A Book That Will Make You More Peaceful
If you ask me what is that one short and easy book that has helped me calm myself and made me more peaceful in life, I would answer
“The Four Agreements” by Don Miguel Ruiz
As the name of the book suggests, 4 Agreements, is a book about 4 agreements which when you make with yourself and follow them, you will lead a life of full mental freedom.
Those 4 Agreements are
Be Impeccable with your words
Words are magic spells, they can break or make people, if you say something great, it might make someone’s day but a bad word (bad spell) might depress someone so much that they might commit suicide.
Hitler did a mass movement just by his speech, you see how words are magic spells.
So being impeccable with your word means that in life whatever you say, say what you mean with full integrity, words that come out of your mouth can’t be undone.
Try and ask yourself “Is it worth saying?” or try to put a price tag on your words, that whatever you shall speak should be valuable enough to make a positive difference in someone’s life.
If you just follow this one thing and speak only what you mean, you would be able to see a drastic difference in your life.
Don’t take anything personally
A lot of problems also arrive because we treat other’s opinions of us as mere facts.
If someone tells us that “We are brainless?” we get offended.
“How he could say that to me” is what you will say
The point here is what the guy mentioned is his/her opinion, he saying it doesn’t make it a fact.
On the contrary, if you get offended by his remark it gives him feedback that what he mentioned was true and that is why you took it personally.
So whenever someone mentions something to you whether it is praise or criticism, try to seek how much truth is in the statement rather than taking it personally.
Seeking truth will help you discover more about yourself and increase your self-awareness and with time you will understand those statements now don’t affect you.
Don’t assume anything
Most of our miseries come to us because we believe and assume a lot of things rather than asking for clarification.
Assuming is easy but asking for clarification is what will give you the mental peace and freedom that you seek.
Seneca, the stoic philosopher said this very beautiful quote
There are more things … likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality.
We suffer in imagination because we think and assume a lot rather than clarify things and this is what makes us worry about things and increase our anxiety.
A lot of your problems will perish if you ask for straight-way clarifications no matter how dumb you look or sound because in the end, you are the one who will benefit the most from it.
Always do your best
The 4th Agreement is simple yet very hard, it is to always give your 100% in whatever you do, let it be a very minute task or a very humungous one, you give a full shot at everything you do.
No moment should arrive in life where you have to say “If I could have done so and so” because that would only create regrets in life that you didn’t actually try what you could have.
No “If I could have” from this point on, do the best you can on the things that you can control.
If you gave your 100% and still didn’t make it, you would still be at ease because you know that you did all you can on the things that you control.
This is 1 Agreement that would help you lead a regretless life if properly followed.
TL DR
In a nutshell, below are the 4 Agreements
- Be Impeccable with your words
- Don’t take anything personally
- Don’t assume anything
- Always give your best
If you want to buy the book here is the link: The Four Agreements
Thank you for patiently reading
