This is Part 2 of an article entitled 14 Excellent Reasons Why You Are Not Living a Happy and Peaceful Life by Zdravko Lukovsk. You can read Part 1 Here.

You’re Afraid to Break Free from your Comfort Zone

There is only one thing that never changes…and that is… CHANGE itself! Understand that your comfort zone is an illusion. When in a comfort zone, you think that you have peace and that you can be happy but believe me, that’s one big illusion.

The first serious sign of a big problem or obstacle will break this wrong picture that you hold. It is impossible to feel at peace if you constantly hold onto something.

This can be your job, it can be your habitual lifestyle that is not healthy, it can be the habit of drinking alcohol from time to time… there are literally millions of examples. You have to observe yourself and decide what YOUR comfort zone is.

And yes, unfortunately even holding to our loved ones so dearly is not good for us. I am not suggesting that you should let go of them, not under any circumstance, but what I do suggest is that you have to accept that peace and happiness come from the inside and never from the outside.

We cannot depend on peace and happiness only from the people and things outside of us. After all, we’ll all die one day, and whether we like or not, whether we accept it or not, that’s reality and that’s the truth. We have to learn to live with that voice that speaks to us. We also have to learn to control it!

Come on, do me a favor and go on and play “I Want to Break Free” from Queen. Play it and sing it from your heart.

Break free! Let go of your comfort zone and do the things that you love doing! Go after your big dreams, don’t be a fool!

Hey, you know what? …

…Do something that scares you, each and every day. Do it! If you only commit to this single habit, you will literally astound yourself! Your life will be a different story!

You Haven’t Eliminated your Work-Overload

If you’re one of those individuals that take the overtime for the extra dollars, you can afford to stop it. There are much better ways to earn money than trading your time for it.

As a matter of fact, trading time for money is without question the WORST way on earth to earn money!

This can lead do depression, stress and overwhelming, and how can you possibly expect to live in peace like that?

You have to give your mind and body a rest.

If you need more money, then study, expand your mind, step into action and create several multiple streams of income. Passive income is the real secret to great wealth.

The only way to make good money by trading your time for it is being a CEO or a high paid manager which in turn has other disadvantages. So if your vision is not becoming one of those individuals, stop taking the overtime hours!

You Don’t Get Outdoors and You Don’t Exercise Enough

When was the last time you went hiking? Have you lost contact with nature completely?

Here’s few suggestions what you can do: yoga, walking near the beach or park, sailing, dancing, hiking, volunteering, doing something interesting in your yard, visiting orphans and making them feel special, sailing, fishing, going to the zoo and so on…

Pick something that connects you with nature. For example, I really love hiking! I do it every week and it’s simply amazing. I am a new person when I come back home. I have so much fresh energy locked up within me…I just radiate positivity and happiness from me.

You can do the same. Listen to nature’s sounds, feel the wind on your skin, listen to the birds, breathe that fresh air deep in your belly and be grateful for your life!

You Love Watching Soap Operas or Reality TV

If you belong to this group of individuals, I beg you to stop wasting your life! So far, I haven’t seen a single benefit a person has gotten from doing this. Really.

Watching this nonsense is just wasting your life. Not only that, more often than not it fills you with fears and negativity. Gossips, crying, bad language, cheating, I mean what’s good in any of that?

Turn off the TV! Now I am not suggesting to completely cease watching television in your life, but at least make it less frequent.

I don’t watch TV at all, and I feel awesome!

Instead, start educating yourself, read some great books, go out and eat something special, take your partner on a romantic evening…

You Love Perfectionism (The Wrong Way)

While this not necessarily is a bad thing, more often than not it has the exact opposite effect than improving ourselves. Trying to do everything perfectly is setting ourselves up for failure.

It literally stops us from enjoying the moment, it creates a feeling of rush and eventually, we end up not doing much. Instead, we tend to procrastinate. Understand that we as intuitive human beings are not perfect in a logical sense. Our subconscious programs and human emotions are much more complicated than the rational computer machine.

Don’t expect to do everything smoothly according to a predetermined plan. Now, see how I don’t say “don’t plan at all” or “don’t strive for perfection”.

No! You should strive for perfection, but don’t be that much stressed about little details or doing everything perfect.

You Don’t Practice Mindfulness (Even Worse – You Don’t Know What It Is!)

Mindfulness is moment to moment awareness. It’s not only being aware…it is being AWARE that you are aware! The mindful mind is the mind which constantly observes.

