The Zen life hack you didn’t know you needed.
Getting to decide how you feel decides how your life will shape up.
Hello dear friend
I’m currently reading Dale Carnegie’s How To Stop Worrying And Start Living, and this quote caught my attention -
"No one can humiliate or disturb you and me, either-unless we let him."
This reminded me of a conversation a friend and I were having a few weeks back. I was telling her about my exploits with spirituality, when she asked me what my biggest takeaways are.
When asked about spirituality, people often talk about religion, minimalism, or kindness. But for me, the biggest gift spirituality has given me is the ability to be Zen about people and things.
I’m so rooted in my perception of myself, that I don’t let others’ views affect me at all.
Yes, as humans, we are social animals, and it’s natural to crave for acceptance. But if you can detach from that, you take away the possibility that any other person can hurt you. I call this quality as the ultimate Zen mode.
In today’s newsletter, I want to invite you to try welcoming some Zen into your life, and observe how it changes your relationships and expectations from yourself.
But first, let’s start with a few examples.
When you’re Zen, you don’t care what others think of you. Offhand comments or overheard snippets of conversation stop affecting your mental peace, irrespective of how demeaning they are.
You quit trying to please others by sacrificing your own happiness. You understand that it’s not possible to influence how other people think, so you might as well do what you want.
Other people cancelling on you or making you feel bad in any way never disturbs your mental peace. You know they have their own trials and tribulations, and taking things personally will get you nowhere.
I could go on, but you get the gist.
Being Zen means accepting life as it comes to you.
It means not attaching any value to other people’s opinions about you.
It means you’re the only person who gets to decide how you’ll feel on any given day.
The Buddha talks a lot about this in ancient Buddhist scripture.
So do the Stoics of ancient Rome.
You tell me, what’s your take on being Zen?
Hope you liked this week’s message. Note that I create this newsletter for you weekly with lots of love. If you’d like to support me, here’s a link to buy me a book.
If you found this letter useful, don’t forget to forward this to a friend or ask them to sign up for my newsletter. It’s free, and they’ll mostly leave with a smile.
That’s all from my end today. I’ll see you again soon. Till then, stay strong. Keep smiling and be awesome.
With love,
Anangsha.