I am sure you know that sometimes life can be full of pain and suffering. There are two kinds of suffering that we experience. There are necessary pain and unnecessary suffering. Necessary pain and suffering are that which we experience due to actual physical situations. If we break our leg, we feel physical pain around the break and emotional suffering about the lost opportunities we can’t participate in with a broken leg, such as sports. Grieving is necessary suffering.  If a family member or friend dies, we feel their loss in our lives, and we miss them.

Unnecessary suffering, however, is suffering that we put ourselves through when we tie thoughts, beliefs, and emotions to physical situations. For example, if you start to think your broken leg is making you miss the most fun you could ever have had, you are now causing yourself unnecessary suffering. If you think you will never feel happy again because your loved one is gone, you are rendering yourself unnecessary suffering. We push ourselves into unnecessary suffering when we mentally leave reality and delve into imaginary “what ifs.”

Did you notice I placed pushing yourself in bold in the line above? I did that because we tend to cause ourselves the majority of our unnecessary suffering. When we think forward and project ideas of happiness into our future, we cause ourselves suffering, especially when that projection doesn’t come true. When we believe that some idea or situation will “make” us happy, we cause ourselves suffering, especially when that belief proves to be unfounded. When we glue emotions to a situation, an idea, or a thing, we set ourselves up to feel unhappy when that situation, idea, or thing doesn’t live up to our expectations. We cause ourselves the majority of the unnecessary suffering we feel in our lives.

Planting the seeds of Joy, Peace, and Contentment is an exercise. Starting today, set a timer for three minutes and concentrate on one thing. Your point of concentration can be a pleasing picture or a candle flame, a texture like a rough cloth, a sound like running water, a clock ticking, a word you repeat in your mind, or even your breath. Just focus on your chosen object for three minutes. When you notice that your mind has drifted off and you’ve lost your concentration, refocus on your selected object of attention. Tomorrow, and each day after, do this exercise twice a day. The exercise’s purpose is to notice when you’ve lost your concentration and then bring your mind’s attention back to your chosen object. The more and sooner you see your mind is drifting onto other thoughts, the more successful you are.

Next week, add one minute to the exercise so that it’s four minutes, twice a day. The week after, add another minute. Continue adding one minute per week until you’re up to ten minutes. Science has shown that the maximum benefit from this discipline happens at twelve minutes or more per exercise. However, it takes practice to build up to twelve minutes, so start gently at three minutes and build up to twelve by adding one minute per week. Remember, success is noticing when your mind has lost its focus. So count it as a success each time you see and refocus yourself.

Within a few weeks, you’ll probably start to notice you’re feeling more happiness. You may also begin to see when and how you’re causing yourself pain and suffering, and you may be able to start to change and improve yourself. About this same time, you’ll probably also begin to notice that you’re experiencing more peace and contentment in your life. You’ll find that things that used to cause you negative emotions don’t have the same power to do that anymore. After a few more weeks of this exercise, you’ll find the JPC plant has grown more significant, and you’ll start experiencing a quiet joy in your life. This joy won’t necessarily be a feeling of extreme happiness; it will be more of a soft effervescence that permeates your whole body. Happiness is an emotion that changes with time and situations. Joy is a state of mind that presides even when you are feeling negative emotions.

I truly believe each of us has a grand purpose for our life. We each have a desire to live the life we genuinely want. It requires some discipline on our part, though; we have to spend a lot of time getting to know ourselves. Fortunately, the JPC plant gives abundantly to those who nurture it. Additionally, it continues to give when times are bad, just as it does when good.  

Please receive this holiday gift. Please test it. Start with three minutes today, and try it for yourself. If, after a few weeks of practice, your life isn’t starting to get better, then you have lost nothing but a bit of time and effort. If it’s successful, though, look at what you have gained.

I’m here to answer any questions you have about this gift.

May Joy, Peace, and Contentment fill your day.