My life was a mess. I was thrown out of my house, had no money, lost a great friendship, couldn’t afford to eat even twice a day everyday, etc. etc.

ETC.

So I decided to go to the internet to seek advice and I found your blog and it really made a difference. I’ve always tried to live like that, but it is really easier if you have “someone” to support and motivate you. And that is you (well your blog)

I write you to share a technique I discovered, for once, not in the internet or in a book, but by my own, lol.

Things in my life haven’t really changed. No money, no stable situation, no house for more than one month, etc. etc. etc.

And realized that if I have to wait “better times” to be happy I’ll probably wait for ever. I decided to be happy now. That’s why I discovered your blog. And these words :

“Be Content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.” – Lao Tzu

This brings me to my technique. You say that being present is the best thing you can do to be happy. When you are present, you don’t regret the past or worry about the future. But as you probably know, and as a girlfriend of mine told me, it is hard. Sometimes we try, and our mind starts to think again in our problems. So I developped a technique that works for me. Maybe you know it already or it is somewhere out there on the net but I discovered this and I used it and it works :

When I’m stressed, or angry, or sad or other negative state I try to be present. I tell to myself be present.

When MY MIND STARTS TO THINK ABOUT MY PROBLEMS AGAIN I ask my self :

Wait a minute, before you start thinking again about that… how many different tones of red can you see right now?

And I start looking for all the tones of red that I can possibly see in my surroundings at that moment.

Then I do the same with the green tones, then the blue tones, etc. etc. etc.

With that you trick your mind into doing something else and you don’t have time to stress or complain and you start to be really present.

You can do it with colors, sounds, smells, etc.

Thanks for your blog it is so refreshing.

Usually the signs we look for include:

* comments that contain a bunch of links to spam websites
* short comments that exist just to get a link
* comments by someone whose name is just a spam business, like “Pharmaceutical Website”
* comments by someone who are made in huge batches — usually 5-10 comments all made at once

If your comment matched any of those criteria, you might have been deleted. I apologize if a mistake was made, but we’re really trying our best to deal with this problem. I’m thinking of taking some drastic steps.

I submitted a comment on “Why Your Email Inbox Is NOT a Good To-do List”. It appears it was deleted. I was kind of curious. Did you find it offensive in some way, or is my reference to another blogger taboo?

Regards,

john

I have a question about anger. I’m a 16 year old female, and I’m currently dealing with a lot of anger issues.

I live with my father, but about 4 years ago, I was living with my mother. She was very negative, yelled and cussed a lot and smacked me and my little brother quite a few times. I always told myself, “I don’t want to grow up to be like her.”

Well, Leo, it seems like my worst fear is coming true. Like I said, I live with my dad right now, and have been living with him for 4 years or so. He’s a Christian (so am I — or, so I’d like to think..), a very patient, understanding and nice man. I love the way his attitude is, but about a year and a half ago I began to “develop” a bad attitude.

I get easily angered, over very small, petty things sometimes. And once I am angry, there is no calming me down. My judgment and common sense go out the window. I feel so ashamed when I act like that because in the end, I feel like I acted like an animal. I take out my anger on my family; my father, mostly, but everyone can see it.

Ever since this started, I’ve been breaking out with pimples, getting dark bags under my eyes, I’m not eating correctly. I just feel crappy. And I’ve finally realized that my anger is controlling me and damamging me.

Leo, I’d just like to know anything that could help me not get so aggravated/mad. Breathing doesn’t necessarily work for me, neither does getting away from the person/situation, because my anger always ends up making me come back to argue more. If possible, I’d like to know how can I combat this anger BEFORE it happens..

Thanks so much Leo, and God bless.. I love the blog by the way. I read as much as I can, and have been trying to get my family into the “simple mentality” ever since I started reading ZH a few months ago :)

i am a new inspired blogger. I’m a teacher by vocation and can share things about learning and ideas if you like.

i look forward to getting your book, will it be at the local bookstores, or online only?

can you please share which plug in you use for the twitter device?

thank you

donald

I started reading your blog last week. I think the articles are all great!
I was wondering if you could talk about a problem that I have and that other people might have.
I am always desperate for knowledge and that’s why I love books. I buy books to read and start them but I end up not finishing them. I guess right now I have like 5 books that I started reading and I didn’t finish.
It’s not so much that the books did not interest me anymore but I guess it’s cause there are always new subjects and new books coming up and they all sound great.
Any tips?

Thanks,

Edgar

I was just reading the post on what would you take with you in trunk of your car. Many of your posters talked of having much of their important documents, books, movies, family memorabilia, etc backed up online. I am very interested in going paperless, but find it to be endlessly challenging as I am a bit of a paper pack-rat – I feel as if I am continually addressing the issue.

I am sure that you probably have spoken about this topic here, but I am interested resources that could be helpful in terms of digitizing and storing important stuff.

I would also love a Facebook link button, it seems like it has become the hub of everyone I know.

Cheers!

Thanks!

The iphone application store has changed the price point and expectation of features for software. People have become accustomed to buying a product with a smaller feature set that is thus cheaper, i.e. $.99, $1.99, $2.99

I have wondered if the same could hold true of a book. If I could write short books… something like 60-100 pages and sell them at $2.99 for the ebook.

This is contrary to Tim Ferris if you are familiar with 4 hour work week who says that you should charge a premium.

So, how did you decide on the price for your ebooks and physical books. Do you think you made the right decision? Do you think the marketplace has changed?

Thanks for your time.