It is easy to misunderstand yourself and others and often difficult to move beyond that misunderstanding to universally accepting things as they are.

The world is full of suffering. Holding on to hurt and our own suffering guarantees a world of continuing pain, dysfunction, disconnection, failure, and misery. The key to conquering this negativity is to develop compassion and mercy in our lives and to apply those virtues as tools in our dealings with others. It begins with simple acts of forgiveness and an expectation of compassion.

Compassion is a human emotion that is experienced by perceived pain and suffering in others. Etymologically, the word compassion means to suffer together with. Compassion often involves an active desire to alleviate another’s suffering. Various cultures and spiritual traditions around the world have recognized the value of compassion within the individual as a key component to spiritual maturity.

Researchers have found that when we think about someone or something we truly appreciate, and experience the feeling that goes with the thought, we trigger the parasympathetic or calming branch of the autonomic nervous system. With repetition, this pattern bestows a protective effect on the heart.

When you send out positive vibrations, you receive the same back from others. Showing gratitude passes positive energy from one person to another. It can positively affect someone’s day, week, or entire life. It also brings us happiness, which is healthy. Gratitude is a universal experience and has been a component of many religious traditions for centuries.

What makes a person successful? Is it measured by wealth; by how many expensive cars you have parked in the garage of your multi-million dollar home, or is it something more? Many people judge success by money, but others determine success by happiness. When you go to bed at night you should be satisfied with everything you’ve accomplished during the day, and when you wake up in the morning you should be excited about the challenges before you.

Live life to the fullest – that is a wonderful creed to live by. Living a full, successful life can be as simple as putting your ideas and plans into motion, but sometimes that can be easier said than done. Where do you start?

The root of much unhappiness is comparison. Comparison gets in the way of healthy self-appreciation — and thus happiness – more than anything else. Because of comparison, hardly anybody is ever happy with what they get and nothing’s ever good enough for practically everybody. That’s because we measure our success in anything by comparing it to what others have or to what we have had before.

In other words, whether you are happy with what you get depends on how it measures up to some norm. That norm depends on two things: what other people get (social comparison), and what you yourself are used to getting (habituation). It is hard for success in any form (money, status, prestige, and so on) to improve your happiness because as actual success rises, the norm by which success is judged rises in step.