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A wise woman and her young disciple were walking down the street. Suddenly, out of nowhere, an angry man in a carriage drove haphazardly by the two, insensitively pushing the woman out of his way. She landed in a ditch filled with muddy water. The woman yelled after the man in the carriage, “May you have everything you want!” The disciple, surprised by the wise woman’s response, said: “I’m confused. Why did you say that to a man with such horrible behavior?” The woman replied, “Because a happy man wouldn’t have thoughtlessly pushed a woman into a ditch.”

Do you agree with this woman’s response? In my book The Bounce Back Book, I offer empowering strategies for embracing forgiveness and liberating yourself from anger and bitterness—even in the most challenging situations.

Here are 8 strategies to free you from your resentments starting today!

1. Say a Prayer
Whenever angry feelings about a person who’s harmed you enter your mind, tell yourself: “We are all good, loving souls who occasionally get lost.” Pray for this person to find their way back to a happier place—in the same way the woman in this story prayed for her offender.

2. Focus on Gratitude
Resist seeking happiness from the outside in. Instead, focus on gratitude exercises to bring happiness from the inside out. If you allow your self-image to be at the mercy of unpredictable events and unreliable people, your happiness will be forever on a chaotic roller coaster ride! Happiness must always be an inside joy! Whenever you are tempted to focus on all the ways the world has done you wrong, instead count your blessings by making a list of the five aspects of your life that you appreciate. It is good practice to purposefully end your day this way to keep focused.

FOR THE REST OF THE TIPS…check out the full article up on OPRAH.COM by clicking this line right here, right now!

For more about THE BOUNCE BACK BOOK (praised by Anthony Robbins!) click this line, right here, RIGHT NOW!

(NOTE: The following is an excerpt from my newest Huffingtonpost article — which you can read fully HERE!)

True story: Lately I have been finding myself cutting down on the massive amounts of coffee I love to drink, not for health reasons, but for time management reasons. These days, I often go from one conference call to another, then head from one meeting to another, to writing one thing or another — and so I literally barely have time to hit the restroom — let alone rest.

It seems every morning I wake up to face a list of 20 things to do, with time only to do 10, and somehow I always wind up squishing in 30.

In The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, author Sogyal Rinpoche describes a Western tendency he calls “active laziness”: the need to compulsively cram your life with a myriad of unimportant activities, leaving little time to confront what really matters. He jokingly renames the petty projects called “responsibilities” as “irresponsiblities.“

What Rinpoche describes is reminiscent of what author Milan Kundera philosophized about in his book Slowness, a slender volume I ironically sped through in a night. Kundera explains how we live in a highly sped-up culture, and that our need for speed promotes forgetting. For example: If you want to forget something, you will pick up speed walking down the street. If you want to remember something, you’ll slow down your steps.

Kundera warns how speeding up your life not only keeps you from remembering daily details (“Oops! Forgot to pick up more milk!”) but also keeps you forgetful about your overall life values and how to live your most passion-filled, love-filled, growth-filled, fun-filled life.

Meaning? The next time you find yourself racing quickly down the street, know that you’re not only running to your next appointment, you are literally running from contact with your truest feelings, deepest needs and most valuable insights.

With all this in mind… I offer some HELPFUL and thereby HEALTHFUL tips on HUFFINGTONPOST — for not only saving time but enjoying your life more, dammit! Read ‘em by clicking RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW!

“Things usually work out in the end.”

“What if they don’t?”

“That just means you haven’t come to the end yet.”

— Jeannette Walls (The Glass Castle)