How to be Happy

Drat!

I forgot it!

Well, I can forget about being happy now!

“What on earth are you on about, David?”

Well…

I like to begin each day with The 5 Minute Journal.

It’s simply a journal that I write in…

Things such as what I’m grateful for.

I use the 5 Minute Journal app, but some people prefer the swanky hardback bound version.

Anyway…

On this day, I didn’t have my iPad.

So, having no iPad meant no 5 Minute Journal app.

“OK, David. It’s not the end of the world. Just use your imagination.”

Now I’m not normally into talking to myself.

But that did make sense.

So I sat down and thought of a few things I was grateful for that morning.

But now – instead of being limited to the 3 lines in the journal – my mind was free to wander.

Isn’t it amazing what you can think about when you allow your mind to wander?

“Get back to the topic, David!”

Oh, sorry!

Anyway…

Suddenly my mind stopped wandering.

“Hey! You’ve got something there,” I said to myself.

Well, not too loudly, ‘cos, as I said earlier, I don’t make it a habit of talking aloud to myself.

But I’d realised that one of the things I was grateful for was…

Happiness

I enjoy being happy.

Well, don’t you?

And that’s why I was grateful…

Because of having so much happiness… to be happy about.

Well, I know what I mean!

But then, something very weird happened.

I started to remember the words and the tune to Ken Dodd’s song, Happiness!

And I’m sorry…

I can’t say I didn’t begin to sing it.

Please stop now. Don’t even try to imagine my singing!

But here’s Ken Dodd if you insist on hearing the song.

What is happiness?

So what’s happiness?

Sorry… I have to quote once again from Ken’s song…

A wise old man told me one time,
Happiness is a frame of mind.

A frame of mind, eh?

Hmm… that’s quite deep.

So how do you get in the right frame of mind to be happy?

In the 1960s, when Ken Dodd first sang Happiness, there was no Google to ask.

But now there is.

So I asked it.

And here’s what it said:

Right at the top of page 1, this is from Psychology Today:

More than simply positive mood, happiness is a state of well-being that encompasses living a good life—that is, with a sense of meaning and deep satisfaction.

That’s pretty easy to understand – even from a psychology magazine.

But hang on a minute!

Isn’t that what Ken Dodd said back in 1964?

Happiness is a frame of mind.

In other words, it’s our outlook on life.

It’s how we see things.

So how do you become happy?

Here’s how I see it.

It goes right back to why I mentioned happiness in the first place.

I was thinking of things I was grateful for.

It was all about gratitude.

Being grateful gets you in the right frame of mind and makes you happy.

Now I know there are other things that can make you happy…

Such as chocolate!

But nothing has the same effect as being grateful.

Try it.

Being grateful, that is! Not chocolate!

Try being grateful for something in your life right now – and see what happens to your happiness level.

I reckon gratitude was the reason Ken Dodd could sing…

I thank the Lord that I’ve been blessed
With more than my share of happiness.

So if you want to be successful…

Be happy.

And to become happy…

Be grateful.

Yes, Doddy. You got it spot on…

When you come to measuring a man’s success,
Don’t count money, count happiness.

And start by being grateful.

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Your Happiness Secret?

What’s your own secret to happiness?

I’d love to know. And I’m sure the readers would, too.

Share it in the comments box below, and let’s keep the conversation going.