It observes the various thoughts and emotions as they come and go. It is forever present “in the moment”. You see, living a mindful life, is living a life of moment to moment awareness and unfoldment.

You can never be bored or annoyed by doing this…Every second you have a mission, a goal which is focusing on your thoughts that live and exist in your inner world. And our mind is like a dancing monkey, it never stops to think, it is a machine without an off-switch!

Your job is to take control over it.

Now I’ll be straightforward upfront here… This is without question – THE HARDEST thing one can achieve in a lifetime. I mean to become completely, fully mindful.

The people who have achieved this like the Buddha for example, are very few, just a handful of individuals.

But nobody is asking that from you! All I’m suggesting is to practice this amazing skill in your life, just for little bit! Just by taking the time and living mindfully for 15min each day, you won’t be able to recognize your “new-self” in a few months.

How to practice it?

Start with simple meditation. Take 15min. each day and sit comfortably in a place where nobody can disturb you. Shut down all outside distractions including cellphones, iPads and laptops.

Take the time and focus on your breathing. Follow mindfully each and every breath. Your mind will go astray very often. Your job is not to become mad and upset because of it! Instead, just observe your thoughts and purposefully bring your attention back to the primary object of focus – your breathing.

Every time the mind starts to think of something else, you observe it, and bring it back to where it was.

As time goes by, increase the amount of time spent on meditation. Also, whenever you catch yourself during the day creating mind movies, stop it, and observe yourself in that particular moment.

Remember, too many positive emotions can be equally harmful as too many negative emotions. This is because we become dependent on outside circumstances. Something good happens, we get excited, something bad happens, self-esteem and confidence plummet down.

You need to find the balance!

There’s a great course on mindfulness called “Practicing Mindfulness: An Introduction to Meditation” from Professor Mark W. Muesse Ph.D, who teaches at the Rhodes College - just a helpful resource you might be interested in.

You Always Take Things Personally

Get this – nothing is really personal! The only way something becomes personal, is if it comes from YOU.

As odd and as strange it may sound, it’s true. For example if your boss yells and criticizes you, it is about him or her, not you. If your sale doesn’t close and you get rejected from a prospect, it’s not about you, it’s about them.

It is all about their perceptions, their attitude, their needs and their expectations, not yours. Understand that!

You can certainly influence their decisions to a certain degree, but please don’t take these things personally. Sometimes things will happen differently to how we expect and think should happen.

Focus on what you have control over – and that’s your attitude comprised of your thoughts and emotions. Do the best you can, and learn to be happy with yourself, the way you truly are.

You Don’t Act On the Things You Have Control Over

You are in full control of your inner world. You have the power to control every single thought and emotion that goes in your mind.

Start deliberately to imprint in your subconscious mind, the kind of thoughts that you choose to have.

Start using affirmations and create new positive beliefs about yourself and the world you live in.

Here’s great one for relaxation and calmness of mind:

“I feel calm and relaxed. With every inhalation I breathe in calmness and with every exhalation - stress, doubt and fear leave my mind and body”

Then take a deep breath and breathe in calmness. Exhale, and let go of all negative emotions.

Repeat this procedure for 5 minutes every time you wake up in the morning, and every time before you go to bed at night.

This Article Ends Here but Your New Journey is Just About to Begin…

Phew, now that was a long article! I’m glad you came to the end.

Happiness and peace cannot be found outside of you. You don’t find happiness or peace, you MAKE happiness and peace. They all exist right now, in the present moment. Your job is to become aware of them.

They are after all, just emotions, and all emotions happen as a result of the thoughts that we think. So start thinking about what makes you feel peaceful and happy.

Practice these tips regularly and commit to living a positive and peaceful lifestyle.

I’ll wrap everything up with one famous definition of happiness by Epicurus:

“Realize that true happiness lies within you. Waste no time and effort searching for peace and contentment and joy in the world outside. Remember that there is no happiness in having or in getting, but only in giving. Reach out. Share. Smile. Hug. Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself.”

Zdravko Lukovski is an obsessed personal development enthusiast who loves studying and expanding the mind. He is a dedicated student of life who owns several websites including www.EnlightenmentPortal.com/. If you want to read more of his writing, check out these top positive thinking exercises and activities!

I’m just a regular guy. I don’t claim to be the “expert” who will solve all your problems. I can’t give you peace and happiness, but what I can do, is help you in awakening them from within. Why? Because I’ve done it in my life, and I know that I am no more special than you are. If I can be happy and live a peaceful life, you can do it too.

