Enhancing your level of happiness
IT’S a tired refrain: “I don’t want much; I just want to be happy.”
This is said as if someone somewhere has the secret to happiness and is withholding it from some people but not others.
Or it’s expressed as if happiness is the luck of the draw.
Here are a few ways to enhance your level of happiness, which I prefer to call fulfilment, usefulness or a sense of belonging.
Love a few people (usually your family) very well and be faithful to them for many years.
Forgive people who hurt you, betray you, deceive you, whether they deserve it or ask for it or not, or own up to it or not. Forgive them because you deserve it. Ask people you have hurt, betrayed, or deceived to forgive you and do what you can to make things right with them, all of them.
Work hard every day for many years. Spend less money than you earn for many years.
Serve others.
You may note that “many years” is repeated.
The odd thing is that while happiness is a longhaul journey, within hours of implementing any of the above you will begin to feel better about your life, which, of course, is a form of happiness.