Happiness, Inc: Deepak Chopra's Path to Inner Peace

Oct. 4, 2009— -- Deepak Chopra, the thoroughly modern guru, walks through Manhattan tweeting, delivering inspirational messages in 140 characters or less. "The purpose of life is the expansion of happiness," he tweets to the more than 106,000 people who follow his updates.

Between his tweets, Chopra blogs, has a satellite radio show, and writes books on everything from spirituality, to health, to cooking and even golf. Aside from that, he sells CDs, DVDs and has a pair of holistic centers complete with his own line of dietary supplements.

In the span of one week, Chopra shuttles between meetings with publishers, philanthropists, video game programmers and a promotional taping for his new book, and those are just some of the projects he's working on.

Chopra is also in talks to produce a television and Broadway show, and is developing an iPhone application to deliver inspirational messages to subscribers.

While Chopra's schedule sounds hectic, he maintains that he does it all, with no stress whatsoever. It's a life he describes as one of "effortless spontaneity."

For more on Deepak Chopra, tune in to "World News Sunday" on Oct. 4. Check your local listings for air time in your area. And watch for additional installments of the "World News Sunday" series, "Happiness, Inc., on upcoming weekends.

According to Chopra, one of the keys of achieving "effortless spontaneity" is to get up early every day to meditate. While meditating, Chopra pictures his mind as a rushing river of thoughts. Those thoughts include fears, resentments, hopes, dreams and to-do lists. The goal, he says, is to step out of that river and find some space between the thoughts so that they no longer control you.

While meditating, Chopra suggests focusing on a simple saying, such as "I am."

"Whenever you become aware that you have drifted away from, 'I am,' then very gently bring your attention back to, 'I am,'" Chopra says.

Chopra says he believes that after only 20 minutes of meditation, you can become keenly aware of your mind.

"The average person on the street is not aware of their mind," he says. "They're just acting out their thoughts like bundles of reflexes."

Chopra says simply being aware of the constant stream of thoughts in your head is the first step. He says that awareness is what keeps him from losing his temper.