Project Happiness Articles — Positive

Admitting you have a problem is the first step in helping yourself and allowing others to do so as well. When my cry for help came, I was exhausted to the point that even thinking about the solution was tiring for me. But let’s start from the beginning.

As a (former) pessimist, I can’t deny the good deal of jealousy I felt reading up on the many benefits ascribed to living optimistically. I regarded my pessimism as a good defence mechanism: if I never expected much from the world, then I won’t get as disappointed than others whenever things don’t work out.

But despite finding ourselves in an environment of ever-increasing apathy and self-centeredness, there are actually a multitude of ways to generate a positive impact through practicing altruism, showing compassion, and most importantly, by taking real action.

Nothing beats the serenity and peace you will find when gardening. It is not a coincidence that doctors recommend this activity to people who have had a great loss in their lives. The feeling of being in the here and now and the ability to switch off the tormenting thoughts is a blessing if you ever find yourself in this situation.

This isn’t to make one feel sorrow for people with less but to make one understand that often our happiness has already been achieved and that we are simply programmed to want more and more and more and more.

So many of us spend our days just running from moment to moment. We are busy, have demands coming from several different areas of life, and simply don’t feel like there is time to stop and smell the roses. We wonder if we can get the rose scent in a to-go package.

"Whatever you can do or dream, you can begin. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now." - Goethe, Johann Wolfgang

We all do it. You scroll through your newsfeed and see "perfect" parenting. The perfect plate of food from all the food groups, (which we assume their kids eat ALL of without complaint)...

How can we enrich our lives with more positive emotions (without regular lottery wins and frequent honeymoons)? Opportunities, it appears, abound as far and as near the eye can see.

Generous to the server, bought the kitchen staff a round of drinks, made fun of me at the movies, tipped his hat at the old ladies in the street…you know, a true gentleman.