Inside Out

Here are some guidelines for living life authentically:
1. Know your values. Your beliefs and attitudes suggest what you value in life. What motivates you most is generally what you value and if you’re not motivated by it (or by him or her!) then you don’t value it.
2. Allow others to hold different values to you. The extent to which you can tolerate differences of opinion and not feel the need to defend your own is a fundamental quality of the authentic self.
3. Take time to reflect on the lessons you’ve learned from your life so far. When have you acted wisely and when have you acted foolishly? What made the difference? And what advice would you give yourself now?
4. Notice the likely effect you have on those around you. There are always three aspects of any action you might take - the effect on key individuals, the effect on the “community” to which they (and you) belong, and the effect on you. Don’t leave your own interests out of the picture!
5. Life can never be certain. See the situation as it really is, not as you wish it to be. Pain is real. But it’s possible to develop a way of handling it. That way is to be found in cultivating stillness - the art of being.