How To Make Yourself Happy
The world is full of people actively pursuing happiness but rarely finding it. I though I would look at the idea of achieving happiness by NOT selfishly grasping for it. The idea that “virtue has its own reward” has been around for centuries but when I have tried to actively help others I encounter a strong resistance to getting close to strangers. I do not want to open myself up to ridicule or to risk some psychologically needy person latching onto me.
Not only that, but after a token effort on other people’s behalf I always feel that I have “done enough”. I’m not helping them if I don’t let then stand on their own two feet. After some attempts and much thought on the subject of making yourself happy through service to others, here are a few ideas.
I have recently started again to try to make myself happy by going out every day with the idea that I will simply be nice to the people in my neighborhood and those I come in contact with during my day. Although there are always exceptions, I have found that in general, if you make a conscious effort to be pleasant and helpful to others, they will feel the need to respond in kind. This kind of feedback always makes me feel that I’m on the right track.
Driving my car I am constantly telling myself that other drivers should not be behaving the way they do. I work myself into a state where I see other people on the road as morons who are blind to my needs. It is only when I’m calmer that I think about how other drivers must feel. They have lives, families and commitments that place them under stress, make them want to hurry and distract them from being courteous on the road. Many people leave the house in the morning with the attitude that they have to do battle with the world.
I do not have to be like that. I can give people I don’t know the benefit of the doubt. I can be generous inside. I may have to adopt a naive mental attitude, but if it helps me to be calm, what of it?
This video on how to be happy might help if you still prefer to chase happiness.
This video features a man who had to single-handedly turn his life around to be happy.