Show strangers love

There is a strange correlation between how you treat strangers and the happiness you feel inside. Many times, we think that how we treat others depends on your mood…but what if the opposite was true? – that if you treat people with kindness and respect, that you in return will end up with a smile on your face.

We need to eradicate the mentality that we need to be in a good mood to give, and that if we receive we will feel happiness. Quite on the contrary, giving is what provides sustainable inner peace and joy. Next time, whether we are at the gas station or at the grocery store, remember to put a smile on, and greet one another…you won’t regret it.

This is water

There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes “What the hell is water?”

The point of this fish story is that the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about. And what idea seems to be most banal yet unseen, is that we can choose how we view the world and our situations. The idea that our feelings of sadness, routine, and complacency are of utmost importance to the world…is where we are gravely mistaken. We can choose to view the world as revolving around ourselves, or we can open our minds to the fact that we are simply one of many. There are so many others that are dealing with far more severe issues and struggles, it is an injustice for us to complain. Instead, we should smile, help someone who is in need, and give a glimmer of hope to those who can’t stand to hope by themselves.

The real value of education, which has almost nothing to do with knowledge, has everything to do with awareness. The awareness that what is real, important and essential is too often obscured by our egotism.