"In order for humanity to develop, an appeal to Gandhi is inevitable. He lived, thought, acted and inspired with his vision of humanity, one that is evolving towards a world of harmony." - Martin Luther King Jr.

Peace is not just a concept for hippies! To live in the world means to live in harmony with oneself, the people around and all living beings around. Living at peace with oneself can be seen as an inward and outward process. Outward is a way of life in which we respect and love each other regardless of our religious, cultural and political differences. Inwardly, we must look deep into our minds and hearts to recognize the fear that drives us to violence, because as long as we ignore the rage within us, the storm raging outside will never stop.

While you yourself can find ways to achieve peace with yourself and the universe in accordance with your beliefs and lifestyle, there are some basic provisions that cannot be ignored if you are looking for harmony. For example, one should not be cruel, one should be tolerant, hold moderate views and accept life as a miracle. This article contains some tips that will help you on your path to discovering inner harmony, because this is the path for which only you are responsible.

Steps

Strive for love, not control over others. When you stop striving to control people and events in the world, you will take the first step towards a peaceful existence. An attempt to control people is nothing more than the desire to impose their will and reality on them, not wanting to look at the situation through their eyes. This controlling approach will keep you in conflict with those around you. Replacing the desire for control with love for others, despite their shortcomings and differences, is the path to a peaceful life.

• Think about the world, not about power. Gandhi said that power based on love is a thousand times more effective and durable than power gained through threats. If you are used to controlling other people with threats, they will obey out of fear, not out of respect or concern for you. This is a non-peaceful way.
• Learn the skills of negotiation, conflict resolution and persuasive communication. These essential constructive communication skills will help you avoid conflict or get out of conflict. Not all conflicts, however, can be avoided, and not all conflicts should be avoided, but one should be able to behave in a conflict situation. If you do not feel confident in this area of ​​relationships, read more on this topic. Clarity of message is essential to ensure peace, as many conflicts arise from misunderstandings.
• When communicating with others, try to avoid commanding tone, moralizing, threats, or intentionally soliciting information. Any of these behaviors can become a cause for conflict, as people will feel that you are trying to control them, and not talk to them on an equal footing.
• Be sure that other people around you can live a happy life with equal starting points. Based on this, even advice carries a tendency to control, because giving advice, you interfere in someone else's life, and not just expressing your opinion, not expecting that the person will do as you think. Swedish diplomat Dag Hammerskold once said: "Because he didn't know the question, it was easy for him to give the answer." When we give advice, we assume that we know the whole essence of the problem, but in fact, we hardly know this, which means we pass the situation through the prism of our experience. But it's much better to just support a person than to impose your experience as an "answer". In this way, you will cultivate peace, respect and confidence in their intelligence, and not insult and rejection.

1. Reduce your beliefs. When you think in extremes and are convinced of something without taking into account the views and opinions of others, you cannot live in harmony with the world. This type of extremist thinking usually results in abrupt, thoughtless behavior that lacks thoughtfulness and self-reflection. While this may seem convenient as it allows you to act with confidence, it blocks other realities of the world and can easily lead to conflict with people who don't share your beliefs. It is much more difficult to remain open to perception and willing to reconsider your beliefs, but it is more valuable because you will grow as a person and live in harmony with the people around you.

   • Moderate your extreme beliefs, be willing to ask questions and rethink the facts. Accept the fact that your beliefs, beliefs, desires, and opinions are no different in value from many other beliefs, beliefs, desires, and opinions in the world. Follow an ethic of moderation that values ​​human dignity and essence, follow the one true extreme - treat others as you would like to be treated (Golden Rule)
   • Find a variety of activities to do if you feel like you are going to extremes in your relationships with people. It's hard to be intolerant when you have a lot to do and need to interact with a variety of people.
   • Develop a sense of humor. Humor is the disarming spell of the peace fighter. Fanatics rarely have a sense of humor because they are too busy taking themselves and their beliefs too seriously. Humor helps ease tension and show the repressive tendencies of extremist thinking.

2. Be patient. Tolerance in all your thoughts will change your life and the lives of those around you. Tolerance towards other people is manifested in the ability to accept the differences, the pluralism of modern society and the willingness to live oneself and let others live. When we fail to be tolerant of others, we end up with discrimination, repression, cruelty, and violence. The practice of tolerance is the foundation of a peaceful existence.

