How to Change Negative Patterns of Thought

Who do you wish to be five years from now? Not, where do you wish to be in your career or even "what" do you wish to be? But who do you wish to be? A person who is still susceptible to anger? To anxiety? To unhappiness? Of course not. But do you truly believe it is possible to transcend those painful states of mind and the various events and people and circumstances that seem to cause them? Imagine enjoying an ongoing experience of inner freedom, confidence, mental flexibility and happiness. Isn’t that who you would like to be five years from now?

And so the question: Who do you need to be today in order to make this a reality?

If you check, you’ll see that most of the time we just react to situations as they arise. We may have a plan as regards our career or our relationships, but do we have a game plan with respect to our inner life, our inner experience? If we don’t have a vision of who we wish to be it is very possible that we will never become that person. Buddhist teachings give us a clear methodology for bringing about profound change. Learning about these clear steps – known as the Four Powers of Joyful Effort – will give us great confidence in our own ability to bring about that change.

In this series we will explore how to practically apply these four powers to our own life. This is the perfect series with which to begin our new year. If we wish to attain the happy life we long for in these highly uncertain times and to finally become the person we long to be, we need to engage in a process of internal transformation. Buddhist teachings and the practice of meditation enables us to do precisely that.

January 3: A Vision of your Future Self
January 10: Why Change is Possible
January 17: The Power of Wishing
January 24: The Confidence to Change
January 31: Applying Joyful Energy