We don’t have to win every time in order to be happy – Swami Sukhabodhananda

There are two sources of stress, internal and external. Internal stress involves thoughts, values, beliefs and opinions. External stress involves wrong exercises, faulty breathing habits, unhealthy eating habits, pollution and sleep problems.

Nobody can avoid stress in life. One has to minimize stress. That is possible if one can work on both internal and external stress. The most important factor is our mind and how it looks at life.

Transforming the mind involves the understanding that there is no complete satisfaction in life; there is only a possibility to improve upon the existing state of affairs. We don’t have to win every time in order to be happy; happiness does not depend only on success. Learn to respond and not to react to events and incidents in life. If one continues reacting, reaction becomes a habit. Then an egoistic and reactive "I" emerges. It will have its own foolish logic.

In esoteric teaching there is an important law called the law of three. The positive effort you put in is called the first force. As you put in positive force there is a negative force that would affect the positive force.

This negative force is called the second force. If one continuously puts in positive effort, there would be a third force that would descend and transform the negative force into a positive force. This is called the law of three.

If you do not continue exerting a positive force, the negative force will take over. So the law of three urges us to be open to the negative force, but to continue applying the positive.

Source – Times of India article dated October 25, 2007.