Comparison makes people unhappy

I have come across a piece of interesting information concerning people comparing a lot of things to worry themselves. That made people unhappy. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/happiness/interviews/paulwhitehouse/index.shtml)

In the BBC series on Happiness, psychologists observed that comparison makes people unhappy.

The world can be very unfair and unjust - when we compare ourselves to others.

What is to be done, then?

A Buddhist tends not to look outward to mend the world and make it better; rather, he/she tends to look inward to find out why and how is it that his/her own mind should feel such an unpleasant feelings toward something quite beyond individual control. To me, that would be the point you start to discover happiness.

Thanks to Wil Lang, LA chapter of ELEAD, we have another addition of good websites to the Happy Academy: http://www.eastern-philosophy-and-meditation.com/. As the URL shows, it's about Eastern philosophy and about meditation. Take a "closer" look at the material, some of the remarks need to be put in perspectives to grasp the meaning accurately. Thanks Wil!

Face Your Problem

"Facing our problems is usually the only way to get past them."

"There is an art to facing difficulties in ways that lead to effective solutions and to inner peace and harmony. When we are able to mobilize our inner resources to face our problems artfully, we find we are usually able to orient ourselves in such a way that we can use the pressure of the problem itself to propel us through it, just as a sailor can position a sail to make the best use of the pressure of the wind to propel the boat. You can't sail straight into the wind, and if you only know how to sail with the wind at your back, you will only go where the wind blows you. But if you know how to use the wind energy and are patient, you can sometimes get where you want to go. You can still be in control."

The above paragraph was drawn from Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of the now famous MBSR (mindfulness-based stress reduction) program. It's a somewhat different version of his "full catastrophe living." Throughout your life, you will experience all kinds of down moments, which are part and parcel of life. You cant control the wind, but surely you can control the boat to use the wind energy. Down times can be useful momentum for you if you know just how to smile at catastrophe.