How often do you find yourself do something, even when you know it’s the wrong thing to do?

Quite regularly, right?

You get angry, or act selfishly, and then you wish you hadn’t done so. Or sometimes, you let others disturb your inner peace, and you act impulsively, only to regret it later.

It happens to all of us.

I meditate every day, and try to remain calm all the time, yet I find myself losing control several times in a day; even over trivial things.

And it’s during these times that I’ve to remind myself to stay calm and listen closely to my thoughts and feelings, and then take only that action which I know deep down inside me to be the right one.

I know you, too, come across several situations in your day-to-day life that tempt you to do the wrong thing.

And many times, you do end up doing the wrong thing even when you know the right thing to do.

Do you know why this happens?

This happens because you are used to living from the outside in, i.e. letting outer events affect and manipulate your inner well-being. And as long as you let yourself live based on outer conditions, you’ll never be able to live a happy life.

When your happiness depends upon other people, or outside conditions, you are bound to feel unhappy for the simple reason: it’s impossible for you to control the outside world.

If you try to control anything, besides you, you’ll get frustrated and unhappy – that’s what you get when you let the outer world dominate your inner world.

If you want to change that, it’s time you started living from the inside out.

So let’s see what it means to live from the inside out?

Put simply, it means to live your life in such a way that you are true to yourself every moment of your life. It means to do things that you know deep down to be the right thing to do, and not letting any outside event change it.

For example, suppose a friend or relative says something that hurts you. You become instantly angry and defend yourself or insult them in return.

You know anger is not good for you. Yet you let your anger dominate your mind and body. And you let that happen to you just because something happened, over which you had no control.

So, let’s see how we can deal with the same situation when we live from the inside out.

Now, as the person says the words that hurt you, you can see the anger arising inside you. As it arises, you simply observe it without getting involved with it. You think of yourself not as a participant, but as a witness to the event. And then once you have recognized the event for what it is, you can let the anger dissolve inside you, and respond calmly.

So, you see, even for the same situation there can be two different outcomes : you can let the situation win over your inner self, or you can let your inner self win over the situation. Which one will you prefer?

The answer is obvious – you’ll choose the one that is best for the well-being of your body and mind.

When you live from the inside out, you are in perfect control of your thoughts, feelings, and actions. No amount of outer chaos can affect the inner peace in you.

Instead of being carried away like a twig, and letting the wind take you wherever it wants, you can be the solid rock that remains steady even when the wind is at its strongest.

The outer world is uncontrollable, but you can control your inner world. While you can’t control the events in your life that happen to you, you can surely control how you respond to those events.

When you live from the inside out, then everything you do is an action that you intend to do, and not a reaction that automatically happens by you.

We are meant to live from the inside out but thanks to our conditioning by our society and culture we learn to live from the outside in. And then we wonder why we feel unhappy and stressed out all the time.

So for today, just try to live from the inside out and see how far you can do it without letting the outer world affect you. Then try it again tomorrow, and check if you did any better. Keep repeating this until you start living from the inside out naturally, without any effort, just as nature intended you to live.

Thanks for reading this article.

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