Счастливый брак - это не союз двух совершенных личностей. Это два человека, которым хватило мудрости не делать трагедий из того, что у них разные характеры, взгляды, вкусы.Они живут и любят, как бы не было трудно.

Richard's Affirmations

An affirmation is a positive, believable thought that you choose to immerse in your consciousness to produce a desired result.

I live as much of my life as I can right now! I find my greatest pleasure right here, in the moment, so whatever I am doing, I do as well as I can.

I become what I think about all day long. The more attention I put on something that is positive, the better I will feel. When I find myself trapped in my analytical mind, I drop my thoughts, clear my mind, and relax. I accept thoughts for what they are. There is no need to turn them into more than they really are or to take them too seriously

My past is a figment of my imagination and so is my future. The only moment that is real is right now.

I commit myself to noticing when I rush. I can’t smell the roses if I am running past them. As soon as I notice myself rushing, I bring myself back to the present moment.

I look for the positive in every situation.

I embrace and experience life rather than constantly analysing it.

I am happy with what is, rather than obsessing with what could be better.

I strive to be fully with the person I am with.

I don’t postpone all of my gratification, I live as much of my life as I can, right now!

I distrust and dismiss my thoughts when I am low. I wait until my mood lifts which will happen quickly when I don’t focus on negative thoughts.

I notice my negative thoughts and let them go. It’s impossible to feel gratitude for something when I am too busy trying to improve it. The solution to depression is to bring my attention back to the present moment where depression can’t exist.
I regularly search for, and acknowledge, my healthy functioning and appreciate it when it is present. In this way I let it grow. Even in the midst of negativity, happy people know there is something better, more powerful, and more important than what they are thinking about. The passage of time has no real relevance in helping us to get over something other than encouraging us to think about other things besides whatever is bothering us. When I forgive someone, including myself, I am saying to myself, “The past is over”. No-one, even myself, can undo what is done. I find my happiness by living in the moment rather than demanding that situations, conditions, places, or people make me happy.

I take responsibility for my own happiness, right now and choose to concentrate on what I have instead of what I lack.

My healthy functioning is not concerned with what happens in my life, but rather with how I relate to what happens in my life.

I don’t find light by studying the dark.

The past is no longer here. It’s over. It exists only in my own thinking. It was real then, but now it’s only a part of my imagination.

