I just got back from something called the Wisdom 2.0 conference. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s where thousands of people talk about the interplay of three main topics: meditation, business, and technology. This is a place where spiritual teachers such as Byron Katie and Jack Kornfield rub elbows with Linked In CEO Jeff Weiner, or rock star Alanis Morissette. Needless to say, it attracts a fascinating group of people.
I went there partly because I wanted to know whether or not there was hope for humanity. I’m glad to report that there is. Despite all the problems the world faces, and despite how fast everyone is rushing around nowadays, people still have hearts. Sure, our hearts are often buried beneath our smartphone screens, but humanity’s deeper heart is an irrepressible force. At the conference, I met a lot of good people sincerely looking for ways to bring more peace on Earth.
Being that I’m a gadget guy, I’m always looking for simple things that can help me to be kinder, more relaxed, and more aware. At Wisdom 2.0, I felt like a kid in a candy store. I talked with a dozen app developers who created apps to help with meditation, or ways to remind yourself to do an act of kindness. Anyway, what I got from the conference, (other than some new friends), was a sense of the importance of daily spiritual practice.
In an age when there is always too much to do, and too little time to do it in, most of us feel pretty stressed. In fact, studies suggest that 40% of Americans report they are “severely stressed.” If you’re not doing some daily practice to reduce stress and find peace within, you’re basically screwed. We all end up taking in a daily megadose of stress. Therefore, it’s necessary to “flush” your past stress down the “toilet.” Imagine not going to the toilet for several days. You would surely end up feeling very stressed! Being that stressed sure doesn’t feel very good.
So if we need to handle stress on a daily basis, a good question to ask is “How?” More specifically, how can we get the most de-stressing bang for our buck (i.e. the smallest effort). There is no single answer to that. People can let go of stress and find peace within in a vast variety of ways. For example, it can be as easy as taking a few deep breaths or listening to a favorite song. Or, as I mentioned previously, you can now get an app or gadget that can help you de-stress. At the Wisdom 2.0 conference, I bought a gadget called “Spire” that tracks your stress level by monitoring your breath. If you haven’t taken a relaxing breath in awhile, it vibrates and sends you a text to remind you to breathe more deeply. It’s a bit of a kooky idea, but I’ve been trying it the last few days and it really helps!
While gadgets can help, I’ve see that there are also a lot of simple methods that immediately lead to more relaxation, happiness, and peace. As a psychotherapist, I’ve seen that the best practices for finding peace seem to be those that take under two minutes to do. Sitting down to meditate or do yoga are good practices, but not many people will do them everyday to handle their daily stress. Yet, I’ve seen that people will use something that only takes a minute or two to do if it feels good and it really works.
In my book “Find Happiness Now” or my audio program, “Deeper Happiness,” I offer a lot of such methods. Once you find a technique or two that truly works for you, you’ve got a friend for life. I use one such method many times a day and it has made an immense positive impact on the quality of my life.
At the conference, I had a chance to have a one-on-one talk with spiritual teacher Byron Katie. She is known for her many bestselling books and for a method she developed called “the work.” I asked her, “What can people do to help change the world?” Without hesitation she said, “They can work on themselves. That’s the way the world will become a more peaceful place—by each person finding it within.” I couldn’t agree more. So my question to you is simple: “Do you have a quick method you can use daily to help you de-stress and find peace within?”
Perhaps the most important thing a human being can learn is how to quickly let go of negative thought patterns and emotions and quickly return to the peace and love that’s hidden behind our turbulent minds. Once you can do this well, everything in your life changes. In my exploration of how doing this effectively, I’ve tried a lot of things. One of my absolute favorite ways to quickly return to a place of peace (after being upset) is to use something called “The Sedona Method.” What follows is a mini-course on the Sedona Method. If you try this out and like it, I recommend that you get the book “The Sedona Method,” so you can get a better understanding of this truly effective and simple technique. 
I’ve been reading recently about how important a good night’s sleep is for feeling happy during the day and being productive in life. Unfortunately, about 30% of Americans suffer from chronic insomnia and/or sleep deprivation. In our fast paced world, many people try to do with as little sleep as possible, but then end up suffering emotional and health effects from getting too little sleep.
During the winter months, a lot of people end up feeling more “down” than usual. In many cases, this can be due to the fact that they have what is called S.A.D. 
