“This conclusion came after studying long-lived people from many diverse cultures and periods of history. Active mastery means having autonomy over one’s life and circumstances, not power over others.  Beyond any body of evidence about aging and how to prevent it, the single most important factor is that you make something creative from your existence.”

Ten Keys to Active Mastery:

1. Listen to your body’s wisdom, which expresses itself through signals of comfort and discomfort.  When choosing a certain behavior, ask your body, “How do you feel about this?” If your body sends a signal of physical or emotional distress, watch out.  If your body sends a signal of comfort and eagerness, proceed.

2. Live in the present, for it is the only moment you have.  Keep your attention on what is here and now; look for the fullness in every moment.  Accept what comes to you totally and completely so that you can appreciate it, learn from it, and then let it go.  The present is as it should be.  It reflects infinite laws of Nature that have brought you this exact thought, this exact physical response.  This moment is as it is because the universe is as it is.  Don’t struggle against the infinite scheme of things; instead, be at one with it.

3. Take time to be silent, to meditate, to quiet the internal dialogue.  In moments of silence, realize that you are recontacting your source of pure awareness.  Pay attention to your inner life so that you can be guided by intuition rather than externally imposed interpretations of what is or isn’t good for you.

4.  Relinquish your need for external approval.  You alone are the judge of your worth, and your goal is to discover infinite worth in yourself, no matter what anyone else thinks.  There is great freedom in this realization.

5. When you find yourself reacting with anger or opposition to any person or circumstance, realize that you are only struggling with yourself.  Putting up resistance is the response of defenses created by old hurts.  When you relinquish this anger, you will be healing yourself and cooperating with the flow of the universe.

6. Know that the world “out there” reflects your reality “in here.” The people you react to most strongly, whether with love or hate, are projections of your inner world.  What you most hate is what you most deny in yourself.  What you most love is what you most wish for in yourself.  Use the mirror of relationships to guide your evolution.  The goal is total self-knowledge.  When you achieve that, what you most want will automatically be there, and what you most dislike will disappear.

7.  Shed the burden of judgment – you will feel much lighter.  Judgment imposes right and wrong on situations that just are.  Everything can be understood and forgiven, but when you judge, you cut off understanding and shut down the process of learning to love.  In judging others, you reflect your lack of self-acceptance.  Remember that every person you forgive adds to your self-love.

8. Don’t contaminate your body with toxins, either through food, drink, or toxic emotions.  Your body is more than a life-support system.  It is the vehicle that will carry you on the journey of your evolution.  The health of every cell directly contributes to your state of well-being, because every cell is a point of awareness within the field of awareness that is you.

9. Replace fear-motivated behavior with love-motivated behavior.  Fear is the product of memory, which dwells in the past.  Remembering what hurt us before, we direct our energies toward making certain that an old hurt will not repeat itself.  But trying to impose the past on the present will never wipe out the threat of being hurt.  That happens only when you find the security of your own being, which is love.  Motivated by the truth inside you, you can face any threat because your inner strength is invulnerable to fear.

10. Understand that the physical world is just a mirror of a deeper intelligence.  Intelligence is the invisible organizer of all matter and energy, and since a portion of this intelligence resides in you, you share in the organizing power of the cosmos.  Because you are inseparably linked to everything, you cannot afford to foul the planet’s air and water.  But at a deeper level, you cannot afford to live with a toxic mind, because every thought makes an impression on the whole field of intelligence.  Living in balance and purity is the highest good for you and the Earth.

This is 4th book I read by Deepak Chopra.  Interestingly, when I read his thoughts, I catch myself thinking mostly the same.  I get pleasantly surprised when I find some of his expressions are exact like mine, as if we speak the same language.

Sometimes there is a surprise waiting around the corner. Yesterday I was be-friended by three horses. As I drove by, I saw them coming to me. So, I stopped the car and went to see them closer. They greeted me as best friends. There was such a connection, I cannot explain. As I talked to them, they closed their eyes from pleasure… At some point, they even fought for attention.

Think of this. We are all connected. It could be through thought, through action, through communication, and even through sharing our art or invention. Even that homeless person you saw the other day and you are connected. You don’t even know that person, you may argue. You just thought of him or her. Right? You are connected through thought. Or, you drop a stick. The dog picks it up. You are connected. The dog smelled you through the stick. Even when person drops the cigarette butt – the bird like a mockingbird will pick it up and use it in its nest for padding. Seriously, I seen the nest made of cigarette butts, ribbons and moss. All actions have consequences.

We are all connected in one way or another. Did you ever thought of long lost friend, and that friend calls you or e-mails you out of the blue. That’s one powerful connection. We all are made up of energy and we transmit it with our being. Why dogs sniff you after you petted the other dog or animal? They can trace others’ energy, like pawprints. Now, if we all connected through our energies, thoughts and beings, how can we make a world a better place? How can we make a business better? How can we make a communication with our friends, family, or people on the street better?

On business scale, we all pretty much dealt with people who are only concerned about themselves, on both ends: customer and person who serves you. We dealt with people who only care to get paycheck and do not care about customers or service or business. We dealt with customers who rudely talk on the phone and do not pay attention, or walk with their nose in the air treating everyone like they’re beneath them. Now if these people would feel connection to business and others, they might surprise themselves. Employee who cares about business not only helps it, but has a great chance of keeping a job, increasing clients; therefore get more hours and even perhaps a promotion. A customer who respects business, might go home with great product or have the most awesome service. Who knows? Through great communication, they even can have a great connection. Perhaps they will find something they are looking for. Perhaps that person knows someone who can help them with their endeavors.

We are all in Universe (Uni-One, Verse-Song) as Wayne W. Dyer puts it in his book You\’ll See It When You Believe It “No matter how we separate into individual little notes, we are still involved in the onesong.”

Albert Einstein challenges us to think outside ourselves and to see how we all are connected:

“A human being is a part of the whole called by us “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole nature in its beauty.”