share a funny story that makes fun of you. Tell some clean jokes.
11. Look at bizarre solutions. What is the craziest way you could solve your problem? What solution, if it worked, would make you laugh out loud?
12. Act stupid for a minute. Let down your hair. Stop being so darn important for a while. Be a goof!

Provided by TipsForSuccess.org as a public service to introduce the technology of L. Ron Hubbard to you.

Copyright © 2011 TipsForSuccess.org. All rights reserved. Grateful acknowledgment is made to L. Ron Hubbard Library for permission to reproduce selections from the copyrighted works of L. Ron Hubbard.

Happiness can be self-controlled and boosted through certain practices, claim researchers.

Earlier, scientists had suggested happiness is primarily determined by genetics, health and other factors mostly outside of our control, reports the China Daily .

Psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky of the University of California, Riverside, said: "The billion-dollar question is, is it possible to become happier?"

5. Commit acts of kindness – Helping others also helps ourselves. People who donate time or money to charity, or who altruistically assist people in need, report improvements in their own happiness.

No two human beings can think or act in exactly the same way. All men or women act the way they do because God within them prompts them that way. Mind your own business and you will keep your peace.

2. Forgive And Forget:

This is the most powerful aid to peace of mind. We often develop ill feelings inside our heart for the person who insults us or harms us. We nurture grievances. This in turn results in loss of sleep, development of stomach ulcers, and high blood pressure. This insult or injury was done once, but nourishing of grievance goes on forever by constantly remembering it. Get over this bad habit. Life is too short to waste in such trifles. Forgive,20Forget, and march on. Love flourishes in giving and forgiving.

3. Do Not Crave For Recognition:

This world is full of selfish people. They seldom praise anybody without selfish motives. They may praise you today because you are in power, but no sooner than you are powerless, they will forget your achievement and will start finding faults in you. Why do you wish to kill yourself in striving for their recognition? Their recognition is not worth the aggravation. Do your duties ethically and sincerely.

4. Do Not Be Jealous:

We all have experienced how jealousy can disturb our peace of mind. You know that you work harder than your colleagues in the office, but sometimes they get promotions; you do not. You started a business several years ago, but you are not as successful as your neighbor whose business is only one year old. There are several examples like these in everyday life. Should you be jealous? No.

Remember everybody’s life is shaped by his/her destiny, which has now become his/her reality. If you are destined to be rich, nothing in the world can stop you. If you are not so destined, no one can help you either. Nothing will be gained by blaming others for your misfortune. Jealousy will not get you anywhere; it will only take away your peace of mind.

5. Change Yourself According To The Environment:

If you try to change the environment single-handedly, the chances are you will fail. Instead, change yourself to suit your environment. As you do this, even the environment, which has been unfriendly to you, will mysteriously change and seem congenial and harmonious.

6. Endure What Cannot Be Cured:

This is the best way to turn a disadvantage into an advantage. Every day we face numerous inconveniences, ailments, irritations, and accidents that are beyond our control. If we cannot control them or change them, we must learn to put up with these things. We must learn to endure them cheerfully. Believe in yourself and you will gain in terms of patience, inner strength and will power.

7. Do Not Bite Off More Than You Can Chew:

This maxim needs to be remembered constantly. We often tend to take more responsibilities than we are capable of carrying out. This is done to satisfy our ego. Know your limitations. . Why take on additional loads that may create more worries? You cannot gain peace of mind by expanding your external activities. Reduce your material engagements and spend time in prayer, introspection and meditation. This will reduce those thoughts in your mind that make you restless. Uncluttered mind will produce greater peace of mind.

8. Meditate Regularly:

Meditation calms the mind and gets rid of disturbing thoughts. This is the highest state of peace of mind. Try and experience it yourself. If you meditate earnestly for half an hour everyday, your mind will tend to become peaceful during the remaining twenty-three and half-hours. Your mind will not be easily disturbed as it was before.

You would benefit by gradually increasing the period of daily meditation. You may think that this will interfere with your daily work. On the contrary, this will increase your efficiency and you will be able to produce better results in less time.

9. Never Leave The Mind Vacant:

An empty mind is the devil’s workshop. All evil actions start in the vacant mind. Keep your mind occupied in something positive, something worthwhile. Actively follow a hobby. Do something that holds your interest. You must decide what you value more: money or peace of mind. Your hobby, like social work or religious work, may not always earn you more money, but you will have a sense of fulfillment and achievement. Even when you are resting physically, occupy yourself in healthy reading or mental chanting of God’s name.

10. Do Not Procrastinate And Never Regret:

Do not waste time in protracted wondering " Should I or shouldn’t I?" Days, weeks, months, and years may be wasted in that futile mental debating. You can never plan enough because you can never anticipate all future happenings. Value your time and do the things that need to be done.

It does not matter if you fail the first time. You can learn from your mistakes and succeed the next time. Sitting back and worrying will lead to nothing. Learn from your mistakes, but do not brood over the past. DO NOT REGRET. Whatever happened was destined to happen only that way. Why cry over spilt milk?.

We are so engrossed in the letters that we forget the paper. The enlightened sees the paper as the substratum whether the letters appear on it or not.

An exponent of the path of Self-enquiry or Atma-vichara , Ramana Maharshi was convinced that a spiritual seeker could attain Self-realisation by constantly reflecting on the question ‘Who am I?’ and tracing the `i-am-the-body’ thought (ego) to its source through deep meditation.

In deep sleep there are no perceptions. Yet, the ego was present because otherwise, there cannot be the memory of having slept. He asked: “Who slept? You did not say in your sleep that you slept; you say it in your wakeful state. So the ego is the same in wakefulness, dream and sleep. Find out the underlying Reality behind these states. There is no you, nor I, nor he; nor present, nor past, nor future. It is beyond time and space, beyond expression.”

The deep sleep state is devoid of body-consciousness but in the waking state the ‘I-am-the-body’ thought is predominant; hence the external world is perceived. Yet the fact remains that there is no change in the one who slept and the one who is now awake. The difference between waking and deep sleep lies in the emergence of body-consciousness and that no change occurs in pure consciousness that abides in eternity. And since the body is experienced in one state (waking) but not in the other (deep sleep), one can say that it arose at some particular moment and that it has both an origin and an end.

The Self, on the other hand, is the Eternal Consciousness which both pre-exists and survives the body. There is the continuity of the Being, the Eternal Self, in all the three states while the body and the worlds that appear in the waking and dream states are ephemeral.

Both the body and body-consciousness emerge and sink simultaneously. While no limitations are experienced in deep sleep, the waking state is the state of bondage characterised by limitations. Despite being devoid of worldly possessions and body, in deep sleep an individual experiences unalloyed happiness. Maharshi says: “See how carefully people prepare their beds to gain that happiness. Soft cushions and pillows are all meant to induce sound sleep, that is to say, to end wakefulness. And yet all these are of no use in the state of deep sleep itself.” Happiness therefore does not depend upon extraneous factors; it is inherent in man.

The thought ‘The body is I’, according to Ramana Maharshi, is the fundamental error. The body does not say ‘I am’; it is the individual who says `i am the body’. Similarly, the world does not proclaim its existence; it is only the individual who says: ‘This is the world’. Since the world is not cognised in deep sleep, continuity of its existence is broken which, in effect, means that it exists only in relation to the perceiver; it has no independent existence.

The Self despite being eternal and omnipresent is not easily realised because of ignorance that falsely identifies Self with body and mind. Eradication of the false sense of ‘I’ (as `I’) through Self-enquiry is the goal of meditation. Then what remains is the pure ‘I’, the Eternal Self.

It also affirms this identity as the real self because the body is the most tangible proof of existence. We can touch, feel and react with this tangible instrument. The ego is addition of many layers of likes, dislikes, preferences and priorities to this mind-body form. The sense of separateness. Of being one of a kind. Of discreteness.

The more we endeavour to attain salvation, the sense of separateness only gets reinforced. All chemicals such as alcohol and drugs induce a state of disconnect. A fleeting disconnect with the surroundings. This disconnect is pleasurable as it blunts the sensibilities and makes the individual immune to any unpleasantness of daily living. But it also fortifies the sense of separateness. This feeling of disconnect and indifference is momentarily blissful. These chemicals are addictive because they give an illusory, fleeting glimpse of ‘spiritual’ experience similar to the state of realisation.

The so-called chemical disconnection is ‘exclusive’. In the sense that it refurbishes the sense of separateness but isolates the individual. The state of realisation, however, is inclusive. This inclusive disconnection is an all-pervading sense of oneness, in which any connection is superfluous. Connection or disconnection is relevant only in duality or an illusion of duality. Once this illusion of duality vanishes, what remains is unity. An impersonal awareness.

Realisation shifts the identification of the self from the mind-body form to just plain awareness. Like a drop of the ocean. This drop, when separate from the ocean, will become acutely aware of its independent existence. The drop can see the ocean separately and this separateness gives not only itself, but also the vast ocean a separate identity as well.

When the drop merges in the ocean it does not destroy the physicality of the drop. The drop just merges and loses its separateness. It becomes one with the ocean. Till the point of impact, it still maintains its identity, but at the moment of impact, the drop seemingly disappears. That state of merger can thereafter not be perceived, because perception was of the drop. When the drop ceases to exist, who or what is there to perceive?

The disconnect that occurs by inclusion is everlasting, beyond any time-space considerations. Compassion for all life then becomes the effect rather than any imbibed virtue. The sense of unity is not even an experience because experience implies the existence of an experienced. And we all are conditioned to believe that realisation would mean probably seeing some divine light, or hearing some soulful music or a tremendous state of happiness and so on.

The merger automatically dissolves the ego. It also liberates one from all desires and lust for sensory gratification. The body will eventually live out its destiny, but there would be no sense of doer-ship. There would be just a residual observer who transcends even joy and sorrow. The unqualified awareness celebrates a sense of ‘am-ness’ unadulterated by expectations and longing.