   Be peaceful. Gandhi said: "There are many things for which I am ready to die, but there is not a single thing for which I am ready to kill." A peaceful person does not use cruelty and violence against another person or animal (reasonable being). There is a lot of violence in the world, but it is your choice not to let death and violence be your philosophy of life.

   Analyze. This is very important, since many hasty reactions lead to tragic consequences, because in a hurry not all possibilities can be taken into account. Naturally, there are situations in which quick action is necessary to ensure safety, but this does not justify many other cases in which careful thought might lead to a better result.

   • If someone has hurt you emotionally or physically, you should not respond with anger and cruelty. Stop and think. Make a peaceful choice.
   • Ask the other person to stop and think about how anger and violence cannot solve problems. Just say "Please don't do this." If they refuse to stop, just remove yourself from the situation.
   • Stop yourself. If you feel like you're about to respond in a way that shows your anger, frustration, or annoyance, tell yourself "Stop." Remove yourself from the situation that gives you confusion and inability to reflect. By giving yourself space, you will also give yourself time to get over the initial anger and replace it with thoughtful solutions, one of which is not responding.
   • Practice reflective listening. Spoken language is not very accurate, and sometimes people under stress say things that hide the true meaning. John Powell said, "In true listening, we seek beyond words, we try to see through them the person. Listening is the search for the treasure, which is the person expressing himself verbally and non-verbally." The importance of reflective listening for achieving peace is that you stop seeing the person only from your side and try to get to the bottom of what the person really says and means. This is more effective than questions and guesses.

3. Seek forgiveness, not retribution. What does the principle of "an eye for an eye" lead to? Usually to the fact that many go blind. Pointless and painful, if we take into account the lessons that history teaches. No matter where we live, what religion we follow, or what culture we belong to, at our core we are all human, with the same ambitions and aspirations to provide for our families and live life to the fullest. Our cultural, religious and political differences must not become a bone of contention and cause conflicts that can only bring sorrow and destruction to the world. When you feel the need to harm another person because your reputation has been damaged or because you feel that their actions deserve the same cruel reaction, you cultivate anger, violence, regret. Replace it with forgiveness, in an attempt to live at peace with yourself and those around you.

   • Live in the present, not the past. When you think about how things should have been and relive past pain, you do not let go of the past, but provoke a constant internal conflict. Forgiveness allows you to live in the present, look forward to the future, and leave the past behind. Forgiveness is the greatest victory because it gives you the opportunity to come to terms with the past and enjoy life.
   • Forgiveness lifts and frees you from resentment. The point of forgiveness is to learn to deal with the negative feelings that result from the action that made you angry or sad. Your task is to learn to accept them, not to suppress them. And forgiveness makes you sympathize with the other person, understand what motivated them. You don't have to accept what they did, it's enough to understand it.
   • Realize that masking your anger as "defending someone's honor" is offensive. First, it takes away the autonomy of those you "protect" (and this in turn allows them to be helpless), and second, it is a cruel excuse for harm. If you feel that someone's honor has been hurt in a certain situation, allow the intended victim to speak up (they may see it in a different light than you) and seek a solution through forgiveness and deep understanding.
   • Even if you feel that forgiveness cannot be granted, that is no reason to resort to violence. Instead, step back and be a better person.

4. Find inner peace. Without inner peace, you will always feel conflict within yourself. Trying to fill your life with objects, or raising your social level without being able to stop and listen to yourself, will make you constantly feel unhappy. When you crave something that you don't have, you are in conflict. It is very easy to forget to be grateful for what you have if you are constantly striving to improve your wealth, career, home and life. In the same way, excess wealth causes a similar conflict, because by owning a lot, you will be forced to follow the "needs" of your things, whether it be repairs, cleaning, insurance, and security.

   • Re-prioritize and decide what makes your life brighter and better, and discard the rest.
   • When you're angry, find a quiet place to stop, take a deep breath, and relax. Turn off the TV, tape recorder and computer. If possible, get out into nature, or take a walk. Put on some soothing music and turn off the lights. When you regain your peace, return to your life.
   • At least once a day, spend ten minutes in a quiet place, such as in the shade of a tree or in a park, anywhere where you can sit quietly and have no distractions.
   • Living in peace means more than just the absence of violence and cruelty. Try to cultivate peace in all aspects of life - try to reduce stress. When possible, stressful situations such as traffic, crowds, and the like should be avoided.

