There was a day a while back when I was grumpy and life wasn’t much fun. I was discouraged and negative. Then I went to lunch and saw an old friend. We hugged each other and I experienced a powerful burst of love. All of a sudden, life was wonderful again. I was happy, alive, and very positive. Life was a joy and opportunity was everywhere.

Nothing changed in the realm of circumstances, but everything changed in me. One moment I was in the darkness and in the next moment, I was in the light.

Each person has opinions about how life should be and the way things are. These opinions can be very different. They can also be very helpful. Different opinions can be a source of new ideas and possibility. The problem comes when we try to force our opinions on someone else.

We tend to attack any opinion that conflicts with our own. This is especially true if the opinion is perceived as a threat. To avoid this threat, we fight what the person is saying. We think that this will somehow change the person’s point of view, but it doesn’t.

Life doesn’t just happen. We literally create our lives. We interact with life in a very specific way which produces a very specific result. This is why each person’s life is so different. When you discover why your life is the way it is, you become more able to determine how your life will be. These bullet points will provide valuable insight into your life.

1. The problem areas of life are not the problem
If you have a relationship or any other area of life that isn’t working, there will always be an underlying condition of resisting or hanging on. This makes you defensive and destroys your ability to see clearly. It keeps you from finding solutions and forces you to act in a way that magnifies the problem.

I had a profound experience a few days ago that I want to share with you. I woke up discouraged. It seemed like my life’s work was over and there was nothing I could do about it. I was negative and my thoughts seemed to be the absolute truth of the universe.

Then I noticed that I was having an emotion called “being discouraged.” This was just a feeling and nothing more than a body sensation. To release this negative emotion, I dove into it and felt it deliberately and purposefully. I magnified the feeling and exaggerated it.