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Health & Fitness

How to Live a Happy Life: 18 Rules of the Dalai Lama

Learn how to achieve happiness by following the methods of His Holliness the Dalai Lama.

By Eric Richard

At the end of the day, every human being has the same goal: to live a happy life. So how does one achieve such peace of mind?

As stated by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in his book, The Art of Happiness, 10th Anniversary Edition: A Handbook for Living, “I believe that happiness can be achieved through training the mind.”

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At the beginning of the new millennium the Dalai Lama quoted 18 rules to enrich daily living. Here are a few of them:

1.) “Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.”

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Risk is inevitable in everything that makes us unique. When we are celebrating our achievements we in fact are observing the risk we endured. If there were no risk involved it would have been accomplished by the rest of the population instead of just you or a select few.

2.) “When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.”

It is imperative to learn from the loss so it doesn’t occur again. By learning from mistakes it allows for improvement and success will come. Remember: “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again.

3.) “Follow the three Rs: Respect for self, Respect for others, Responsibility for all your actions.”

In order to be successful one has to have confidence. When one believes in himself great things will come, but if one doesn’t believe in himself success will never occur.

4.) “Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.”

The world we know is changing. Everyday we also experience them in ourselves as we learn, develop, and grow. We always expose characteristics within us we weren’t aware of before. They will happen in the end whether we are ready or not. It is easiest to accept them rather than to undergo an exhausting miserable battle. Changes should alter beliefs only when one has overpowering reasons they were wrong in the first place.

5.) “Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.”

Success has not been attained if a loved one or yourself had to suffer in the process. Make decisions that will adorn the life you seek. It is solely up to you. If you settle on your dreams you could regret it for the rest of your life.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama will speak Thursday and Friday at Western Connecticut State University, and the public is invited to a free showing (video simulcast) in the Ives Concert Hall, 181 White St. To help promote this opportunity, WCSU students in the Writing, Linguistics and Creative Process Department's Advertising, Copywriting and Promotions class created a Twitter page.

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