Transform daily difficulties and stress into greater wellbeing and happiness

No one likes to experience misfortune. Yet, challenge and change can seem to feature front and centre in our daily lives. Our habits of mind don’t always help – we may have only a brief encounter with a difficulty and then find ourselves hours or days later still dwelling on every slight and minor inconvenience.

By ignoring the power of our own attitudes, we may focus entirely on factors outside ourselves. Soon, we may become paranoid and consumed by our efforts to erase difficult situations and people from our lives. The more we become consumed by negative attitudes such as fear and hostility, the more negative circumstances appear to us.

There is, however, another way to deal with adversity. Lojong (mind training) teachings show us a radically empowering path by turning towards the difficulties and irritations that we have always considered misfortunes. By shifting our attitude 180 degrees, we instead transform these misfortunes into valuable parts of our spiritual journey – the energy that propels us towards greater levels of wellbeing, wisdom and compassion.

In a world as difficult as ours, training in this way is not always easy, but, it is often the only option left to us. Where we cannot control what the world brings to us, we can control what we bring to the world. 

As the great Dzogchen master Dodrupchen Tenpey Nyima says, “By training in this way, you will become gentle-minded, easy-going, and courageous; there will be no obstacles to your spiritual practice, all unfavorable circumstances will arise as splendid and auspicious; and your mind will continually be content with the joy of serenity. To follow a spiritual path in a degenerate era, such armor as this is indispensable.”