5. Live in joy. The choice to accept life as a miracle is the antidote to violence. It's hard to be cruel to what seems beautiful, wonderful, amazing and joyful. Indeed, the greatest despair that wars bring is the destruction of innocence, beauty and joy. Joy brings peace into your life because you are always ready to see the good in people and in the world and are grateful for the wonderful manifestations of life.

   • Do not deprive yourself of the right to happiness. Feeling unworthy of happiness, worrying about how others will perceive your happiness, and fear about the horror that awaits when happiness ends are all negative thought patterns that can prevent you from finding joy in life.
   • Do what you love. Life is not only your job. While work is what helps you make a living, you need something to express yourself in the world. Fitch Nath Khan said: "Do not live with a vocation that involves cruelty to people and nature. Do not invest in companies that deprive others of the opportunity to live. Choose a vocation that will allow you to express your ideal of compassion." Decide for yourself how literally you are ready to take these words, and strive for work that helps to lead a peaceful lifestyle.

6. Be the change you want to see in the world. Not just like that, we turn to the experience of Gandhi. There are many active ways to help you become the change you want to see in the world.

7. Expand your understanding of the world. You are free to choose your path. Everything you read in this article is just a suggestion. You should not follow this as a dogma, this is not an attempt to impose thinking on you, take it like any other text. In the end, the choice to live in the world will be your own, conscious decision, based on your aspirations and views from all over the world, from all the people you have ever met, as well as from your own conscience and knowledge. Go in peace.

   • Keep learning. This article has only touched the surface of what is a deep personal and world necessity. Read as much material as you can on the topic of peace, especially about peace activists and practitioners, you can learn a lot from them. Share your knowledge with others and spread the teachings of the world wherever you go.
   • If you are looking for approval in others, you will not find your life - this is the way of your restructuring in accordance with other people's desires. Instead, accept yourself for who you are and live in love with yourself and those around you.
   • Accept the fact that some people will not be able to accept this and will not help you, because they do not help themselves. One should look at such a person with compassion, fear and hatred are not needed here, but also one should not act according to their desires. Be polite, firm and kind to such people.
   • If you or your children are asked to dissect in class, look for alternatives to such harmful action. There are adequate alternatives.

   Warnings

   • Peace "at any cost" will lead you to slavery or destruction. There are people among us who adhere to an extremely aggressive ideology of military and totalitarian systems. They can coexist peacefully, but not without inner wariness.
   • Learn about nutrition if you decide to go vegetarian. It is necessary to follow a certain nutritional strategy in order to provide the body with the necessary elements.

Paradoxically, we tend to be more accepting of others, with all their positive and negative qualities, than of ourselves. When it comes to ourselves, we become the harshest judges. And this is not entirely good, as it indicates a lack of confidence in one's own abilities, a fear of making decisions.

If you accept yourself, this does not mean that you do not want to work on yourself and become better. These two things are not mutually exclusive. This means that you are in harmony with yourself, and this psychological state is of great importance for success and happiness. Here are three ways to achieve this state:

1. Know your strengths

Most people cannot accept themselves because they hardly know their strengths. They think they don't have them. It seems that some people notice only flaws in themselves, and do not see any advantages. We cannot agree with this, as this is an erroneous opinion. Each has a combination of strengths and weaknesses. It means to be human. It is your responsibility to try to get to know yourself better and discover your own qualities. Everyone will find them if you look deep enough. You may be surprised to find so many benefits.

2. Give up perfectionism

Another problem that stands in the way of self-acceptance is perfectionism. If you want to be perfect (a), you cannot accept yourself as ordinary. And since this is impossible to achieve, you will never accept yourself, even if you are a successful person with the most impressive achievements. For this reason, it is extremely important to abandon perfectionism. Do not dream of becoming the embodiment of perfection. Waiting is in vain and useless. Yes, work on yourself to grow as a person, but don't demand a state of perfection from yourself.

3. Get the support of others

Your social circle can play a key role in being in tune with yourself. It is important to surround yourself with people whom you accept as you are, and they in turn accept you with all your strengths and weaknesses. If the people around you do not meet these two conditions, it is useful to start by changing your circle of friends. Conquer your shyness, meet new people, talk to them, make friends and rebuild your social circle. The more positive people around you, and less negative ones, the more you will love and accept yourself. You will notice that as your self-image improves, so will your quality of life for the better.