Understand that if you don’t get your thoughts and emotions together, and in order, you will be always lost in life. You probably won’t perceive the world as a happy and peaceful home we all share, until you first recognize and develop peace from within yourself.

The advice that follows is really common sense but for some strange reason we tend to neglect it. Please don’t do that. I also don’t ask you to accept it either. But please, take a step and do some of the suggestions and see if they alter and improve your life in any way. I’m inclined to believe that they will astound you!

The Food You Eat is Poisoning You

While eating a hamburger or a cheesecake might make you feel good in the next few minutes, in the long run this is literally killing you. Not only does junk food and processed food affect your health, they make you feel stressful and unhappy with yourself.

Foods rich with lots of sugar and lots of carbs are destroying you both physically and mentally.

Well you might say “I’m trying to avoid them”. Oh come on… Really? Get this: the action behind the word “trying” doesn’t exist in the real world. Think about it. Let me give you an example…

Turn your head slowly to the right. Come on, do it right now. Just slowly turn it, and bring it back to where it first was.

Did you do it? Good!

Now… just “TRY” to move your head to the right but don’t actually move it. Just try it…

Did you do it? Of course not! There’s no such thing as trying! You’ll either do it or you won’t! You’ll either eat junk food or you won’t, you’ll either step out and do the things that you have to do, or you’ll stay in your comfort zone behind the excuse that you at least “tried”!

Get serious and stop this destructive behavior at last. Start eating nutrient-rich foods. Eat as much fresh vegetables and fruits as you can, boost your energy levels! Also, eat nuts and berries and please avoid dairy products and meat.

And don’t forget, fresh water gives life! It will not only make you healthier, you will feel much more in harmony with the nature which in turn will help you to be in peace with yourself.

You Haven’t Learned to Love Unconditionally

This is self-explanatory. Give love to others and love will come back to you. By loving others I don’t mean just your close family and your relatives and friends. No… I mean love the world and all the people in it! Love the people you meet at the street or in the grocery store, love people regardless of their race, color or culture, feel compassion and be connected with the Universe, we all come from one same source after all!

Love is about giving without conditions. Giving and sending positive emotions and wishing the best to everyone and everything. There’s no way how this will not make you feel at peace with yourself!

You Can’t Stop Focusing on the Mistakes from the Past!

This is the one thing that destroys so many lives and I’m sure that you’re very familiar with it. But why do we constantly keep reminding ourselves of our past mistakes? Why do we keep doing it?

I think I’ve found the answer to that question. It can be summed up into 3 simple words: It’s a habit! It truly is…

The moment we see something in the outer world of people, circumstances and events, we instantly remind ourselves of some event or situation in the past. And most of the time we do this unconsciously, meaning, we don’t give any conscious effort to control our thoughts at all.

We simply get the idea stimulated from an outside force and we immediately start making movies in our head.

Sometimes these ideas are rooted deep in our subconscious. From time to time they swim to the surface of our mind and take our peace and happiness away. Well you have to stop this if you’re serious about making peace with yourself!

And remember, not to “TRY” and not think about it. Haha, no no, you can’t escape this problem even you deeply love to do it!

The next time you experience bothering thoughts from your past, say STOP to yourself! Immediately think of something different. If this doesn’t work, try the observation technique.

Simply say to yourself – “right now I’m just experiencing a negative thought from my past and I am well aware of that. I won’t let this influence me, and I won’t get involved with this negative idea!”

That’s it. Gradually with time, you’ll start to become more aware of your thought patterns and you’ll start living more in the present. And before moving onto the next point, I’d add just few more words of advice you should consider:

• If you really made some big mistakes in the past that have become your nightmare, understand that what’s done cannot be changed. There’s no point for you to keep suffering about this. Simply let go of it completely and forgive yourself. Accept that what happened is done and that you won’t let that happen ever again in future.
• If the opposite is true, so instead someone else wronged you or hurt you a lot, learn to forgive them. Again, this now exists only in your mind, the past is over! You have to move on with life. Holding to this idea not only won’t make the person pay back for what they’ve done, it will only cause more stress and unhappiness to you!

You Haven’t Buried your Emotional Baggage Deep in the Ground!

We all carry certain doubts, worries and fears. Your emotional baggage can come from your past actions, it can be connected with your insecurities, your fear for the future, your fear from poverty or losing love, it can include your criticism or judgement to others, it can be the feeling of guilt or resentment.

