Hi, and welcome back to your Daily Mindfulness. In today's session we're going to talk about aligning your life toward more happiness and less unhappiness. So when it comes to living a fulfilling life, it's not always as straightforward as do more of this and do less of that. A lot of times we think we're doing something that will make us more happy, but it doesn't. And sometimes we think we're doing something that will make us less happy, but it actually ends up making us happier.

For this reason, I think a really valuable exercise is to get clear on three things. The first is what are the things, you know, for sure won't make you happier. The second, what are the things that may or may not make you happier? You're not really sure. And third, what are the things you know will make you happier? So for example, Things that won't make you happier could be things like being more egoic, uh, having more anger, more greed, more attachments. While some of these things might feel good in the moment overall, they do create constriction in your life and there's less inner freedom and, and inner peace.

But then there are the other things that may make you happier. The most things that you come up, come across will fall into this category because these are things like fame, money, relationships, material items, a vacation. These are things that, depending on how they unfold, how you relate to them, how you develop them, they may or may not bring happiness into your life. They may still be essential things, but you can't necessarily bank on them creating your fulfillment. So that's the maybe category.

But then there are the things that you know will make you happier. And this one is harder, uh, but it can include things like more self-love, more forgiveness, more alignment with your values, more deep connections, or even just an understanding of impermanence that helps you move more fluidly in your life. In this category are the things that you know beyond a shadow of a doubt, that as you invest time into them, your sense of wholeness, ease, inner peace and contentment will grow. So the takeaway here is that once you have more clarity on these different buckets, you can more carefully pay attention to where you invest your time and energy. What are the things you know will give you a positive return on your investment? Spend more time and energy there.

What are the things you know will give you a negative return? Try and spend a little less time and energy there. And what are the things that are important to do, but have the potential to be amazing or toxic? Well, pay careful attention to how you invest your time and energy there and figure out how to make those things more life-giving rather than life draining. Hope this gives you something to think about in your journey of building a great life. Thank you for your practice and let's settle in for today's meditation.