Selah

It’s easy to complain about a negative situation. You may owe $3,000 to the IRS. You may have been working hard for a raise but your boss gives it to someone else who doesn’t deserve it. The love of your life is in a relationship with someone other than you. Dagger. In other words, life happens. Your brain is shackled with worry. I know of a route to a life of contentment and emotional well-being; a vaccine to this disease labeled toxic thoughts. 

Contentment

I’m not a monk. Never will be*, however, meditation is the way to contentment. Contentment slightly differs from happiness. When you are happy, you are experiencing a temporal state of mind. You experience a ‘high’ of a few seconds to a few minutes or hours but it fades away. In my own words, happiness happens. Not good as a lifestyle.

What contentment offers you that happiness doesn’t is the ability to decide what your mood is. Contentment is a choice. Freedom. It has little to do with the external world but everything to do with internal world. Internally, if you are in a good shape then whatever happens externally, you will still be in a good state of mind. Great as a lifestyle. Now, how can we be in good shape?

Meditation

Let me tell you a big secret about meditation. But wait, before I tell you the big secret, keep in mind this word is the key to all go this. Ready? Okay, the secret is: Meditation is to think deeply or focus one’s mind for a period of time. That’s it. That is all there is to this mystic and misconceived word. And that is all you need in order to do be content. Think. Focus. This keeps our brain in check and in tip-top shape internally.

Here is how I meditate.

I close my eyes for ten seconds.

I open them, look what’s around.

I see the four walls that protect me. 

I recognize how full my refrigerator is. 

I notice all the clothes I have purchased with the money I have worked hard for. 

I focus on things that are valuable to me and add meaning to my life. 

Then, I realize how blessed I am. I am not entitled to any of this yet they are mine. These string of thoughts eventually lead me to being thankful for the important things: my friends, family, girlfriend and, above all, thankful for being alive. It’s impossible not to smile.

Selah 

Next time you are driving late for work and someone cuts you in line. Negative situation. Remember, it’s your decision to harvest toxic thoughts that will affect the rest of your day. It’s also your decision to be content with the actual situation. Use the vaccine; meditate. Make your decision. Choose to let it go.
Also, wake up earlier.