Rule number one is that we create our own thoughts; they flow into our minds and, if left undisturbed, they will flow out again. Our thoughts are just thoughts. They are harmless, providing we decide not to hook into them, or go over and over them, or dwell on them, or create emotional involvement with them. In fact these are choices that we are presented with all day long; because as soon as we decide to hook into and elaborate on a particular thought, which then generates an emotion we are automatically no longer in the present moment! If you feel the need to follow every train of thought that happens to enter your mind, you will be far too busy to be keeping your complete attention to the present experience on a moment to moment basis. Now, this is not to say that we should ignore each and every one of our thoughts. Our mind is a brilliant tool and we need to use many thoughts, practically and constructively, every minute of every day. However, the real choice that we need to make is to separate those useful thoughts from the negative, repetitive thoughts that usually concern something from the past or a worry over an imagined future. These are the thoughts to step back from and to let pass through the mind without emotional involvement. If you believe that your thinking is caused by other people and events going on “out there” and that you can do nothing about it, then it’s obvious that you will be overwhelmed by your thoughts and living in the present moment will seem difficult, if not impossible. If, on the other hand, you can recognize that you are the one manufacturing your own thoughts and that you can choose to let any negative thoughts pass and create the necessary emotional distance from that thinking, you will be able, with practice, to keep your attention on the here and now, the present moment.
Young children are the best examples of people who fully absorb themselves in the present moment, without negatively holding onto the past or fearing the future. They allow themselves to stay completely focused on whatever they happen to be doing and live the experience 100%. As adults however, we have learnt and become expert at the habit of mulling over past events and stressing over future concerns, which effectively squeezes the life out of our present moments. The good news is that if we learnt how to excel in this behaviour, we can equally unlearn it and choose to excel at thinking differently and letting our negative or distracting thoughts go.
Aside from letting go of needless negative thoughts concerning the past and future, another brilliant technique for re-capturing the present moment is to eliminate hurry. Hurry is nothing more than a bad habit; it’s not a scheduling problem, it’s a state of mind problem. There are many extremely busy and productive individuals who almost never feel hurried, and even more people out there who really aren’t that busy, but who feel terribly and overwhelmingly busy almost all the time. The degree to which you feel hurried in your life is dependent entirely on your ability to keep your attention in the present moment. A mindful person knows that as long as he continues thinking about things yet to be done he will continue to feel hurried; it’s that simple. Our minds are capable of making us feel hurried, even when we’re really not under serious time pressure. So, we’re caught up in a traffic jam, or the train has been cancelled. Is it the end of the world as we know it? Will the sun come up tomorrow morning? Will life go on? Surely in these situations it’s far better to bring your attention back to the present; look around you, smell the coffee, get back to where you are in the moment, right now. Certainly there will be times when you need to do things quickly or take immediate action, but do yourself a favour and save your sense of hurry for those special and rare occasions when it’s truly necessary. One of the most eye-opening experiences in life is simply to notice how often we rush around unnecessarily. Once you notice this tendency, you can eliminate most of it by simply bringing yourself back to right here where you are now. Life isn’t an emergency, it’s an adventure. Once you commit yourself to seeing life this way, you will be amazed at how quickly your life will change for the better. Life is a marvellous gift and as you learn to stop worrying and producing thoughts of a painful past or an uncertain future, you will be able to focus on what is happening right now and to enjoy and appreciate this present moment. When negative thoughts come up, understand that they are just thoughts and you don’t need to fear them. By all means learn from the past and then let it go. As for the future, have faith that it will take care of itself if you approach it one moment at a time.

Spiritual Enlightenment – Stepping Back From Your Thoughts

Spiritual Enlightenment – Stepping Back From Your Thoughts
Most of us identify with our thoughts and assume that we are the mind. However this is not the case; you are not your thinking and you are more than your mind.
By: T. A. Whiston


Thoughts flow through your mind like water down a stream every moment of every day. It has been said that an individual entertains over 60,000 conscious thoughts each day, and even this is probably and understatement.
Many people suffer guilt, frustration, and anger toward the self because of the thoughts that flow through their minds. But this is unnecessary, because the mind is only an experience we have, and is not the ultimate definition of who we are.
It's true that a trained mind will offer positive thoughts. And it's true that what we feel and believe within will arise into the realm of conscious thinking.
But on the path of personal greatness the first thing to understand is that you are more than your thoughts, and even more than your mind. You are non-local consciousness, meaning your body and mind is transient experiences you relate to in this life, but are not prisons that you must become fully attached to.
Begin to practice stepping back from forced thought, and just allow your mind to flow freely. This takes some practice, but you will likely grasp the concept as soon as you try it for the first time.
Great relief and even spontaneous joy typically occur very quickly when a person lets go of the need to identify with every single thought. Your mind doesn't need constant supervision and will continue to produce a continuous stream of thoughts whether or not you imagine yourself at the captain's wheel.
Become aware of your body, and pay attention to the physical sensation of just being in your physical form. This will help you escape the constant participation in your thought patterns.
Watch your thoughts as they flow. But do not identify with them, and do not become attached to them.
You are not obligated to own or relate to every thought your mind generates.
Think about this very important statement for a moment. Consider your thinking mind a tool that you can use, but not something you must absolutely identify with.
In other words, no thought that passes through your mind has any meaning at all unless you choose to empower it. You are completely free to let go of negative thoughts and let them drift away. And you can simply ignore automatic negative thinking that seems to come up from nowhere. Ideally you can notice positive thoughts that serve you and decide to support and believe them; you are in complete control over which thoughts matter and which images are simply passing through your mind.
Many of your thoughts and mental images are memories, and may even emerge as the result of experiences you don't consciously remember. Also the media implants thoughts into your mind all the time; certainly you are not required to entertain thinking that was placed in your mind via suggestion or hypnosis!
Meditation is the best way to still the mind. As you practice basic sitting and breathing you will become very good at letting your thoughts flow without interference.
As you are able to let go and allow your mind the freedom to think what it wants, you will also become adept at inserting your most preferred thought patterns. Ultimately it is your responsibility to train your mind how to think and what to imagine.
Make a daily practice of stepping back from your thinking. Choose to let go of thoughts you don't want, and choose to entertain/empower thoughts that serve your ideal vision of self.
This may be the most powerful personal development exercise of all. Use it well and become the person you deeply know you are meant to be.
To see more insightful content on spirituality and how you can find your true self, be sure to visit the author's blog. You'll find a wealth of information on the things that matter most in life.

