rich, happy, and successful,

and it can make all of your dreams come true

and I'm gonna tell you what this trick is

by sharing with you a story

about how somebody learned this trick too late in life.

This is Lucas.

Lucas was born in the middle of America

to a man named John and a woman named Emily.

From a very early age, Lucas displayed signs of genius.

People would watch him in shock

as he solved these incredibly complex math equations

as if they were simple puzzle pieces

that he could easily fit together.

He had intelligence far beyond the other kids

and even most of his teachers.

It became clear to everyone

that Lucas would go on to do great things in this lifetime.

His parents were proud of him

and they loved him with all their hearts.

But one day, something happened to Lucas.

It was something that would leave a permanent scar

on the bright canvas of his life.

It was a moment that was truly unforgettable.

One foggy night,

Lucas' mother was working late in her office.

After she was done, she got into her car and she drove home

to see her loving family.

As she was driving through a green light,

she was hit directly in the driver side door

by an intoxicated driver.

While Lucas was reading a book in his room,

his dad came in and said,

"Son, your mother was in a car accident.

"She's in critical condition at the hospital."

When Lucas was looking at his mother's unconscious body

in that white bed, it didn't feel real.

This is something that only happens in the movies

in order to make you cry.

It's not something that is actually supposed to happen

in real life, Lucas thought to himself.

A few hours later, Lucas' mother was pronounced dead.

Lucas did not attend the funeral.

He didn't really talk to anyone.

It was all too painful for him.

The next few weeks were incredibly confusing for Lucas

which was something that he was not used to feeling.

He felt like there was this giant black hole inside of him

that he had no idea how to fill.

At first, he tried asking his dad questions like,

why did all of this happen?

What happens to mom now?

What is the meaning behind all of this?

But the only words his hurt father could really say were,

"Son, sometimes horrible things happen

"and there isn't always a clear reason why."

But Lucas' logical brain was not able to accept this answer.

He needed to uncover the why behind his mom's death

and uncover all the mysteries surrounding death.

There's no problem that is unsolvable,

Lucas thought to himself.

So he started to watch videos,

read books, read blogs, talked to people.

He even began studying the work

of Ancient Greek philosophers like Aristotle and Socrates,

but Lucas quickly realized

that the concept of death is not like his math equations

where everything is made up of simple 2D puzzle pieces

but rather it's made up of complex mind bending 4D pieces

that don't even conceptually make sense when you look at it.

As the weeks and months went by,

Lucas realized that no matter how much he read

or how much he studied,

he never really found the concrete undeniable answer

that he was looking for.

So he stopped searching.

His mom's death left Lucas in a constant state of pain.

So he set out on a self-destructive journey

to distract himself from this pain in any way that he could.

At first, it started off small

where he began to watch more TV and eat unhealthy food.

He then started to use social media more

like YouTube and Facebook and Instagram

and he would just sit on his bed for hours

just scrolling and scrolling and scrolling

consuming a seemingly endless amount of content.

But the more distractions that he consumed,

the more he craved.

Lucas began drinking on the weekends

which led him to drink on the occasional weekday

which led him to drink on most weekdays.

He soon began experimenting with drugs

which led him to abuse drugs.

There were even times

where he thought about physically hurting himself.

Lucas used these substances

because it allowed him to temporarily forget

about how hollow he felt.

And one night when he was really in pain,

Lucas abused so many substances that he almost OD'd.

It was so bad that he fell to the ground

and he began to have a seizure and then before he knew it,

he became unconscious.

The next thing he knew,

he woke up in a hospital to his dad by his side.

"Son, we are going to talk about this tomorrow.

"This behavior is obviously not okay,

"but I don't have time to figure this out right now, okay?"

"Sure."

Since his mom's passing,

the money had been a little bit more tight in the family

so his dad had to work overtime.

Seeing all the nurses and feeling the white bed on his skin

immediately reminded Lucas of his mother's death,

but Lucas did not have anything

to distract himself with this time.

He had no social media, no junk food,

and he certainly had no substances

and those horrible dark feelings came flooding back to him.

Lucas reached for the remote control frantically

trying to turn on the TV.

"It doesn't work," a mysterious voice said.

"Excuse me?" Lucas said.

"The TV, it doesn't work.

"You can click those buttons all you want.

"It still won't work."