To be a good person means to be in harmony with yourself.
Discord is the need to be in harmony with others. Oscar Wilde

One of the most important conditions for stable happiness is being in agreement with yourself. Consent with oneself brings harmony and peace to the soul of a person, allows him to feel at ease in any situation, to live exactly the way he wants.

What does it mean to be in harmony with yourself? Consent with oneself is a complex sense of self, which includes agreement with oneself present, past and future. In other words, looking back, you do not regret anything, making plans for the future - you understand that these are your desired goals, formed not under the influence of someone's requirements or stereotypical beliefs, not because it is so fashionable or because “everything do." When making decisions in the present, you listen to the opinions of others, but make the final decision yourself, confident that this is the most correct for you of all possible.

Let's take a closer look at what is included in agreement with oneself? What should one strive for in order to live in harmony with oneself?

1. Being at peace with yourself means knowing exactly what you want and doing what you want without hesitation. To know what you want, you need a very good understanding of yourself, your temperament, life experience and what can bring true joy.
2. Being in harmony with himself, a person acts, adhering to his own system of values, without changing it under the influence of other people or fleeting events. He enjoys the way of life that he leads, recognizes the significance of his achievements without regard to others, without the desire to compare himself with others. Consent with yourself relieves anxiety and anxiety, thanks to an understanding of the correctness of your value system for you, a balanced, conscious approach, mature, moral standards that you are guided by.
   
3. The degree of agreement with oneself is assessed by how much what you have, what you do, what you have is useful to you and what is not. To do this, sometimes you have to give up previously set goals, realizing that these are not your plans and dreams. But it helps to open up to new horizons, namely yours.
4. A person who lives in harmony with himself can look back into his past without regret, reproaches and self-flagellation, because he understands that all events, all decisions that he made earlier, even if not the best ones based on today's understanding of them, served one single purpose. - his personal growth, spiritual enrichment, gaining invaluable life experience. There would be no obstacles, wrong turns on the path of life - there would be no incentives for a better understanding of oneself, one's true values ​​and needs. There are no difficulties - there is no development either, some truths can only be learned through personal experience. And in the end, everything that happens is for the best.
5. A person who lives in harmony with himself sets himself realistic goals in the short term. You can want a lot, but you need to correctly assess your strengths and set achievable goals for the near future. Listen to yourself, but do not contradict the existing reality.
   
6. To be in harmony with oneself means to be attentive to bodily reactions on this or that event: they help to make the right choice. And for this you need to be able to distinguish impulsive reactions from genuine ones. For example, some body reactions are associated with a reaction not to the current situation, but to the one that was before. But insofar as it was then very traumatic, the avoidance reaction is triggered. henceforth all similar situations. And then a person can lock himself in a narrow comfort zone, afraid to expand its boundaries. It is necessary to learn how to assess how the current reaction of the body reflects exactly what is happening and, based on this, make the right choice. In general, a person who lives in harmony with himself feels cheerful, has a good appetite, easily falls asleep and gets enough sleep.
7. To be in harmony with oneself means to make decisions independently according to one's own principles, to be responsible for one's decisions and to give up the senseless desire to blame others for one's failures.
8. To be in agreement with yourself means to accept that not all of your actions and decisions will please your environment, to act in spite of possible resentment, disappointment and misunderstanding on the part of loved ones and not so people.
9. A person who, in agreement with himself, will not impose his point of view on others, because he appreciates and respects not only his own right, but also the right of another person to be in agreement with himself. And because in order to agree with himself, he does not need such an additional condition - an obligatory agreement with his point of view of others.
10. To be in harmony with ourselves also implies that sometimes we deviate from this state. Sometimes it is the awareness of one's troubles that helps to return to oneself again, to be oneself. To be a man, and not a sinless god, means learning to live, knowing that we make mistakes and will make mistakes, correcting mistakes, admitting mistakes, but maintaining friendly relations with ourselves, understanding and accepting everyone.

Be in harmony with yourself.

How often in life we ​​easily understand and accept the actions, thoughts, actions of other people, regardless of whether they were positive or negative. But when it comes to understanding ourselves, understanding our own feelings, desires, possibilities, actions, we face great difficulties in the sense of correctly and objectively explaining everything that we have done or want to do in the future.