Жизнь прекрасна и удивительна!

Если сегодня с утра ты проснулся здоровым, ты счастливее, чем 1 миллион
человек, которые не доживут до следующей недели.

Если ты никогда не переживал войну, одиночество тюремного заключения,
агонию пыток или голод, ты счастливее, чем 500 миллионов человек в этом
мире.

Если ты можешь пойти в церковь без страха и угрозы заключения или
смерти, ты счастливее, чем 3 миллиарда человек в этом мире.

Если в твоем холодильнике есть еда, ты одет, у тебя есть крыша над
головой и постель, ты богаче, чем 75% людей в этом мире.

Если у тебя есть счет в банке, деньги в кошельке и немного мелочи в
копилке, ты принадлежишь к 8% обеспеченных людей в этом мире.

Если ты читаешь этот текст, ты благословлен вдвойне, потому что 1)
кто-то подумал о тебе, 2) ты не принадлежишь к тем 2 миллиардам людей,
которые не умеют читать, и... у тебя есть компьютер!

Attachment/Aversion -> Pull/Push

Vipassana theory 101 – sensations and subconscious mind

Suffering and unhappiness due to cravings and aversions. When we crave or try to avoid something, we stop living in the moment. A craving is any object you want more of and that takes control of your mind, for example addictions, longings or attachments. An aversion is any object you try to avoid, for example people, situations or experiences.

However, your craving or aversion isn’t to the object itself, but to the physical sensation the object brings to your body. Specifically, we crave objects that bring pleasant sensations and avoid objects that bring unpleasant sensations to the body.

Getting rid of attachments. By observing our physical sensations objectively without liking it (craving more) or disliking it (being averse), and by realizing that sensations are impermanent, we train the subconscious mind to let go of accumulated attachments. Through practicing awareness and objectivity towards sensations, we stop adding to our supply of cravings and aversions, causing old attachments to surface in the form of body sensations. If we continue to watch these sensations neutrally, we let go of past attachments. The analogy the teacher used to explain this is that our supply of subconscious attachments is like a charged battery. If you stop charging it (stop adding cravings/aversions), it will slowly discharge itself (the release of cravings/aversions). This is idea is similar to the teaching from the book The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment , which talks about clearing your mind through awareness of your thoughts (after that book, my mental chatter decreased by about 80%), except you’re observing bodily sensations instead of conscious thoughts.
Being a better, more enlightened person

Being in control of your mind. This 2,500 year old Vipassana meditation technique is considered Buddha’s greatest contribution to humankind. By teaching a method for people achieve control over their minds, to be objective and understand the nature of change, people could eradicate suffering caused by cravings and aversions. The theory is that as you progress to later stages of this meditation and build more focus, you’ll be more tuned into your body sensations to the point you’ll realize your body is made of vibrations and energy, and that you are only whole through the integration of many parts.

Finding clarity, love and compassion. Experiencing the nature of you body lets you understand first-hand that we’re not as separate from other beings as we seem to be, and that we’re all connected to what is around us. Eventually, having nothing but compassion and love towards the world. You don’t need to be Buddhist to practice this meditation. There were no religious symbols or rituals during the course or in the meditation technique.

Richard Carlson (as always)

YOU ARE THE ONE WHO IS DOING THE THINKING. YOUR THOUGHTS ARE NOT REAL. THEY ARE ONLY THOUGHTS.