How can I be the best teacher?

“Live not in the pursuit of happiness, but as an expression of joyfulness.” — Sadhguru

Last year, I had just gone through a tough breakup and was desperate to reignite my inner spark for life. I was also finishing up my book and embarking on a new journey of life as an author. I knew I needed help. So I traveled to France to spend a week at Thich Nhat Hanh’s monastery, Plum Village.

We lived, meditated, and worked alongside the monks and nuns. It was a beautiful experience filled with quiet reflection and reverence for the simple joys of being alive. Toward the end of the week, the nuns at my hamlet offered a private one-on-one meeting with any one of us who wanted it. I jumped at the chance, with one single question burning in my heart: “How can I be the best teacher?”

Late one afternoon, I met with a young Sister beneath a leafy green tree. With an open heart, I told her how I had been touched with the epiphany that death shows us the value of life and that I felt a mission to help others find their inner fire to live. I wanted her to tell me how to be a leader, how to inspire people, how little old me should act to best change the world.

“How can I be the best teacher of this message?” I asked with an open, vulnerable heart.

She looked at me with kind, clear eyes and smiled.

“Your life is the message,” she replied.

I hope I never forget this advice for as long as I live. We can all chase happiness, chase success, chase our ideal embodiment of leadership. Or we can just be.

What I have learned in my research about the fear of death is that one of its greatest antidotes is the idea of rippling, that our very existence creates ripples of effect that spread to our families, neighbors, the community, and all of humanity. Rippling brings us comfort because it gives our lives meaning, but it also reminds us that the way we live and interact with the world is of great power.

I can write a hundred books about the ideas of living like you might die tomorrow, finding peace and joy in the simple beauty of being alive, and the power of enjoying one’s life — but none of it will be as impactful as living my truth, enjoying my own life, and cultivating love and peace within myself.

We each have a world within ourselves. This world is an ecosystem of all of our love, joy, worry, pain, and wonder. To nurture this world within ourselves is to also nurture our greater world and greater consciousness. Our individual ripple effects are profound. Suppress no joy. Your soul radiates.