It must be said that such a state of mind is considered negative, bad, as it indicates one's own insecurity, fear, indecision in making correct and justified decisions.

A person who accepts himself feels harmony in relation to himself. This state, from the point of view of psychology, can bring success and happiness to a person. But this does not mean that, having achieved it, a person stops working on himself in order to become better. On the contrary, these two things complement each other.

Living in harmony with oneself: what does it mean?

Being in harmony with himself, a person knows exactly what he wants from this life, so he boldly does his favorite thing. The right decision to engage in life that brings pleasure and other benefits is made only when a person understands himself very well, his character, experience, his true desire to do what gives him real joy.

Accepting himself, a person develops his own system of values, which does not change from the actions and opinions of other people, temporary phenomena and events. He leads a lifestyle that is significant for himself, and not for others. A person fully enjoys his life, achievements. He never compares himself with others, calm, serene. He is fully aware of his moral standards, values, approach to life and is directly guided by them.

How harmoniously a person feels is determined by whether he considers useful everything that he has achieved, received, done. Yes, sometimes you have to let go of past goals and realize what you really want out of life. And believe me, it is after such a conscious, justified understanding that new paths, horizons for further actions begin to open.

A person who is in agreement with himself does not regret the past, does not reproach himself for past deeds, actions, thoughts, decisions, even if they are not at all what we would like now, at this point in time. After all, everything that happens in a person's life is not in vain. To do this, there is a goal in nature - to enrich a person spiritually, to promote the growth of his personality, to give him the necessary life experience, to push him to a deep understanding of himself, his own values, norms, interests. Remember, a person develops only through personal life experience.

By accepting oneself, a person sets realistic goals that can be achieved in the near future. At the same time, he correctly determines his own strengths, listening to himself and not denying the current reality.

Living in harmony with himself, a person is extremely attentive to those reactions of the body that are caused by certain events that occurred sometime in his life. These reflexes often help make the right decision. But this happens only when this reaction reflects the real reality, and not the situation that brought psychological trauma in the old days. Having experienced something unpleasant in the past, many people reflexively close themselves off from everything similar in real life, trying to avoid such situations. You need to learn to understand how relevant the resulting reaction is for a given period of time, and based on this, draw the right conclusions. In general, harmonious people have cheerfulness, good appetite, sound sleep, and the absence of insomnia.

Living in harmony with himself, a person makes decisions on his own, guided by his own principles. He is always responsible for these decisions, does not blame other people in case of an unsuccessful outcome.

Finding agreement with himself, a person knows that his actions are not always liked by others, whether they are close relatives, friends or other people. They can offend them, disappoint them, and sometimes they are simply not understood and not accepted by people around them. Despite this negative attitude, a person continues to do what at the moment he considers necessary and useful. At the same time, he does not insist that everyone, without exception, accept his point of view. Respect for the opinions of other people, the ability to appreciate the right of any person to be able to accept and understand oneself - this is what distinguishes a harmonious personality. And the agreement of other people with his own point of view is not at all necessary.

And finally, to live in harmony with oneself means to understand that we are not gods, that everyone makes mistakes, sins, but not everyone understands this. Admit your own mistakes, learn to live with them, try to correct them in the future without losing harmony with yourself, understand and accept anyone, regardless of previous life experience, regardless of whether he was prosperous or not - that's what a person can do living in harmony with himself.

Other articles on this topic:

How to be yourself Why you need to work on yourself Believe in yourself How to become a happy person Benefits of Meditation About burnout syndrome How to change yourself? How to control emotions

Live in peace with people

(self-knowledge lesson for 6th grade students)

Value: Love

Qualities: kindness, understanding, seeing the good in everything

The purpose of the lesson: deepen the understanding of the value of mutual understanding, of the responsibility of each person for establishing peace and harmony in relations between people.

Tasks:

- disclosure of the importance for a person of the desire to be in good relations with people;

- developing the ability to find mutual understanding with people;

- cultivating the desire to be kind and sensitive towards other people.

