The story we bring into this moment about our "problem" makes the moment seem more difficult and stressful than it actually is. How challenging life is, is largely a matter of how much we are just in life without the story of our problem and how much we are not in real life but in our story. We carry our problems around with us mentally and bring them into the moment, spoiling it.

Judgments undermine our relationships with others. They undermine our own happiness as well, since how happy are we when we are feeling judgmental? When we are judging or being judged, we feel contracted, tense, small, and petty. If love and happiness are important to you, then eliminating judging is a good way to bring more love and happiness into your life and into your loved one's lives. And it isn't as difficult as you might think to stop judging. The key is in seeing the truth about your judgments.

Some things matter too much to the ego, and this is a source of unhappiness, things like performing perfectly, looking a certain way, having certain things, and so on. The flip side of this is that many of the little things that actually turn out to matter, especially to true happiness, are overlooked and underrated by the ego.

Nearly everyone is in the grip of at least one desire, sometimes many. Desire is a natural part of the human condition. It comes from a sense of lack that is created by the ego, the false self. It comes from the belief that we need something outside of ourselves to be happy, which is the lie that makes the world go round.

We can't do anything to change what has happened in the past, but we can change how we think about it, including choosing not to think about it at all. We have to learn to move beyond anger and sadness not only for the good of our relationships but also, just as importantly, for our own health and happiness. Harboring negative feelings is bad for our health and only hurts us. It doesn't serve the situation in any way.

Love isn't something that someone causes us to feel, but a state of being that we experience whenever we are fully present in the moment to whatever or whomever is showing up. Love is our natural state, and we experience our natural state whenever the chattering mind is quiet or simply ignored. This state of being is one of peace, acceptance, and love.

Offers exercises for quieting the mind through meditation and for being present in the moment.

Being happy or not being happy is largely a matter of what we focus on. The ego can be miserable, and we can still be happy if we find something loveable about what is going on. Finding something to love is hard for the ego, but it is actually easy because there’s plenty that is loveable about life.

We think of love as being a feeling—an emotion—but true love is more of a doing. Love touches, love gives, love is gentle, and it is kind. That's how we know it. We know love by its fruits. Love acts: It listens, it caresses, it nourishes, it nurtures. It does whatever is needed of it. Love naturally responds to life as it presents itself.

The only reality is this moment, and a lot more than we think is happening in it if we stop thinking long enough to notice.