Épanouissement

Searching for happiness? June 13, 2008

If you are desperately searching for happiness, my recipe is as follows.

Simply remember all the beautiful things around you, think about how wonderful the world is and everything that is worth loving: children, the sky, big trees, forests, ladybugs, grandparents, your husband or wife, your special secret place that makes you happy, elephants…

Then simply make improving the world your life’s work. For the sake of helping everybody and everything around you (and yourself of course) to have a better life experience, always be polite, don’t waste; make all of your decisions based on what the wisest most wonderful and perfect person would choose. Live a healthy virtuous life, and strive for perfection in everything, especially yourself – but remember that perfection is a never-ending journey and not a destination. Remember that everyone just wants to be happy. You cannot change the entire planet, but you can work towards improving the little things around you, like yourself, and your family’s life.

If that were your life’s work, then where would happiness be?

If you aren’t sure where to start, here is a QUIZ to find out how wise you are.

Of course, you already know how wise you are – a quiz can’t tell you. But each question gives you something to think about, for you to evaluate different aspects of yourself, such as attitude, outlook, treatment of others etc. So even if the idea of measuring your wisdom is kind of silly, you can use this quiz as a personal checklist once in a while to remind you of the little things you can work on in order to become a better, wiser person.

Another way to perfect yourself is to read about what other, wiser, people before us have written about becoming a better person. Here in Ottawa, there is a Hindu temple with an online course on the Upanishads. You can find it HERE, on their website.

And finally, make a list of concrete, positive things you can or should do at least once, such as writing a letter to a friend or family member, bringing some flowers to a co-worker just for the heck of it, or preparing pancakes with your kids to give a certain somebody breakfast in bed. Then once a week, do something on your list.

Isn’t life wonderful? Every day we have the opportunity to do something in order to make our lives better.

Cheers! To us!