The intangibility and dissolution of one’s identity can scarcely be expressed by any means of communication. The final moment of oneness can be experienced only when all layers of misconception are peeled away and the real self is apperceived not as a separate identity but paradoxically the absence of any.

With the passage of time, when the pain of living has caught up with us and when the spectre of death claims more and more of the people whom we have known, loved and lived with, we begin to hope for a life that promises us an eternity of living. This hope is not the shallow kind but springs from within and is the kind of hope that endures.

Sometimes, we work for small goals, which though they may be good in themselves, do not work for our final good. Hope that endures teaches us to be patient under trials and to work towards reaching our mark in life. Sometimes, the end may not seem at all encouraging. Many we knew appeared unprepared for the end and the flame of hope seemed to have been extinguished in this earthly life.

Does this mean that we cannot hope that they have died and made their peace with God? Far from that, we learn to believe that helped on by prayers and bolstered by the prayers of others, those who were not up to the struggle in life, have at last found their home and peace in God.

True hope does not mean that we leave everything to God. We have to play our part. We learn not to pin our hopes on what can never supply our needs. We steer away from company and people who crush our confidence that could leave us in a limbo of faithlessness.

The Gospels talk about the house that was built on sand and fell down when the rains and storms set in and the house built on rock that survived the winds and the rains. The house built on sand is a symbol of all those who put their faith in the wrong place and in the wrong people. The house built on rock is a symbol of those who have true hope and place their ultimate trust in God rather than in human beings.

We all wear many hats in life. We feel fear, anxiety, resentment, greed, faithlessness and pessimism. Sometimes we feel hope, contentment and love. We can pass down these feelings to others and either perpetuate the influence of the negative in our lives and those of others or pass down feelings of hope, peace and joy and create an environment of trust for others to follow.

Many demands are made on our time and resources. Speed is the prerequisite for many tasks and jobs that we are required to do. We hope for results that are predicated on deadlines. We work like lightening, sometimes at the cost of excellence. We have to learn patience because patience creates results that endure.

We are now more than ever conscious that we live in one world, sharing common goals, hopes and anxieties. With the instant media, we are brought into relationship with each other and there is a bonding of all across continents as people belonging to one human race.

While there is much disappointment, there is also much to be happy about. We reach a stage in our lives when we begin to pin our hopes on God and not on social approval or disapproval. The God of Hope never lets us down. To those who have been His faithful servants, he promises an eternity of hope resting in Him, in whom we move and have our being.

Every sunrise, sunset, the changing of seasons, the tides of the sea and the history of Mother Earth are all lessons in hope. In them we see God’s faithful love for us, His people. Keep on hoping then, through every circumstance, doubt and calamity.

How to free yourself from the grip of storms? This is the only basic problem in this universe. The first thing is to become aware of it and stop regretting it. Like waves come and go, storms in your life too will subside. No one storm can be there for ever. One storm comes and subsides, another comes and subsides and it goes on. As the storm subsides, you experience that inner cool, soft, delicate aspect of yourself. In that space of calm, all the anxiety, fear, feverishness lose their grip on you and you become yourself again. Love dawns.

When you stop resisting the storms of life and start accepting them with open arms, they will subside on their own. That is the purpose of all spiritual practices or sadhana and meditation. When you realise that somebody really cares for you, you feel at rest and all fears and insecurities drop off.

You keep running away from small things – your feelings, sensations, desires ^ and this leads to more feverishness. Realise that like the ocean cannot be there without the waves, storms are inevitable in your life. Every storm touches you somewhere and makes you grow stronger. A storm pulls you out of your likes and dislikes and purifies you. So accept all that comes with both arms open. This is crucifixion. If you say you cannot take them, you are resisting and that leads to more storms in your life.

You are much bigger than all the waves and commotions. They all rise within you and they can in no way destroy you. So, let them be. Even when the storms come, you are still the same ocean, as deep as ever.

This realisation is the culmination of knowledge. When this knowledge dawns, you rise above events; you grow out of them. Everybody in the world goes through crisis, insecurities, confusions. It’s like drowning in the ocean of life. But the person with the life jacket can survive even the worse turmoil. So keep your life jacket of knowledge handy. Being immortal means looking at your infinite nature. That is why the saying, “Die before your death.”

Just observe yourself in a bigger perspective. In the ocean of your life, many waves are rising and dissolving. All the waves that you see are your own forms. It’s like watching wrestling on television and imagining that both wrestlers are you. In life, you act in many forms, sometimes completely opposite. Every name and form that is given in this ocean is part of the consciousness.

Do not be in a hurry to get rid of the storms, be with them. Looking for perfection creates imperfection inside you. If you are peaceful, everything around you becomes peaceful. You are the centre of this universe. Wherever you go, you carry your own mind, and wherever you go, you will create your own storms. It may appear to be calm and quiet for sometime but the storm will surface sooner or later. Unless you realise this, nothing will hold. There is no other permanent solution. Don’t resist the storms, instead see them as an amazing play of your personality.

(Excerpted from a commentary on the Ashtavakra Gita.)