This is Optimal Living Daily. Become happy in the face of physical misery by Leo Babata of zenhabits.net.

And I'm Justin Mollock, your personal narrator, except on the extra Sunday bonus episodes.

That's where I share an episode from a different podcast in the Optimal Living Daily network.

Today is coming from my brother's show Optimal Health

Daily. You can find and follow or subscribe to Optimal Health Daily wherever you're listening to

this. Now let's get right to the bonus episode as we optimize your life.

Become happy in the face of physical misery by Leo Babouda of zenhabits.net.

Last week, I came down with a bad case of poison oak rash. Now, that might not sound that bad,

but this rash covered all over my body, including places best left undiscussed, and also my face, eyes, and mouth. It's not pretty,

and while I won't go into details, it's pretty disgusting and miserable. I have to admit,

it's frustrating. I live a pretty healthy life, eating lots of vegetables and whole foods,

very little sugar and refined carbs or processed foods, and get plenty

of exercise, meditation, and more. My health is usually under my control, but for almost a week

now, it hasn't been. This weekend, as I examined my body that is giving me so much physical

discomfort and stress, I thought about what was making me unhappy. And if this were

the case for the rest of my life, would I just be unhappy all the time? I considered people who

have physical ailments all the time. There are plenty of people whose bodies are out of their

control, who cannot physically feel good most of the time, who have illnesses and miseries every day.

I'm very lucky compared to them.

So here's the process I've been going through to help me be happier,

with a note that I constantly fail at this process and have to try it again.

I'm not perfect at it, but being perfect at it isn't the point.

...