Lessons from the Dali Lama

I had such a busy January with work that I have been feeling pretty disconnected from my relationships lately (even with myself). For a minute yesterday there I was feeling totally overwhelmed and starting to feel like everything was going wrong. Of course now I know that it wasn’t true but in that split second I really convinced myself that nothing was right and everything was wrong. A while later I stumbled upon these 5 life lessons from the Dali Lama. I liked them for two reasons: #1 because we have done these types of posts in the past here and here and #2 because it was all the things I needed to hear. While what he said was nothing new per se, in that moment when I was questioning everything it all sounded so simple.

Dali Lama’s Life Lessons

1. Be compassionate. Remember that compassion is good for your health and stress, fear and anger will literally eat up your immune system. Choose compassion over negative feelings.

2. Find your own inner peace. As his holiness said: “Global change must come from individuals and world peace must come from inner peace.” Realize that you can make a difference by starting with yourself.

3. Be happy. Instead of grappling with complex Questions like “Why am I here?” simply focus on being happy and the rest will fall into place.

4. Be a good human being. Avoid feelings of regret when you reach the end of your life by being a good human being. Sounds obvious – but you’d be surprised how easy it can be to get caught up in other unimportant things.

5. Practice forgiveness. Know that forgiveness does not mean accepting the other person’s wrongdoing – it is simply a way of respecting your own physical health enough to not allow negative feelings to cause you harm.

Check out more from the Dali Lama and these lessons here.