How to be Happy and Free

Before you can be happy, you need to know what it is. Well happiness is basically feeling good about yourself and the world. It means enjoying your waking hours and being untroubled when you sleep. If this describes your current state, then congratulations. Read no further — you’re already a happy person. But if it does not, then do continue and find out how to live a happier, more fulfilling life.

First thing you have to learn in this art (and it is an “art” — it takes a subtle skill to learn and execute) is that it’s not dependent on external circumstances. There are people who can be surrounded by the most beautiful things life can offer: a beautiful mansion, beautiful sports cars, beautiful husband, wife or girlfriend, beautiful family — and still be unhappy. And on the opposite spectrum, you will also find people who live amidst squalor and poverty and yet seem to be relatively cheerful and joyous. So the source of happiness is not “out there”, it’s “in here” (point to inside your chest). Whether you just won the lottery or been just fired from a job, whether the person you’ve been courting has finally said “yes” or turned you down flat, with the proper attitude, what happens outside of you and which you usually have no control over, does not really determine whether you feel good inside or not.

So what does matter?

Your thoughts. Your emotions. Your attitude.

If within your 24-hour wake-span you keep repeating these thoughts to yourself, “I hate my job…I hate the traffic…everyone are cheaters…I’m being exploited…people are jerks….people act like idiots…” and so on, whether you’re surrounded by blue skies and white sandy beaches wouldn’t matter. You’ve already created a dark cloud inside you and it’s raining and damp and wet and you’re miserable. On the other hand, if you go through the day thinking, “Ain’t life grand?! What a wonderful day! What a beautiful sky! What colorful flowers! Oh, the poor man looks sad, I wonder how I can help him? Hmm, that piece of trash is blocking people’s way — I’ll pick it up and throw it in the garbage…” Whether you live in the ghetto or in a war zone, you have such a toasty disposition that the sunshine inside you just makes you feel warm in spite of the cold environment you live in.