Self-Inquiry: Happy for No Reason

If you have painful thoughts or beliefs, try this practice to turn them around.

Ask yourself four simple questions about the painful belief or thought:

1. Is it true?

2. Can you absolutely know it is true?

3. How do you react when you believe that thought?

4. Who would you be without the thought?

Then apply a "turnaround" statement, a sentence expressing the reverse of your thought or belief.

For each turnaround, find three genuine examples of how the turnaround is true in your life. This is not about blaming yourself or feeling guilty. It's about discovering alternatives that can bring you peace.

When you believe your negative thoughts, you suffer. Turn them around, and the suffering and pain disappears.

Adapted from Happy for No Reason: Seven Steps to Being Happy From the Inside Out by Marci Shimoff, Free Press, Jan. 2008, $24.95.