"Um, and who are you?" Lucas said.

"Sarah, you?"

"No, I mean like who are you?

"Are you a nurse, a doctor?"

"Oh no, I'm a patient just like you."

"Oh God," Lucas said.

"That's not a very nice way

"to greet your bed neighbor," she said.

"Yeah, sorry, I'm used to talking to people's faces,

"not at a giant white curtain," Lucas said.

"Ah, I see, so you don't spend too much time

"in the hospital then, do you?"

"Nope, not really and you do?"

"Yeah, a little."

"Are you usually this chatty with your bed neighbors

"as you call them?"

"Just the ones who are in a bad mood."

"Well, I'm sitting here with nothing to do,

"with a horrible headache

"so yeah, I'm not exactly very happy right now."

"There are always reasons to be happy.

"If you are bored, I can lend you my favorite book.

"Whenever I feel down,

"it makes me feel a little bit better, here."

A book came sliding under the curtain towards Lucas' bed.

He picked it up.

"The Power of Now," Lucas said.

"That's right.

"Most people hate what's in that book

"and they get really triggered

"when they find out what's in that book,

"but I think every single person on Earth should read it.

"Anyways, I'm feeling pretty tired so I'm going to sleep.

"I didn't catch your name?"

"It's Lucas."

"Well, it's great to meet you Lucas.

"I hope you feel better."

"Thanks, you too Sarah."

When Lucas got home, his dad immediately grounded him

until he could figure out how to proceed with Lucas.

So Lucas spent the next few days glued to this book,

but he noticed that it wasn't based on facts or data

like he was used to,

but rather it was based on ideas and perspectives.

He'd liked the book until he got to the section called

what to do when a loved one dies.

The book said great loss ends

with a great feeling of emptiness and nothingness,

but if you surrender into the nothingness,

there is a fullness waiting for you there.

But the only way to do this is to fully embrace

and accept all the pain that you feel.

Lucas closed the book and he immediately thought of the fact

that he had not gone to his mother's funeral

because it was too painful.

He felt like the book was telling him

to go to your mom's tombstone and surrender to the pain,

but this was out of the question for Lucas.

The mere thought of doing this

was almost unbearable for him.

"I'm done with this book.

"It's time to return it to Sarah," Lucas said to himself.

"Hi there, I'm here to see, um, my friend.

"Her name is Sarah.

"She's in room 112,"

Lucas said to the receptionist at the hospital.

"Sure, no problem."

She logged onto her computer and then she said,

"Um, you said you were her friend?"

"Yeah, I'm here to return the book she lent me."

"Uh, I'm not exactly sure how to say this,

"but she passed a few days ago."

"She passed?

"Passed where?

"What do you mean?"

"Sir, she had stage four terminal cancer.

"She died."

Lucas turned around and sat down in the chair behind him.

"The girl who told me there are always reasons to be happy

"was dying of cancer?"

Lucas thought to himself.

He sat there for about 30 minutes

replaying the conversation with Sarah over and over

and he deeply regretted how unsympathetic he was.

As a tear fell from Lucas' face,

he looked down at the book and he knew what he had to do.

The moment when he started walking towards it,

he felt immense pain.

Every breath that he took felt like somebody was placing

a 10 pound weight on his back

and every step that he took

felt like somebody was stabbing him in his stomach

with a small sharp knife,

but he just put his head down

and he kept walking one foot in front of the other.

Finally, he opened his eyes

and he saw the thing that he had been fearing most,

his mom's tombstone.

He immediately felt a hot searing pain in his stomach

that made him fall to his knees

and then within seconds this pain became so intense

that his vision went blurry

and his muscles began to seize up

and all he could feel was this overwhelming pain

that echoed throughout his entire mind and body.

Lucas sat there for hours slowly bleeding out his emotions.

Eventually, he had nothing left inside him.

He felt like a soulless, empty human being.

And over the next few months,

Lucas would go to his mother's tombstone everyday

to put himself through this misery.

But every time that he did this,

the pain would slowly go down inch by inch

and he would feel just a little bit better.

And eventually after months of this torture,

Lucas got to the point where he could finally

accept the reality that she was gone.

He finally got to the point where he could let her go.

Every single one of us have painful memories

and traumas from our past.

Some are big and some are small,

but very few of us make the decision

to consciously engage with these bad feelings.