During the classes

positive attitude

Teacher: Guys, imagine a clear summer day. You are in a sunny meadow. You have silk grass under your feet. Bees buzz peacefully over the flowers. Transparent air freely penetrates the lungs, saturating the body with peace and tranquility. A light breeze gently caresses the skin, sorting through the hair. The skin becomes smooth, clean and elastic. Hair absorbs the force of the breeze. The warm sun gently touches your body. The light of the sun flows into all the cells of the body. The cells of the body are saturated with vitality and joy. The golden solar vitality permeates the skin, organs, and tissues of the body. The power of the sun restores your body, makes it healthy, resilient, beautiful, joyful. You see light fluffy clouds against the blue sky. These are clouds of health and happiness. Your body, saturated with sunlight, becomes lighter and lighter. You rise to the clouds and plunge into one of them. You feel how soft, fluffy, light and gentle the cloud is. A gentle pleasant cloud easily penetrates your solar body, saturating it with peace and happiness. The cloud gives your body health and harmony. Happiness penetrates your body, saturating it with radiance and beauty.

Lesson topic announcement

The teacher reads a poem that prepares students for the perception of the topic of the lesson.

Nikolai Rylenkov

When we are young, we forgive ourselves

Judging others with a ruthless judgment.

Remembering our mistakes, we promise

That everything will be fixed somehow later.

And life goes on. Her ways are hard

And old age will exact all our debt to fate.

We will be ready to forgive everything else

And we won't forgive ourselves!

Participation in the conversation helps students to see the range of issues that are important for establishing peace and harmony between people.

The teacher asks questions:

What does it mean to live in peace with people?

Why is it important and necessary to live in peace?

What is necessary to establish peaceful relations with the surrounding people?

Is it possible to live in harmony with oneself? What is required for this?

Can you get along with the people around you? How do you do it?

What do you do when you find yourself in conflict with someone around you? (student answers)

Teacher's comment: Guys, today we will talk about the responsibility of a person for his actions, about the fact that we need to learn how to live in a big world of people

Teacher's story: The bitter smell of wormwood

(Excerpt from the story) Sain Muratbekov

(see Self-Knowledge Textbook for Grade 6, pp. 73-77)

An excerpt from the story shows how respect for a person develops, how naturalness, the desire to sincerely help causes a good attitude from others.

Then questions for discussion:

What impression did Sadik make on you?

What can you say about Esikbay?

How did Ayan justify the first impression he made on the guys?

Why did no one want to quarrel with Ayan?

Why did Ayan win universal sympathy?

Can first impressions be deceiving? (student answers)

Creative activity

This task focuses students on the application of acquired knowledge and skills in real life. By completing the task, students will understand that for good, good deeds, special conditions are not needed, you just need to be attentive and sensitive to the people around you.

To achieve the best result, the teacher divides the students into 2-3 groups.

Each group demonstrates a scene according to the script.

Write a short script on the topic “Make friends with the neighbors”. In the scenario, think about what can be done to bring together adults and children living nearby, offer some kind of business that will interest everyone. Knowing that there are people in every home who need help, suggest how we can work together to help them. Act out the scene.

Analyzing the results of the work of each group, the teacher notes how correct the chosen methods of bringing neighbors together were, whether the cases invented for the general participation of all neighbors were relevant and useful. You can offer to try to implement them in practice and tell us about the results in the future.

Study Information

The teacher invites one of the students to read the information in the heading “Learning new things”. Students' reasoning, conclusions. made during the discussion of the story are confirmed by this educational information, in which, in a concise form, they revealed important details of the relationship between people, the conditions of peace and harmony between them.

Each person can live in peace with the people around him. It is important to remember that both the manner of speaking and listening contribute to this, but the main thing is a benevolent attitude towards people, the desire to understand them and help them. The main condition for a peaceful neighborhood with other people is kindness, reasonableness in actions, the ability to forgive.

positive statement ( lesson quote)

We cannot live only for ourselves. Thousands of threads connect us with other people; and through these threads... our actions become causes and return to us as effects.

Herman Melville

How do you understand the meaning of the saying of the American writer?

Homework: Task 3 workbook

Look at the pictures (fire, drowning man, girl lost at school, slipped man). What will you do if you witness these cases? Write about your actions using the names of objects or actions that are necessary in these situations.

Final minute of the lesson: Guys, remember what good and new you learned in today's lesson. Share with everyone a piece of your happiness, love and kindness: mentally say how much you love your family, your friends and all people.

Thanks guys for the lesson!