10 MINUTES TO LESS SUFFERING

Over the course of a day, many of us accumulate all of the emotions we feel. We have trouble letting things go. In this podcast, I share a technique to help you put down the hurts, stresses, and disappointments even just for a moment so that you may enjoy what is in front of you. This technique will give you more space from your thoughts to help you achieve your goals and find joy in everyday life.

Endings can be so difficult and unexpected. We can lose a job, a relationship, a loved one, or our health. Regardless of what the circumstances are, endings can leave us devastated. During these times, it is best to remember that with every end eventually comes a new beginning. Maybe life will be better naturally or Maybe we need to make the best of whatever happened. Either way, uncertainty is our best friend because it leads us to new possibilities if we can keep our hearts open to all that can be.

People can say all kinds of stuff about us—about our looks, our intelligence, or even job prospects. And sometimes, it can be hurtful. However, we need to always remember that, just because someone says something about us, it doesn’t mean it’s true. In order for us to figure out what we should believe (and not believe), we need to be able to value ourselves enough to explore how we truly feel and what resonates with us. We must clear away the outside chatter to allow ourselves to find our own truths

Most of us want to see more love and kindness— both in our daily lives and in the world. At the same time, many of us feel like we need to protect ourselves from a world that is cruel and uncaring. But if we close our hearts, we disconnect from that loving vision we have for both our lives and the world. An open heart may feel more pain, but it also has the unparalleled capacity to cultivate loving strength and resilience and inspire action to create the world that we truly want to see.

Life is always calling us forward, but sometimes we don’t listen. We stand still and say ‘this is my life, this is who I am, and this is what I do.’ But life isn’t stagnant—things change, we lose jobs, relationships end, we get hurt. When life changes and we are standing still, stuck in how we thought life would be, we can miss life trying to guide us towards the beauty of the moment and new opportunities that might come our way.

Some of us say we’re sorry all the time, but we don’t need to be! We apologize to get people to like us or because we’re afraid to speak our mind. But when we say we’re sorry and don’t need to be, we are not valuing our true selves. If you did something wrong and you want to apologize, great—apologize! But if you are apologizing when you haven’t done anything wrong, you often step away from your true power and your ability to blossom.

Many of us compare ourselves to others with regard to our looks, our jobs, and the money we have (or don’t). Most of the time when we make these comparisons, it makes us feel bad about ourselves. We fall into the trap of believing that other people have more than us and that we will always be less than. There is nothing wrong with finding inspiration or direction from other people, but in order to realize our true power, we must honor our authenticity and find our own individual path to success.

So many of us try to protect ourselves by not trusting other people. Yes, we do need to try to make good decisions, but if we make our entire lives about a lack of trust in other people, we will close our hearts to new experiences. A better approach may be learning how we can trust ourselves. This way, no matter what happens, we will trust that we can handle whatever comes our way, even if we get hurt. Focusing on trusting ourselves allows us to have the strength to open ourselves to our best lives.

Most people feel great when they can tie up loose ends, but we are often faced with situations where ‘closure’ isn’t possible. We find this most in our relationships with other people. We can have a bad breakup, an argument, or slight disagreement, and as hard as we try, we just can’t make things right with someone. The truth is that life can be messy, and all we can do is accept things as they are. Hopefully, over time we can release the pain to be open to new relationships in the days to come.

Wouldn’t it be great to make your own rules, always be your authentic self, and love what you do each day? So many people these days are encouraging us to find our own path or follow our bliss. Although this can be a wonderful new journey, if we don’t love ourselves or have a secure identity, we will suffer greatly—we might not even have the strength to make necessary changes. Please listen to this podcast to cultivate self-love and resilience to launch your new journey and achieve your goals.

It can be difficult to navigate how to respond to people when they are rude or obnoxious to us. Our inclination might be to respond harshly, but this type of response can create more drama. Often it is best to take a pause and contemplate how our response will serve us. Sometimes it is best to let things go and other times we can cultivate a response that fosters our goals. Either way, focusing on how our responses will serve us moves us away from needless drama and towards more peace and joy.

Trying desperately to know ourselves can be just another way of being addicted to certainty. We seek safety in knowing our capabilities and our path to success. But defining ourselves as a certain type of person limits our possibilities. We end up stationary when everything around us is changing. If you want more success, then claim to know yourself less!

As much as we care about the people in our lives, there are many times that we leave important things left unsaid. We always think people know how we feel, but sometimes the people we care about have no idea how much we love them or how meaningful they are to us. Don’t leave it to chance. Time passes quickly, and we don’t want to miss out on giving one of greatest gifts we can give—that is, just letting those we care about know how deeply we feel for them.

There are certain events in our lives that will cause us pain and create suffering. Sometimes we judge ourselves too harshly for how we show up for these difficult events. We forget that others suffer just like we do, and that our pain doesn't mean we can't handle what is happening. Everything is always changing, and suffering, too, is transient in nature. This awareness can help ease our suffering, reminding us that life keeps changing and there is still space for joy and possibilities in the days ahead.

The problem we have with most relationships is that we think we know what the other person is thinking. But the truth is that we often have no idea what is going through the mind of our boss, friend, family, spouse, or boyfriend/girlfriend. We sometimes assume something that is not true. Listen to this podcast to learn how to pause and question our thoughts about the conflicts in our relationships. Maybe it can be the beginning of having less stress and more joy with the people we interact with every day.