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what has gone well and exercise gratitude. Positive psychologist Martin Seligman created this exercise, which increases happiness and well-being in everyone who tries it.
    WHAT WENT WELL, OR THREE BLESSINGS
    Every night for a week, take ten minutes before you go to sleep to write down three things that went well for you today. Keep a physical record in a journal or on your computer or your phone’s notes app. The three things that went well can be small or large, unimportant or important. (“The train came on time.” “My husband cleared the snow from the driveway.” “My niece’s surgery was successful.” “My boss gave our department a bonus.”)
    Next to each item that went well, answer the question “Why did this go well?” (“The train crews anticipated bad weather.” “My husband can be thoughtful.” “My niece found the right doctor and prepared for her surgery.” “Our department works hard and well together.”)
    Keep this list for at least one week and you will feel better, happier, and more grateful for all the blessings in your life. You will feel more connected to your heart and your life in the present. The longer you practice gratitude and counting your blessings, the longer your happiness will last and the more blessings you will have.



7. Becoming a Person of the Heart
    When you begin to touch your heart or let your heart be touched, you begin to discover that it’s bottomless . . . huge, vast, and limitless.
    —PEMA CHÖDRÖN
    Because Eckhart Tolle’s words had set me on my path to exploring the powers of the heart, I was particularly eager to meet and interview him. I also wanted to hear about Tolle’s own awakening experience as a young research assistant at the University of Cambridge. At his home near Vancouver, Canada, Tolle told me that in his twenties, he wrestled for years with unbearable anxiety and thoughts of suicide. The world felt cold and hostile to him and he reached the point where he felt he wanted to leave it sooner rather than later. One night, the pain, anxiety, and dread were worse than everbefore, and Tolle kept thinking that he just could not live with himself anymore.
    Suddenly, he had a different thought: “If I cannot live with myself, then there must be two selves: the ‘I’ and the ‘self’ that ‘I’ cannot live with.” And, he realized, perhaps only one of those selves was real.
    This realization so overwhelmed Tolle that in that moment, he was unable to think anymore. Even though he was conscious, his mind could not form a single thought; for the first time in his life, his mind was put completely on standby. He wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, but before he could, he suddenly felt drawn into a vortex of energy and his body began to tremble uncontrollably. Scared that he might lose himself, Tolle clung desperately to who he thought himself to be: Ulrich Leonard Tolle, a research assistant, a German, a man, a person, a . . . But all he could do was to give in to that whirl of energy. When he did, he heard a voice within his chest tell him not to resist—and suddenly he wasn’t afraid.
    Tolle could not remember what happened next, but when he came to the next morning, he felt different. At peace. And the world around him seemed to have changed. It no longer seemed hostile, but beautiful. Tolle strolled through the city in utter amazement at the beauty all around him. He felt as if he had been born again in some essential way.
    Only later would he understand what had happened to him. The intense pressure of his suffering that night had become so bad that his consciousness had been forced to liberate itself from his unhappy and fearful “self.” Tolle said it was as if his past had been suddenly erased and his future had become unimportant. The only thing that mattered was the present, the now. And in that powerful here and now, everything was good.
    Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it