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from the wisdom of Lao Tzu.

Lao Tzu, was an ancient Chinese philosopher and writer who is known to be the founder

of Taoism.

Taoism is a philosophy which emphasizes becoming one with the rhythms of nature - is called

“the way” or “tao”.

He is also credited as the writer of Taoism’s most sacred text, Tao Te Ching in which he

associates the process of achieving real happiness with managing the 4 fundamental areas of life:

resources, relationships, self-development and self-maintenance.

The old master’s teachings, even after 2500 years, are world renowned, studied and practiced

by millions around the world and so in this video we are going to explore how to be happy

by managing these 4 fundamental areas of life.

1.

Resources Lao Tzu says “Heaven’s Way is like stretching

a bow.

The high is lowered and the low is raised.

Excess is reduced and deficiency is replenished.

Heaven’s Way reduces excess and replenishes deficiency.

People’s Way is not so.

They reduce the deficient and supply the excessive.”

What Lao Tzu tries to tell us is that we have to avoid excess and replenish deficiency,

in other words, we need to take care of all of our resources in an equal way.

Resources doesn’t only mean money, it can be anything which can be traded or it can

be anything you use for your daily well-being.

They typically are: money, your possessions e.g. your house, your car, your brain power,

your talents, and your physical prowess.

In Taoism, there is the concept of Yin and Yang, that says that each aspect of nature

is dual and we need to balance the opposites in order to live in harmony with nature.

Yin is the passive and Yang is the active principle of the duality and this duality

can be seen in all patterns of nature, such as in the annual cycle - winter and summer,

the daily cycle of night and day.

Yin and Yang are complementary parts of Qi, which is the vital force driving us.

If Tao is like an ocean, connecting everything, Qi is an energy pattern, it is the wave.

When our Qi is balanced between Yin and Yang and is flowing smoothly, this leads to a fulfilled

life.

The concept of balancing the complementary parts can be applied to the subject of resource

management.

We have to make sure we don’t use too much of a resource at the expense of another.

For example you use your talents in your job to excess, you get promoted and you enjoy

doing overtime at work, doing what you love.

But you completely ignore your health, you don’t take your time to replenish your physical

power.

In the long run, this can be very detrimental, it can even shorten your life.

If you use one resource to excess, you end up creating disharmony in the universe, your

vital force – your Qi will not be balanced and, as a consequence, you can feel tired,

irritable, stressed.

You can even feel pain, actual muscle weakness.

It can affect your health and you may underperform in other areas of your life.

Just like any structure or a building that is supported by equal upright pillars, the

resources you have are the pillars of your well-being.

You have to nurture and balance all of them.

Managing resources in our everyday lives – be it in what we eat, what we wear, how we live,

how we work – might just be the antidote to our stressful modern, consumption-led world

as taoism embraces a more balanced approach, that is to say having just enough to meet

your needs, not your wants.

This leads to living a sustainable lifestyle that embraces the pleasures of existence rather

than those of consumption and when you focus on the pleasures of existence, you live the

heaven’s way - a simple, happy life.

2.

Relationships In the words of Lao Tzu “The sage does not

hoard.

The more he does for others, the more he has.

The more he thereby gives to others, the ever more he gets.”

To live according to Tao, you must live in harmony with everything around you, your community,

nature, and with the universe on a larger scale.

Living in harmony means to do no harm and, moreover, to nurture, protect and contribute

to the well-being of everything around you.

As we all humans are part of this universe, we have to see others as our extended family,

we have to take care of each other.

In Taoism, there is a karmic principle, which says that everything you do, will eventually

come back to you in one way or another.

Thus, if we care about others, if we give our help and support, these good deeds will

come back to us in the end, we will receive back even more care, love and support.

On the contrary, if we hurt other people and the environment, we are not acting in harmony

with human society, with the universe and the harm we did to others will harm us even

more in the end.

The moral is that everything you do to others or to the environment is a seed of everything

that will be done to you later.

No person is an island and being happy has much to do with the relationship between you

and what surrounds you.

There are many scientific studies proving the importance of having a healthy social

life for example – a Harvard study on adult development found that good relationships

are the key factors that matter the most for long-lasting happiness.

Good relationships keep us happier and healthier.

One of the most important ways to achieve a life long happiness is to focus on meaningful

relationships and on trying to improve or eliminate the bad relationships in our lives.

To really start to implement this Taoist way of living, as an exercise, make three lists:

a list with your family members and close friends, then another list with people you

have hurt and finally a third list with people who have hurt you.

The first list is the list of people you should take care of on a daily basis, give them comfort

and support them always, in both the good and bad times.

The second list is the list of people you should apologize to and try to repair the

harm you caused them.

The last list is the list of people you must forgive, because resentment is a poison and

it can cause more harm to you than to the person who harmed you.

All human beings are part of this cosmic force, Tao, and the way we treat each other is basically

the way we treat ourselves.

Live in harmony with others, take care of others as you take care of yourself or of

a family member, take care of your environment and your life will become harmonious and peaceful.

3.

Self-development To quote Lao Tsu “A great nation is like

a great man:When he makes a mistake, he realizes it.

Having realized it, he admits it.

Having admitted it, he corrects it.

He considers those who point out his faults as his most benevolent teachers.”

Striving for excellence should be a primary focus in life.

