If life is game, these’re rules

“If life is a game, these are the rules”

by Cherie Carter-Scott

excerpts from book:

RULE: Make peace with your body.Acceptance of of your body, as it is right now, is essential for your emotional well-being as well as physical health. If a small part of you believes  that you would be far happier if you were thinner,taller, blonder or some other physical alteration, then you need to learn about value of :TRUE ACCEPTANCE”. 

RULE: You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called “LIFE”.The meaning and purpose of life is different for each individual. You may encounter challenging lessons that others don’t have to face, while others spend years struggling with challenges that you don’t need to deal with. Don’t compare your path to those of the people around you.

RULE: There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of    experimentation.Experiments  that fail are as much part of the process as are the experiments that work. In fact, usually you learn more from your perceived “failures” than you do from your perceived “successes”.

RULE: A lesson is repeated until it is learned. Do you find yourself having same problems over and over again? Since lessons are repeated until learned, you learn lessons when you become  “aware” of certain patterns and release those patterns. The key to “awareness” lies in tracing the “root of your behaviour”. We can walk through life on “automatic pilot” or we can behave in a conscious manner. Simply noticing your own behaviour can bring you “awareness”.

RULE: “There” is no better than “here”. Most people believe that they will be happy once they arrive at some specific goal. For some the goal may be amassing million dollars, for others it may be getting a better job etc. However, once you arrive “there” you will still feel dissatisfied and move your “there” vision to yet another “there”. By always chasing another “there”, you are never really appreciating what you already have right “here”. Your challenge is to focus on present and what you have now – while simultaneously holding the intentions of your future.

RULE: Learn to let go. That is the key to happiness.It is harmful for your health to hate someone.The unhappy thoughts of hate produce chemicals that stress the body and increase anxiety.

RULE: Courage is finding the inner strength when in difficulty. For some courage is a belief in higher power, for some it can be meditation or inspiring music, and for others perhaps great literature. Or you may need to draw on the support of your loved ones to find courage.