Self-created Suffering

"All too often we perpetuate our pain, keep it alive, by replaying our hurts over and over again in our minds, magnifying our injustices in the process. We repeat our painful memories with the unconscious perhaps wish that somehow it will change the situation - but it never does. Of course, sometimes this endless recounting of our woes can serve a limited purpose; it can add drama and a certain excitement to our lives, or elicit attention and sympathy from others. But this seems like a poor trade-off for the unhappiness we continue to endure" 


"If you react to this knowledge that someone is speaking badly of you, this negativity, with a feeling of hurt or anger, then you yourself destroy your own peace of mind. Your pain is your own personal creation... So, although you may not always be able to avoid difficult situations, you can modify the extent to which you suffer by how you choose to respond to the situation."

I can pull out hundreds of great lines from The Art of Happiness - Dalai Lama & Howard C. Cutler. I am loving this book. I recommend that you all read this book at least once. It's the type of book that I know that I will read over and over again and learn different things from it each time. I'm sending it home with my parents so they can read it. Feel free to borrow it from them when they are done. Hopefully, if you are feeling some sort of anguish, you will give some thought about these above lines and finally allow yourself to stop personalizing your pain.

Meet "Dalai", my new llama friend.

Beautiful flowers found in Waterloo Park

Yours,

P. xo.