Travel light. Don't carry the additional burden of your past hurts and misses in life. Past is dead and gone. It does not deserve the importance we give to it. Learn from whatever mistakes you committed. If you feel someone else is responsible for your failure or misery, you are actually giving power to that person or incident. Forgive now! and take another step forward in your life. Don't hold on to your past. The happiest people have a very short memory indeed!

We tend to get effected by people and situations and instead of burying unpleasant incidents of our past, we bury our smiles instead. A single word --- forgiveness can take us to freedom if we really practice it in our day to day life. Our own bitter experiences serve as speed breakers to our happiness and we carry the heavy baggage of people who hurt us in some way in our minds and drag forward in life.

It may seem justified to hate someone and hold on to grudges because of what someone said or did to you; it could be a quarrel, injustice or fraud. Which road would you yourself like to travel --- a road full of potholes and speed breakers or a smooth running road ?

By repeating unpleasant incidents, you hurt yourself repeatedly. You inflict emotional pain on yourself time and again and then complain that someone else hurt you? Free yourself from this bondage and slavery of hateful and hurtful thoughts. Be alive to the magic the present moment has to offer you. Do your best in the work you undertake but leave the result of your efforts to the Almighty. When we let go, we let God.

An old lady living close by swears by her daughter-in-law and son and goes to the extent of cursing them. Imagine that they are staying under the same roof but do not speak to each other. The grandma carries grudges against her daughter-in-law which date back to the time when she was married! Her complains include petty issues like the young woman belonged to a not-so wealthy family before her marriage and also that she was instrumental in changing the nature of her son. Imagine the quality of vibrations that will fill the space in such a home (or house?) and the impact it will have on each of its individuals residing in that negative space. It won't come as a surprise to you when I mention the fact that this old mother consumes not less than 8 medicines at one time!

As far as happiness in our lives is concerned, we are all human bombs who keep bombarding our own happiness by big negative balls of false egos, past hurts, jealousies, hate, feelings of revenge and impatience.

What do you really require to be happy? Nice thoughts about yourself and for others, letting go off control on others, contentment, a passion in life which can be singing, painting, sports, swimming, writing or reading. It should be something you want to know more about or love to discuss with others and becomes a way of going out and intermingling with other people. At least it is better than discussing office politics outside your office. Leave your baggage of 'what happened in office, school' etc. at the office or school gate when you leave the premises after work.

Do not carry the burden of unpleasant incidents back home. Your eyes will not be able to appreciate the good marks your child scored, the tasty dinner your wife has prepared, the lovely garden your neighbour is maintaining and the beautiful flower that bloomed today in your little pot kept in the balcony. By burden, I mean that the people you are bothering about the whole day are actually present without really being present! They are talking, walking and torturing you --- operating from the space in your mind. How will you smile if this is the case in daily life? You will get tired carrying the burden of so many ''detestable people'' (as you find them to be) with you throughout the day.

Once, I remember, I suggested this to my friend and I was bombarded with the reply ---"You won't understand till you go through what I am going through. It is easy to dictate from a distance. I speak about my office and colleagues so that I am able to vent out whatever is inside me." Every time you relate an incident (it is unpleasant most of the time because of our habit of focusing on the negatives in our life and ignoring things we should be giving gratitude for), the unpleasantness of the entire scene which you are relating robs you of gratitude, makes you a complainer, puts you into the 'victim mode', your aura turns negative, it reiterates the 'fact' that yes, your office and colleagues are really bad as you are rightfully relating incidents as proof for the same and so it is alright to feel miserable. With so many issues in your day to day life, your body tissues will feel the sadness of your life and act accordingly. So, you will be proved right that you are a victim because of the new reports on high blood pressure, common cold will really be common for you, and the pain her and there... the cycle goes on till you find yourself sitting with a bowl of medicines early in the morning every day to be consumed with breakfast.

Who is to blame? Who carried the burden home? Who related one incident that happened in a span of about 15 minutes actually, 50 times after your office was over? And you were looking for happiness!

It is never too late to start. Give time for meditation, yoga, sports, morning walk and do your job with detachment. You also have a personality apart from your profession. Office work is only a part of your life and you mistook it for life itself. Like the grandma and the employee, we too keep looking for solace, peace and good health outside of us whereas if you look closely enough, you can be the first person to gift yourself good health. Just be aware of the quality of thoughts you are entertaining. Get rid of grudges and negativity in your thoughts by replacing them with positive thoughts. You deserve a beautiful life. Guard your happiness before you fall prey to demeaning thoughts.

Don't give power to negative thoughts, instead empower yourself. Write all your hurts on sand so that the winds of forgiveness can erase them with passage of time. Write all your happy moments on stone so that you can go back and read it again and again and remain in gratitude. Happiness comes from having a bad memory as far as unpleasant incidents and people are concerned. Happiness brings good health.

When you send loving energy, the people around you will reflect the same loving positive energy and you will feel abundance of love in your life! Remember, the change started with you! There is a story about a father who was busy reading the newspaper. To keep his little son engaged, he asked him to join pieces of paper which would form a globe. This was indeed difficult for the little boy but still he managed it and came back to his father. Surprised, the father asked him how he managed to join those pieces so fast, the boy replied," There was a photograph of an individual on the reverse side of the paper. I joined them properly and the image of the globe too aligned accordingly."

So true, if we become good, the whole world will become good to us. The vibrations of our thoughts reach a person much before we have spoken anything at all!

''People are often unreasonable and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.
If you are honest, people may cheat you.
Be honest anyway.
If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough.
Give your best anyway.
For you see, in the end, it is between you and God.
It was never between you and them anyway.''
--- Kent M. Keith

So, be conscious of the quality of your thoughts.Don't feed your mind with negative thoughts because if you do, you will gradually start believing them!