SHORTCUT TO SERENITY

Do you feel you are always stressed? Do you feel like life gets in the way of you being calm and peaceful? Do you feel like, no matter your success, happiness is transitory if not illusory? Well, you are not alone. In today’s fast-paced world, all of us are trying to achieve outward success at the expense of our happiness. From an early age, we are taught to make something of ourselves and be successful, whatever that means for us. As a result, we are all racing toward some moving goal post, and before we know it we are in our middle age, trying to figure out what happened.

Happiness comes from within—this is not just a cliché. Every day, we worry about things that happened in the past or things that may or may not happen in the future. As long as our basic necessities are taken care of, this worry is the cause of all our problems.

The mind wanders a million miles an hour. It goes to places we will probably never visit. It is like a balloon that is floating in the air uncontrollably. We need an exercise to train the mind; meditation has been shown to tame the mind and help with physical as well as psychological well-being.

This book is an attempt to modify our thought process, so we can put a higher value on happiness. I mean true happiness—the type of happiness that does not get disturbed by what happens outside ourselves. Let me be clear, this is not a religious book. No matter your religion, you will find the lessons from this book helpful and relatable. It is written in a simple, no jargon, no-nonsense style.

In Appendix 1 of the book, you will find instructions on a series of different meditation practices. The book is designed for you to contemplate one lesson per day along with a meditation practice. You might want to try out different meditation practices initially, but once you find that a particular meditation practice works for you, you can just focus on that practice if you like. Appendix 2 of this book presents a number of meditation postures that you may find helpful.