Designing your future self

In this podcast, Gen Chodor explains that all personal and spiritual growth begins in the imagination: we each hold a vision of who we want to become – less stressed, more confident, more peaceful – and without that vision, change is impossible. Drawing on Eight Steps to Happiness, he describes how just as buildings and inventions first exist in the mind of an architect, our inner qualities and identities also begin as mental blueprints. Although we often change external identities – careers, relationships, locations – in search of happiness, these shifts alone never bring lasting freedom from problems. By vividly imagining and identifying with our highest spiritual potential through meditation, we create a clear inner blueprint that, with practice and mental training, can gradually become our lived reality. Based on the book The New Eight Steps to Happiness by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso.