How to be Happy

On my holiday this year, I spent quite a lot of time sitting on rocks on windswept Hebridean beaches. It gave me the opportunity to think. Or not to think for that matter.

If I chose to think, I could go for light and fluffy thoughts, 'what is that cow doing?', 'Is the tide coming in?'. Alternatively I could go for thinking extra-plus, 'is what I'm seeing really here?', 'how many micro-organisms are milling around under the rippling water'. I do acknowledge that my thinking extra-plus probably isn't that heavy duty compared to other people, but it felt weighty. So weighty in fact that I feel the urge to share it, and one of the things I thought was that you have to follow your urges (within reason, and therein lies the rub).

I think we all have inbuilt wisdom. You might not have noticed it yet, but every so often it will give you a little shake. I describe this best as having antennae that wiggle. Once you learn to recognise the wiggling sensation, you are starting out on being a bit happier. If you do something not in right ordering (with the cosmos - remember we're thinking big here), something will disturb you a bit, or maybe a lot (depends what you're thinking of doing really) and you might notice a virtual tremour.

The next thing to do is to PAY ATTENTION to the wiggling. Don't just discard the feeling, it is a gift that is helping you live your life better. It takes quite a while to trust the wiggles, but once you learn to trust them, stuff gets easier. It can be a bit bothersome at first, but persevere.

As a beginner, you might find it hard to differentiate the real wiggles from fake ones. Fake ones tend to happen when you are being a bit vain, or greedy - basically when you are suffering an unexpected attack of one of the seven deadly sins. There is an art to telling the difference, generally speaking real ones won't be advising you to do something for personal gain or to hurt someone else.

Once you start to get the hang of this, the wiggles become clearer, and you find you have some direction developing in your life. The antennae will point you towards what makes you happier, and properly happier.

Give yourself a few minutes every evening to think about what made you happier that day and think about why. Have integrity in all that you do.

If you're not sure where to start, think outwards. That is, think about what you can do to help other people. It takes you away from being self absorbed, and hopefully the other people will become more smiley and friendly towards you, giving you a bit of a warm inner glow. Random acts of kindness go a long way in building the inner glow. Just do a few off the cuff things, as easy as making someone a cup of tea or doing a chore for them. Something a bit unexpected and small works best. Unexpected big acts of generosity might make them suspicious and are to be avoided at first.

Try to be positive, say positive things to people, focus on the positive things in your life. If there is nothing positive to think about, it's time to make significant changes. Be adventurous and creative, but plan well and take advice.

The wiggling will help you start to express yourself better. This can help make you more creative. Being creative will make you happier because you will start to do things you feel passionate about. If everyone is busy doing things they feel passionate about, they will do them well. If we are all doing things well, the sum total of the human experience will improve and we will all benefit.

I do acknowledge this advice comes from the advantageous point of being free from pain, having enough food to eat, a roof over my head, freedom, a regular income and living in a democracy. With all these things, what right do we have not to be happy anyway?