A Key to Happiness? We Have to Find Our Own

If we had the key to happiness, life would be so easy! But it would also be boring, don’t you think? If we were always happy, and everything turned out how we wanted it to, wouldn’t we be living in a type of “Leave it to Beaver” world? (Remember that sitcom from the 50’s?). It would probably end up driving us crazy.

So, maybe the key to happiness  was lost at some point. Perhaps the gods threw it into one of our vast oceans so it would never again be found, leaving it to exist as a legend, one of those where a mean forest troll finds it and destroys it.

It is better not to have keys, because they just get lost and need to be replaced.

A much better alternative to keys when it comes to happiness is moments: sad moments, happy moments, fleeting moments, and moments that seem to last a lifetime…

Maybe that is just life itself. A great puzzle made up of a million different pieces, each necessary for the others to make sense, and when completed, it forms a true image of life, without make-up or masks, but just the way life is.

But how can happiness be cultivated? How can a small and simple key be created that can help open up the little box that contains happiness?

Here are 6 pieces of advice to help you find your own key to fit the lock that guards your happiness:

1. Stop repeating to yourself phrases like: I am so unlucky! Everything bad always happens to me!, or I am a failure! Say goodbye to that repetitive internal monologue. All it does it cloud your mind and block you from truly seeing and appreciating the things that make you happy, like your child’s smile.
2. Appreciate the little pleasures of life. When you have a cup of coffee, or tea, or hot chocolate, a nice warm blanket, and a good movie, don’t you feel a profound, yet simple happiness? Well there it is… look how easy, and cheap, it is to give yourself a little moment of pure happiness.
3. Value all the good in your life. Everyone has good and bad things in their lives. Reflect upon yours and you will surely find many beautiful things that make you happy. Maybe if you live close to the ocean or simply have a beautiful tree outside your window. It is great to contemplate a beautiful view when you wake up in the morning no matter how big or small. Just appreciating what you have around you can bring you happiness.
4. Put your health first. When you get sick, whether it be just a cold or a serious illness, you realize the importance you have given to other things instead of your health that in reality are not very important. And in that given moment, when you are faced with that difficulty, your inner strength is revealed.
5. Learn from everything and everyone. Have you ever experienced the feeling when a young child, maybe 4 or 5 years old, unknowingly teaches you a life lesson? Or you go to buy a loaf of bread and the cashier says something worthy of the best and wisest philosophers of ancient Greece?
6. “Today can be a great day, just tell yourself its true.” This lyric, translated from the original Spanish song by Joan Manuel Serrat, is a great concept, and there is a wonderful song to go with it (here with English subtitles):