Tips for a Happy Life

Our good buddy Lazy Yogi Ponchie had just read a great blog on Meditation ;-), where the author had revealed the secrets of how to live a happy, meaningful and good life and the highly inspired Yogi Ponchie immediately went about implementing the recommendations — in his own special way of course.  The article, he read, explained that the secret to a happy and fulfilling life was to live life one day at a time.  Not only that, the author had provided his thoughts on what 10 activities one should include in one’s life on a daily basis in order to accomplish this.  Here was how Ponchie spent some of his day, which he felt met the requirements laid out in the post.

5:00 am:  Ponchie checked the time and smiled 5:00am  Woo Hoo!  The recommendation was to wake up early, but since waking up early was impossible for our lazy yoga friend, he had decided instead to stay up all night.  Thus, he would be awake during the early morning hours and be able to take advantage of this most spiritual time of day.   

6:00 am:  Ponchie headed to the Gym to get his daily recommended sweat.  He spent the next hour in the sauna.

7:00 am:  Ponchie listened to a meditation tape in his car on the way back home from the gym, thus meeting the most important criteria for doing his daily meditation practice.

8:00 am:  Ponchie watched Sunrise Earth on Discovery by sitting very close to the television… spending time with nature… done.

9:00 am:  Ponchie called his dad and asked him to pay his credit card bills and help fix the leaky faucet in the kitchen.  He told his dad that this had to be done today itself, since he was eager to meet the requirement of “completing your daily affairs” as had been suggested… that was easy.

So here we are, with Pochie at the half way mark of meeting the daily activities that the article laid out.  Let’s summarize this article that has so profoundly inspired Mr. Ponchie.  Essentially, the secret to a Happy, Meaningful and Good Life, the article said, was to live one day a time.  This did not mean not to plan, it meant not to obsess with the outcome.  Put money away in the retirement fund, enroll in an MBA program, start a daily fitness routine, launch a new blog, sure do all these things, but don’t focus on the results.  Instead, just go about the business of life by living each day as well as you can.  In addition, the article continued, try to incorporate the following 10 activities into each day, as they would go a long way in expanding your spiritual and personal growth and ensuring that you really maximize your human potential.  In part 1, I will list 5 of the 10 daily suggestions that were made and here they are…

1.  Wake up Early:  This gets the day off to a great start.  The early morning hours are full of spiritual energy and prana (life force) and are an ideal time for your daily sadhana (meditation, yoga or other spiritual practice).

2. Sweat Everyday:  If possible try to break a sweat everyday, and a sauna does not count.  This means to get some form of exercise and keep the body in tip top shape.  The body is not you, but is the vehicle through which you live and worship, so treat it like a temple and take care of it.

3. Daily Meditation:  This is the most important criteria.  If you have come to the Mastery of Meditation website, something is stirring within.  This invitation by the Divine should not be taken lightly.  Not all receive the invite, or at least not all are aware of the beckoning, so if you are being roused from the dream by the gentle hand of your Divine Nature do everything you can Wake Up!

4. Spend Time is Nature:  The spiritual path can be described in 1 word — CONNECT.  That one word describes all the Vedas, Gita, Upanishads, Bible, Koran, Tantras, etc.  One of the best ways to connect is to be with Nature intimately.  Hopefully the author will write an article on this topic of Connection as well as is it a very interesting and powerful concept :-).

5. Complete Your Daily Affairs:  Don’t procrastinate, don’t delay, don’t put off what needs to done.  The old proverbs are very wise.  “A stitch in time saves nine” and “Don’t put off till tomorrow what can be done today”.  Life, the moment, provides challenges to you and when you meet them, life opens up.  If they linger, they are like blockages, they prevent your life from moving forward.  Your inner voice will constantly remind you what needs to be completed.  Heed this suggestion and you will be surprised at the rewards.

In part 2 of this series I will go into the last 5 suggestions for what should be done everyday in order to live a happy, meaningful and good life, and we will also see how the rest of Lazy Ponchie’s, I mean Yogi Ponchie’s, day went.