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Anti Dukkha tips
lobster
Veteran
I like tips on being happy, for example:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/11223904/How-to-be-happy-expert-advice.html
Today I did a little bit of running and kept going. Then I stopped. I thought I 'should' do a little more. However I had gone for a walk and just felt like running a bit. Decided I was happier to walk that last bit, rather than 'should'. Birds, jays, parakeets and woodpeckers I would have missed or scared away, I had time to notice. ENJOY what you do or learn how to, would be my tip. 'Should' is so old school Dukkha . . .
What is your plan, not more meditation surely? 
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Comments
Live in the world and yet be out of it. I think we can agree on the out of it part.
4NT & 8FP are the classic anti dukkha tips.
Old school and pretty much "shouldy" free,
Anti Dukkha tips
If happiness is just a 'state of mind' then it can be found in any thing we do !
An optimist thinks this is the best possible world !
A pessimist fears this is true ! 
If you change the way you look at things-Things will begin to change for you !
Ahhh...! How refreshing to see one of @lobster's cushions again....
It's like the good old days...
I woke up today, I could see, I could hear, I could talk, I have all my limbs, my beloved beings are alive and kicking, I have a roof, I have enough food on my plate, I can take life as it is on my stride...
Do I really need to invent myself another reason to be happy?
Only this list should make a massive anti-Dukkha molotov cocktail.
That reminds me of Iyanla Vanzant's advice: "Don't go should-ing on anyone!"
And Louise Hay, in her ground-breaking book, "You can Heal Your Life" advised her readers to "Change any 'should' into a 'could', which actually clears the mind and gives us deeper access to the cause for hesitation....It worked for me.... I think, if I'm not mistaken, that was the very first "self-Help" book I ever bought....
Mine was Wayne Dyer's "Your erroneous zones."
But all Louise Hay's ideas can be traced back to the original: Monsieur Émile Coué.
He was the trend-setter.
(Or maybe Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius...)
http://www.mind-your-reality.com/support-files/self_mastery_autosuggestion_coue.pdf
Oh, I know she wasn't technically "The First".... I think she put it into bite-sized, digestible morsels.... you know.... chewing gum for the Mind....
OK realise the question is rhetorical but . . .
Not if 'the world is your cushion/lobster'
. . . however some seem to imagine that NT1 is compulsorary (existence is Dukkha)
Hence positive reprogramming as mentioned, is in my cructacean opinion a healthier and more enabling base from which to practice.
Thanks guys.
But not to deny the obvious: that whenever life does not go our way and we are incapable to face that truth, we'll experience suffering.
sounds like amazonian lady bullets for your bow and arrow
Find someone less happy than you and make them happy
@federica Wookiefoot (one of my most loved bands) has a song "don't should on me and i won't should on you" ... you might like them, they have music on bandcamp if you're savvy and familiar
Honestly, making time for your practice is really a great way. If you want to make a mountain and then climb it to the top, you can move a lot of dirt first or climb as you go.
I am always on the lookout (hear out?) for music that has good messages, and it keeps me both positive and helpful! Since then I sing it or tell people about it and the echo grows.
Really, life is miraculous.. Read some Rumi, voltaire, read about tesla, write some haiku, do one particular thing really slowly, appreciate the interconnectedness of all
go run butt naked through a snowy field
suddenly the fireplace is the gift of the gods
and those socks your grandma knit you
are more valuable than gold
Accepting the dukkha would be a good start I think.
For me, I will be striving for simplicity. No self-induced complications. Be open to all of the possibilities. Accept and go forward. Be kind to myself without justifying.
Thanks guys. Acceptance is a good one. Yes we accept Dukkha. Everything is transitory and Dukkha is a given.
Simple transitory experiences that we let go of are acceptable. The harm is in the holding on to what really is just passing through . . .
....And it's ALL just passing through. Right?
Anti Dukkha tips?
As a new Retiree, I finally have time to enjoy yoga.
I also enjoy brisk walks outdoors (and a jog), and lifting weights and the gym.
I used to do long-distance running (half marathons), and that always made me feel GREAT.
Smiles are contagious and after making a few others smile, eventually we begin to get a little on us.
Fairly simple method but it works.
Ach - I'm not used to feeling low but I am right now. Know it's a symptom of my depressive illness as I am just coming out of a long period of numbness. Two weeks ago I felt nothing. Isn't it better to feel something? It's just I don't remember feeling this way before ...
Don't have the energy to laugh right now - difficult to smile - but your cushion @lobster and your clip both raised the corners of my mouth. Thank you
Guess what keeps me going is knowing this is transitory. Even though my new doc says it's about making the good times longer and the bad times shorter and holds out no hope of freedom from this horrid illness, I do know that it always passes in time. Don't know why this is my path. Do try to remember that I am doing something amazing just by existing.
I and my cushion are happy to hear that. Good advice from your doctor. Have to meditate now, so will dedicate my practice to your well being . . .
From what little I know, heavy physical work creates body chemicals that help with depression.
. . . Might have to learn/invent dancing meditation . . . wait a minute been done . . .
OM MANI PEME HUM
Party time . . . Buddhas gone wild . . .
http://innerrave.org
And another approach related to that, is to fake interest in the things that used to make you happy. It is a form of self-compassion that can take you out of the doldrums. Think about the things that you have had in your life when you were happy, and do them again. Becoming interested again, will help.
Best wishes to you
Charles Caleb Colton said: "It is good to act as if. It is even better to grow to the point where it is no longer an act."
@SarahT quotes her doctor above as saying "It's about making the good times longer and the bad times shorter."
What if it were as simple as that?
Simpler said than done, but if we made the conscious (mindful/aware) decision to make the good times last, moment by moment, as life unfolds, it might work.
If we caught ourselves red-handed every time we think we are unhappy and on the spot undertook to reverse the situation to happiness by indulging in some simple homeshift pleasure, or breathing ourselves through the situation...
My sister has depression. It is why we need anti-Dukkha when we are too numb to sit without slouching into misery . . .
I love films and comedy, so for example St Vincent movie is a great lift.
I make no apologies for posting the black dog video again
as you know compassion for others comes from our black dogs, mind afflictions, body cravings and lack of chocolate . . .
. . . a message from the stuffed one . . .
. . . must resist choccy addiction . . .
@SarahT, please don't think me patronising, and as I mentioned in "my" thread, we're always here for you, even if the support is merely moral.... I know, that even with our minor tetchy bickerings, we're a close bunch here, and when a member needs a pick-me-up, we're all ready to offer that hand....
I have found transmitting a good deed, however small, for someone else, can lift me...
Funds are short in the fede-household, but I have, in the past fortnight, helped someone with paying a bus-fare, and a lady at the check-out who could not afford to buy both bread AND cereal.... I have been there....! I know one shouldn't do things to make one's self feel good (and I promise, that was never my motive, intention or primary goal) but seeing joy in the face of one who cannot do anything but smile back in gratitude, is heart-warming, and unites people as fellow beings, rather than just faces in a queue....Even giving someone a compliment on how nice they look, can lift their day.... and the nice thing about giving is that it expands the 'soul'.....
I wish you nothing but well, warmth and much love.
Pema Chodron has some excellent writings on being in dark places.
“We think that the point is to pass the test or overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don't really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It's just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy. (10)”
― Pema Chödrön, When Things Fall Apart: Heartfelt Advice for Hard Times
Anti Dukkha tips
Keep oiling the axle...
http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/depression-part-two.html