In Taoism, to achieve excellence means to achieve an advanced level of self-mastery,

to stop taking things personally, to think before reacting, to know how to listen to

criticism and learn from it.

Mastering your fears and emotions are the keys to achieving happiness.

Taoist masters always talked about the importance of the words you use and the things you do,

because they become the “house you will live in”, which means they have great consequences

for your life, they can affect your relationships, your career and your well-being.

To live happily, you have to build a beautiful house from your words and actions and self-mastery

plays a major key in this.

People who spend enough time to work on self-development and self-mastery understand themselves in

a better way, they can control their thoughts, they know how to avoid negative thinking and

they know how to learn from their mistakes.

Growing personally leads to more happiness.

The first test of self-mastery is to be able to realize, then admit your mistakes and then

correct them.

Oftentimes, this can prove to be very difficult: we are blinded by pride and by the fear to

lower ourselves in the eyes of others, so we cover up our mistakes with lame excuses.

However, by passing this simple but important test, you can prove to be a mature person,

capable of recognizing and indeed correcting your mistakes.

The second test is to be able to listen to and learn from the people who criticize you,

who point out your faults.

It takes strength and discipline to be able to hide your anger and embarrassment while

listening to hard criticism, but this is what you should do if you want to learn from your

mistakes and polish your character.

Moreover, Lao Tzu suggests that you also have to be grateful when somebody points out your

mistakes, as it is a great opportunity for you to become aware of your faults and to

improve yourself.

To pass these two tests, you firstly need the right mental attitude.

You need to understand that your mistakes are not statements about who you truly are,

but are indicators of where you are at the moment.

To go further, you need to know where you are - what kind of mistakes you are still

making and you need a proper map, the “teachers” – the people who point out your defects.

As a useful practice, stop for a few minutes every evening and write down the mistakes

you made and think about what criticism you received that day.

Make a plan to correct the mistakes and character defects that have been pointed out to you.

Follow it, and keep a record of your improvements.

In Taoism, discipline is not based on self-motivation, but on mastering your energies.

If you are able to master your energies, then you will have the maturity to correct your

mistakes and learn from the criticism you receive.

4) Self-maintenance As we learn from Lao Tzu “He who treasures

his body as much as the world can care for the world.

He who loves his body as much as the world can be entrusted with the world.”

Self-maintenance in Taoism means respecting your body.

The human body is said to have its own energy pattern, which is known as Zang-Fu.

The Zang-Fu model has particular organs that correspond to the Five Elements - Wood, Fire,

Earth, Metal and Water.

The organs have Yin and Yang properties assigned, which, if not balanced, will result in particular

illnesses.

To keep the Yin and Yang energies in balance, Taoism recommends the practice of Wu-Wei,

which means doing “action through non-action”, in other words, to be in a “flow state”,

to do things effortlessly.

By practicing Wu-Wei, we can reach a state of complete spontaneity and happiness, the

state of “Ziran”.

In Taoism, you are happy when you are able to follow the spontaneous course of things

and, to achieve the state of happiness, you have to know how to balance the Yin-Yang energies

in your body.

Sometimes our body has too much Yin, sometimes too much Yang.

Yin regulates the parasympathetic nervous system - rest and digest state, Yang the sympathetic

nervous system - “flight or fight” state, which is most typically activated by danger.

If we have too much Yin, we become demotivated, lazy, we miss out on the joy which new adventures

can bring.

On the other hand, if we have too much Yang, we become over-stressed, we don’t relax

enough, we don’t recuperate enough, and this can be extremely damaging to our health.

We need to make sure that we balance the Yin and Yang in our bodies.

Each of our organs has to be in balance.

For example, our brain: scientists proved that our brain functions best when it has

medium levels of stress or, in other words, when Yin and Yang are at an equilibrium.

We need both rest and stimulation in our lives.

Taoism glorifies the human body, comparing it sometimes with a country, the spirit being

the king and the other viscera being the officials.

As a country must be administered and led very well, so too the body.

Before somebody tries to take leadership of anything in this world, they have to first

be able to take leadership of their own body and they have to be able to administer it

with excellence.

To implement the taoist wisdom of the body in our lives, we need to apply practices like

meditation, qigong, and mindfulness.

This will help us to slow down in our fast paced modern world.

This way we can learn to respect our body more, taking care of it in a more serious

way.

To balance the Yin and Yang energies, we need to organize our schedule in such a way that

we alternate intense periods of activity – your Yang with relaxing periods of your Yin.

We need to sleep enough, to eat and have a satisfying sexual relationship, but we also

need to put ourselves out of our comfort zone, by doing intense mental work at our job or

by performing intense physical activity or by facing the inconvenience of speaking in

public for example.

There is a great link between our body and our mental state and spirit.

To take care of our body means to know how to balance our energy, our Yin and Yang and

this balance leads to Ziran, a state of naturalness and happiness.

Developing all of these 4 fundamental areas is mandatory if we want to have a happy life

and ignoring even one of them can lead to unhappiness.

In other words, when a person is unhappy, this means that there is a dramatic lack in

at least one of those 4 fundamental life areas.

For example, if we ignore an area like self-development, our relationships can start to suffer, because

we are not capable of learning from our mistakes and we continuously hurt other people.

As a consequence, we will become unhappy in time.

The wise thing to do is to schedule our week in such a way that we allocate enough time

to reflect and work on each of the 4 areas in order to live a happy and fulfilling life.

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