Ten Keys to Happiness
by Deepak Chopra, M.D.
Many of us have benefitted from the lessons toward full and healthy
living Deepak Chopra, M.D. offers in his books Creating Health,
Quantum Healing, Perfect Health, and Unconditional Life.
Challenging us to release assumptions of limitation and
deterioration, he has lighted the path of optimal wellness and
healthy passion for life. Dr. Chopra ia an internationally respected
medical physician, former professor at Tufts University and Boston
University Schools of Medicine, and chief of staff at the New
England Memorial Hospital, who has integrated the ancient and
long-proven wisdom of Ayurvedic Medicine into his
transformational teachings. In his new book, Ageless Body,
Timeless Mind, Chopra lights the path from further ahead, where
disease and aging and the deterioration of our environment are no
longer inevitable. Holding the light, he invites us to follow, to
release the debilitating practices of judgement, attachment, and lack
of care, and to enter a greater awareness of the wholeness of life.
Synthesizing these teachings into a list of ten keys, Dr. Chopra
offers us a simple map of principles in Ageless Body, Timeless
Mind. In anticipation of his upcoming visit to our region, we would
like to share these with WorldWide Wellness' readers.
1. Listen to your body's wisdom, which expresses
itself through signals of comfort and discomfort. When
choosing a certain behavior, ask your body, "How do you feel
about this?" If your body sends a signal of physical or emotional
distress, watch out. If your body sends a signal of comfort and
eagerness, proceed.
2. Live in the present, for it is the only moment you
have. Keep your attention on what is here and now; look, for the
fullness in every moment. Accept what comes to you totally and
completely so that you can appreciate it, learn from it, and then let
it go. The present is as it should be. It reflects infinite laws of
Nature that have brought you this exact thought, this exact
physical response. This moment is as it is because the universe is
as it is. Don't struggle against the infinite scheme of things;
instead, be at one with it.
3. Take time to be silent, to meditate, to quiet the
internal dialogue. In moments of silence, realize that you are
recontacting your source of pure awareness. Pay attention to your
inner life so that you can be guided by intuition rather than
externally imposed interpretations of what is or isn't good for
you.
4. Relinquish your need for external approval. You
alone are the judge of your worth; and your goal is to discover
infinite worth in yourself, no matter what anyone else thinks.
There is great freedom in this realization.
5. When you find yourself reacting with anger or
opposition to any person or circumstance, realize that
you are only struggling with yourself. Putting up
resistance is the response of defenses created by old hurts. When
you relinquish this anger, you will be healing yourself and
cooperating with the flow of the universe.
6. Know that the world "out there" reflects your
reality "in here." The people you react to most strongly,
whether with love or hate, are projections of your inner world.
What you most hate is what you most deny in yourself. What you
most love is what you most wish for in yourself. Use the mirror
of relationships to guide your evolution. The goal is total
self-knowledge. When you achieve that, what you most want will
automatically be there, and what you most dislike will disappear.
7. Shed the burden of judgment--you will feel much
lighter. Judgement imposes right and wrong on situations that
just are. Everything can be understood and forgiven, but when
you jugde, you cut off understanding and shut down the process
of learning to love. In judging others, you reflect your lack of
self-acceptance. Remember that every person you forgive adds to
your self-love.
8. Don't contaminate your body with toxins, either
food, drink, or toxic emotions. Your body is more than a
life-support system. It is the vehicle that will carry you on the
journey of your evolution. The health of every cell directly
contributes to your state of well-being, because every cell is a
point of awareness within the field of awareness that is you.
9. Replace fear-motivated behavior with
love-motivated behavior. Fear is the product of memory,
which dwells in the past. Remembering what hurt us before, we
direct our energies toward making certain that an old hurt will not
repeat itself. But trying to impose the past on the present will
never wipe out the threat of being hurt. That happens only when
you find the security of your own being, which is love. Motivate
by the truth inside you, you can face any threat because your
inner strength is invulnerable to fear.
10. Understand that the physical world is just a mirror
of a deeper intelligence. Intelligence is the invisible organizer
of all matter and energy, and since a portion of this intelligence
resides in you, you share in the organizing power of the cosmos.
Because you are inseparably linked to everything, you cannot
afford to foul the planet's air and water. But at a deeper level, you
cannot afford to live with a toxic mind, because every thought
makes an impression on the whole field of intelligence. Living in
balance and purity is the highest good for you and the Earth.
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