Happiness

"Happiness depends, as Nature shows,
Less on material things than most suppose"
William Cowper

Have you often thought that you will be happier when you get more money in the bank? Or when you can buy that new Jaguar convertible? Or when you get that mansion on the waterfront? We all tend to think that we will be happier when we get the things we want. This is why we get jealous of the people we see who have all those things. We think that it's not fair that he has the money, the car, and the mansion that we want, and we don't.

We focus on what he has that we don't, and forget about the big picture. Maybe he has terrible family relationships, or a disease we don't know about. If we knew everything going on in his life, chances are we would change our mind about wanting the life he has. Having more things doesn't make us happy; there are plenty of very wealthy celebrities that are miserable, perhaps even miserable enough to commit suicide.

Happiness depends on interior things, which is good news because you can learn to control those interior things: your attitude and your perceptions. It depends, first and foremost, on your ability to appreciate those things you do have, no matter how few of them there are. You can appreciate your health and the fact that you eat 3 square meals a day (in many places, a person typically eats something like half a cup of rice in a day). You can appreciate the fact that you know how to read and have probably had at least a high school education (many people in other countries haven't). You can appreciate the fact that you probably can attend church without having to worry about being bombed (many people in other countries can't). If you're really desperate, you can still appreciate beautiful sunsets and cool breezes on a hot summer day. There are all kinds of things you can appreciate, no matter how little you have. This is what your happiness really depends on.

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