How to be Happy

Have you ever caught yourself thinking in such a way: ‘If I had more money, I would be happier.’? Think again. From indexes such as the Happy Planet Index, which aims to measure the happiness levels of different countries, we notice a somewhat puzzling trend: Many developed countries that are relatively well-to-do do not rank high on the list. On the contrary, developing countries that are less well-off actually rank comparatively high on the list. For example, according to the Happy Planet Index, Coasta Rica ranked first on the list, followed by Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Guatemala, Vietnam, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Brazil (the only G20 country to rank high), and Honduras. Interestingly, there was a marked absence of first world countries on the HPI’s Top 10 happiest countries, with more Latin American and Caribbean countries scoring higher on the index, according to the 2009 Happy Planet Index published by the New Economics Foundation. 

It may come as a surprise as many, but judging from the above statistics, money seemingly does not equate happiness. Look around you, and I’ll bet you can identify many unhappy people around, who are ironically, the more well-to-do people with good jobs and all, but they never seem to be happy. On the contrary, there are others who are not financially well-to-do, yet they appear to lead ordinary but fulfilling and happy lives. Now, I’m not telling you to quit your job the next day and settle in some poor suburban district, pondering whether happiness will come knocking at your door soon. No, it doesn’t happen that way either. I am just trying to drive home a point, which is to throw away that thought that “if only I had struck the lottery’ or ‘if only I had that car, or that house, or that job’, then I would finally be happy.

There are many reasons why material wealth cannot bring happiness to an individual. Yes, you might be able to afford all the luxuries that the world has to offer, but you know deep down that you are just not happy. There is an underlying feeling that although you possess these material goods, you just don’t feel that you are happy. There is no sense of fulfilment or joy that fills your life when you think of the millions of dollars stashed away in your bank. That is simply because money can never buy happiness, and ironically, money might the obstacle to finding happiness. We try to seek happiness from having so many possessions that we fail to see what lies beyond it. We might be convinced that money is happiness because the whole world says, but deep down inside us, there is probably this voice down there telling you that you are simply unhappy, but you simply ignore it and choose not to trust it. That is sadly, why so many people in the world fail to be happy.