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Paradise is a State of Mind

Guest post by: Robert Whipple

Article Overview: We have all heard the phrase, "Mind over Matter." We understand what it means, and we may even agree with the philosophy. The interesting thing is that most of us fail to use that knowledge to help us live happier lives on a daily basis. This article is not very profound, but it may remind you of the power that exists between your ears.

Paradise is a State of Mind

I do a lot of online teaching of leadership and business courses. Students of mine live all over the globe and have interesting backgrounds. I have had students writing assignments while on bombing runs in Iraq, or fleeing a hurricane bearing down on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. In one of my classes, there was a student who is living in Hawaii, so many of the other students were ribbing this individual, since we were having a rough winter on the United States Mainland.

At one point a student who lived in Detroit was lamenting another dreary day and reached the flash point. His comment to the student in Hawaii was, "Well I have to take responsibility for my own misery. After all, I chose not to live in paradise." I immediately wrote to the complaining student reminding him that "paradise" is a state of mind rather than a state of the union.

I believe human beings have the power to live in reasonable happiness most of the time regardless of where they are located. It all has to do with our attitude. Please understand, I am not being frivolous here, I am talking about true peace and contentment being possible even when circumstances are far from pleasant.

There are stories galore of POWs who have achieved a state of joy and gratitude for life even as they were being starved and tortured. One such individual was Viktor Frankel during WWII in the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Viktor was a psychologist in Vienna living a comfortable life when he was nabbed by the Nazis and brought to the camp. He was treated with disdain like all the other prisoners, and was starved and beaten like most POWs. Eventually, he became curious about a specific trait in the people who survived while others quickly died. He described the survival instinct as the realization that there was something significant to live for, or something yet to do in their life.

In Viktor's own situation, he was able to use the power of visualization to rise above the incredible conditions and feel peace and joy, even among the dying and hopeless people. After the war, he wrote a book on his observations titled "Man's Search for Meaning."

What prison do you live in? Does it sometimes feel like you are suffering needlessly at work? Are the managers in your organization kind of reminiscent of prison guards or at least not very helpful to your happiness daily? Do you feel there is little hope for you to ever be happy or content with the conditions that exist around you? If that describes you, then realize you are making a choice. You are choosing to not live in paradise when the opportunity is there for you to do so.

I am sure many of you are saying, "This author is crazy - he has no clue about the miserable existence I live here in this dungeon." Well, that is correct, I do not know your condition, but I do know the person most in control of your happiness is you. Choose to be happy or ignore this advice and remain miserable. That is easy.

If you choose to change conditions for the better, get some material on mental imaging and start to change your life. Most of the time you cannot change the conditions being presented to you by the world. Likewise, most of the time you can control your attitude or reactions so that the outcome for your state of mind is much more pleasant. This philosophy is not that profound, and we have all heard it numerous times before. It is "mind over matter," or "The Power of Positive Thinking." The problem is that when we are miserable it is very difficult to remember that we can be basically in control if we want to assume that control.

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Article Tags: horrific, manager, Mind over Matter, problems, suffering, The Power of positive thinking



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