Do bad memories or images ever haunt you? Do you sometimes flash back to some of the most traumatic moments of your past? For some reason, the human mind has a nasty tendency to forget important things like your mother’s birthday, but is more than happy to frequently remind you of the worst events of your life. Fortunately, there’s an antidote to this glitch in the human bio-computer. It’s called the Erasure Technique. In a matter of a few minutes, this powerful method can virtually neutralize the bad feelings associated with almost anything you’ve ever experienced. I’ve even used it with clients who have suffered from disturbing memories for many years. Whether you want to neutralize images of a minor car accident or the hurt from the ending of a relationship, the erasure technique can make a dramatic difference in your life. 
When you were a child, your parents most likely rewarded you on a fairly regular basis. Perhaps they told you how pretty you were, or bought you an ice cream cone as a reward for cleaning the yard. However they did it, the rewards you received helped guide you, and made you feel loved. Unfortunately, once you left your parent’s home, there was probably no one around to play the role of encourager and guide for you. The truth is–if you don’t do it for yourself, it probably won’t get done. As adults, we need to learn how to give ourselves rewards so we can be encouraged to move in a positive direction. However, most adults either give themselves indulgences all the time, or they almost never do. By learning the art of giving ourselves rewards at appropriate times, we can come to benefit from this powerful tool. 
Too much to do, and not enough time to do it. Your boss yells at you for something that wasn’t even your fault; by the time you make it home, you’re fed up and stressed out. You slam the door, and then walk past your partner without saying a word. Your mate asks you about your day and why you slammed the door. Just the fact that they say anything to you makes you even more annoyed. You tell them, “I didn’t slam the door. There’s nothing wrong. Why do you always have to question me?” You spend the rest of the evening upset.
Many people suffer from symptoms of minor depression sometime in their life. Persistent sadness, 
Hypericum as a way to overcome depression naturally. The recommended dosage is 300 milligrams of Hypericum extract, containing 0.3 percent of the active ingredient Hypericum, three times a day. It takes between one and four weeks for the herb to start working. Since it takes awhile for this medicine to have an effect, avoid trying it in response to momentary sadness or lethargy. Yet, if you feel depressed for several weeks, there is little to risk and potentially a lot to gain from trying St. John’s Wort.
Hypericum is not a cure-all for depression and sadness. Yet, for many people it can be an enormous help. If, after using Hypericum for four to six weeks, you don’t notice any improvement, consider seeing a psychiatrist for his or her recommendation. If you keep trying new medications and/or forms of therapy, you’ll eventually find something that helps. Don’t give up hope. Even severely depressed people have been known to bounce back to a 
I used to suffer greatly from a bad case of self-criticism, in my teenage years, it was so severe that I could never ask a girl out on a date. I feared that she’d say “no” and I’d end up spending the next week getting down on myself for my failure.
What do you absolutely love to do? It need not be a big thing. Perhaps you really love to watch football, or maybe you really enjoy baking your own bread. Often, we get so caught up in living our life that we forget to take time for life’s simple pleasures. Many people find that their life is so full of responsibilities that they rarely take time for fun and adventure. If that sounds like you, then you’ll benefit by using the “Pain and Pleasure List.” The Pain and Pleasure List is a catalog of at least ten things you enjoy doing and a list of ten things you don’t particularly care for. It helps you clarify what really turns you on in life and what you do only because you have to – or think you should. While we all need to do things we don’t like from time to time, life is not meant to be a series of burdens and responsibilities. By having a Pain and Pleasure List, you’ll be able to make important changes in your life with a lot more ease.
The first step in using the Pain and Pleasure List is to simply create it. The singular act of writing down ten things you love to do and ten things you don’t care for can reveal a lot about your life. Recently, a client named James made his list while in my office. He had originally come to see me because of depression, stress at work, and problems with his wife. This was the list he created:
on the “pain” side of the list was a whopping 215 hours per month. The total number of hours on the “pleasure” side of the list was a meager 32 hours a month. That’s almost a seven-to-one ratio of pain to pleasure. I’ve found that when the degree of pain as compared to pleasure rises above a five-to-one ratio, people dislike their life. In order to feel good again, such people need to spend less time doing “painful” activities, and more time doing what they enjoy.
Although less frequently, some people who complete the Pain and Pleasure List see a pattern of having too much pleasure in their life. They tend to avoid responsibilities and discipline at all costs. Unfortunately, this form of hedonism doesn’t work well long term. By avoiding difficult things now, people with this predilection often create problems in their finances and relationships later on. The key to having a successful life is to find the right balance of pain to pleasure. It must be a balance that works, not only in one’s current life, but it must also work long term.