It is vital that you recognize this extremely powerful force that’s destroying you from the inside. If it is fear, learn to accept the worst scenario and promise yourself that you’ll do everything in your power to do the exact opposite.

For example you might fear that you will never have enough money. Ok, stop right there! Accept the fact that you might never have enough money. Come on, do it right now! Just think of it and accept it.

Now that you’ve already accepted the worst scenario as a possible reality, promise to yourself that you will give the best you’ve got to become rich! Be honest with yourself. And do this for all the fears you have.

I knew a man once who was so terribly scared that he might die because he was sick. He was afraid of serious illness and he was constantly thinking about it. He really was sick, and he was afraid of the future, constantly worrying and having fears.

He was killing himself with months until one day when he went to the doctor. The doctor told him that his situation is hopeless and that he will die in a month or two.

The first and obvious reaction for him would be to “die” from a heart attack in the exact moment from too much stress and overwhelm. But no… this man felt deep relief. He felt that the burden he was carrying for so long is now buried deep inside. He accepted the fact that he will die and from that moment on he focused on doing what he loved the most.

Now this is not a happy ending story. Unfortunately this man didn’t even try to fight for his life. The doctor’s words were like the voice of God for him. Now don’t get me wrong, under no circumstance do I suggest that we should accept situations like this one as a fact and live with it.

That man could have lived for many years but he put a signature on his destiny right in that moment.

What is valuable from this lesson is that the entire burden that he carried was imaginary! It was happening in his mind! He could have decided long time ago to accept that he might die and do the things he loves the most! Instead, he didn’t do it, he contributed even more to his illness and he certainly was not at peace with himself!

Fear and worry were destroying him from the inside.

You get the message. Accept the worst scenario as a possible reality and then give EVERYTHING you’ve got to do the exact opposite.

By the way, this is the advice that comes straight from “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill, and that man DID know what he was talking about!

Self-Care Seems to be a Removed Word from your Dictionary

Driven with the idea of caring for others, we often tend to forget to take care of ourselves. Work and care for the kids, work and care for the spouse, work and care for our old parents, worry and care about what the boss will think, worry and care about that project at work, work and care, worry and care, stop it for God’s sake!

Pay attention to your needs and desires! Make a peaceful morning ritual for yourself. Start meditating immediately after you wake up. Do some stretching and make yourself a fresh juice rich with vitamins. Spend some time thinking about your future and your goals.

What is it you want to change in your life? What are your desires, dreams, hopes and aspirations? Give yourself a pat on the back and love yourself for who you are.

I’ll share with you one thing I do each morning that you might want to do too. Each day when I wake up, I thank God, the Universe, Nature, Life (call it what you want), for the amazing things that will happen to me. I then literally KISS my hand and I love myself. Now I don’t know how to describe to you how I “love” myself, so you’ll have to figure that out by yourself.

This is amazing technique that really brings peace and happiness in my entire being. Try it! You have nothing to lose and everything to gain!

You Can’t Stop Worrying Constantly What “Others” Think

This is terrible. This is the only life we’ve got and we choose to let others be in control of it. This is also sad…unfortunately…

Understand that you can’t control everything. As a matter of fact ALL that you could, all that you can and all that you will ever be able to control is your very own thoughts and emotions! Nothing else!

Take full responsibility for your life! What other people might think or feel about you, has nothing to do with you! Concentrate on your goals and on your attitude.

Guide your actions and your thoughts, and know that you will get to where you’re going. Don’t listen to other people’s opinions!

If you want to be at peace with yourself, you also have to learn to LET GO OF CONTROL. Yes. You cannot control what your spouse thinks, you cannot control what the next move of the government will be, you cannot control what the attitude of your boss will be like, and you cannot control and eliminate world poverty.

You can certainly influence and strive to change things, and I strongly encourage you to do that!

But stop giving yourself a hard time. Relax, bring peace into your mind and live your life mindfully. Be aware of the beautiful unfolding and cease controlling everything.

Soon, peace and happiness will become your best companions!

This is Part 1 of an article entitled 14 Excellent Reasons Why You Are Not Living a Happy and Peaceful Life by Zdravko Lukovsk. You can read Part 2 Here.

Zdravko Lukovski is an obsessed personal development enthusiast who loves studying and expanding the mind. He is a dedicated student of life who owns several websites including www.enlightenmentportal.com. If you want to read more of his writing, check out these amazing positive thinking activities and exercises!