Happiness is the journey, not the destination.

My thoughts have been fragmented today. I have been emotional and very introvert. Quite self absorbed - and I hate that feeling. Sometimes you just have to submit to how you feel, but life and responsibilities can get in the way; so you just have to troop on through the day. Or, change your way of thinking if you can.

Tonight, I went to an inspirational, selfless talk presented by Buddhist Gen Kelsang Thekchen. It is part of a course which is happening over the next five weeks based on meditation and freedom of the mind. It was incredible. I came out feeling alive, positive and ready to take on anything.

The topic of the night was the mind, and how it should be our ally not our enemy. The mind can control our life; our emotions, and our emotions affect our day. Our mind changes daily, it's unpredictable and hard to balance. Gen went onto explain the key is inner peace of the mind. Our mind is volatile - it is wild - we need to tame it.

We can all be victims of our minds, sometimes feeling negative thoughts such as jealousy or unhappiness. We are aware these are not nice thoughts, they cause pain within ourselves - we don't WANT to feel them. But sometimes they are just there. What we need to do is just be able to recognise them, and stop submitting to them. Submitting to them makes us self absorbed, self centered and makes us exaggerate situations. He mentioned a really good point about mankind: considering humans have been around for decades, centuries, millenniums - why have we not yet found the key to end mental suffering? Because inner peace is needed for the end of mental suffering. Practicing calmness and stillness and changing our perspective on life and what is important.

Humans seek happiness in lower pleasures. We are always subject to desires and cravings. We seek happiness through external conditions. We comfort eat, we shop, we use our careers, other people, we use money and reputation - all of which can trick us into feeling secure and content. But this doesn't last, once we've reached one goal - we want more. When we seek external happiness, the satisfaction is only temporary. We always want more. We are never fully satisfied.

Thoughts are exaggerated, our mind can often be out of control and irrational. Our thoughts affect how we feel, because our minds perception is how we feel. But that's no reality. In reality, we should just let a situation be what it is. No situation is good or bad, it's all about perspective of the mind. if we change our perspective, just take a step back and calm down the mind, we can turn thoughts into positive ones.

I want to be able to appreciate every moment, every person and life. I feel like there is so much to learn about the mind and life - I'm so excited for it!