A book I read long ago...

As a child, I almost never read any non-fiction or self-help books, but I remember reading one particular book, which contained quite a few interesting concepts. I have not forgotten them till date, though I have read number of such books since then. Of course, I still believe that these self-help books mainly contain what we have been reading in 'Gita', things which we already know, but never implement or may be do not understand. But then, such books simplify these things we know, they explain them and help us to implement them in a simple and logical way.
Coming back to the concepts in that book, I do not even remember the name of it. Anyway, there were few things that stayed with me and that I have observed to be so true. Some of them are:
"When you do not like something someone said or did, you can throw it in your 'mental trash bin'." It is very difficult to actually forget something without thinking of it. Then, the whole purpose of forgetting goes waste. So, sometimes you can fool your mind by marking certain things as 'for trash'. If you practise this for sometime, the mind gets habitual and understands that once something gets marked 'for trash', it is not supposed to be remembered.
"When you cannot solve your problems, go ahead and solve someone else's, so that you get some space to bury your own." Well, I observed that my problem was there to stay, but I helped someone in their issues. So, finally the result was that I got so involved in finding solution to their problems, that for sometime I forgot my own. Plus, my mind came into the 'solution-searching' mode, so it became easier to solve my own problem. Of course, getting away from my own issues also helped me relax and find some peace.
"You are not the only one with a set of problems; someone else might be facing similar ones, so learn from them." How true is this! Sometimes, when you look around, you see that many people might be facing similar issues as yourself, and by observing these people, you get ideas on how to resolve your own issues. Also, the knowledge that you are not alone in your pain, somehow makes it easier to bear.
There are so many small things that you might have known all along, or may be learnt some time in the past, and you realize the importance of those lessons only when you face a situation in life, which makes use of that knowledge. All such events strengthen my belief that no knowledge ever goes waste. Ever!
As a friend said to me some time back, that there is one basic difference between me and the people of my generation brought up under similar circumstances - that I read a lot. Yes, books do change a lot in one, if one is ready to learn. And we should be grateful to be living in an era where books (and hence, knowledge) is so easily accessible.