Happy

Secrets to Happiness from the Cultures of the World

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• Publisher: Lonely Planet
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN:
  9781742208640
• Print ISBN:
  9781742205885

MIND

IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHERE
YOU’RE GOING, THAT’S WHERE
YOU’LL END UP

SECRET PUT DOWN IN WORDS WHAT YOU REALLY WANT

Tradition Shinto ema (votive plaques) Date Any time Celebrated in Japan

So you want to be happy?

Happiness is an ephemeral thing, very subjective, and sometimes hard to recognise when we have it. Do you know what happiness means to you? Good relationships, personal achievements, material wealth? (OK, we all know money can’t buy happiness, but a little bit certainly helps.) If you can’t define it, you can’t achieve it.

In Shinto temples throughout Japan, small wooden plaques called ema are provided for people to write down their desires and hopes. They are often decorated with pictures of horses (symbolising a gift), and usually cost a few hundred yen. Supplicants might ask for success in exams, a safe journey, a good outcome to a bad situation, or a new car. As each ema is completed, it is hung with the others garlanding the temple, for the kami (gods) to read.

The unknowableness of the future can be overwhelming. If you’re feeling a little lost, try writing down a wish list for yourself. Think about how you want your life to look. What do you want to achieve? What experiences do you want to have? What kind of person do you want to be? Who do you want to share your life with? And then, actually put pen to paper.

Expressing your innermost desires in concrete terms helps them seem achievable. It narrows them down to a set of clear goals, acting as landmarks in the map of your future. Then you can start directing your first steps towards the place you want to go.

SWAP CASH FOR KARMA

SECRET PRIORITISE YOUR MENTAL WELL-BEING OVER YOUR FINANCIAL SUCCESS

Tradition Gross National Happiness Date Every day Celebrated in Bhutan

Bankers’ bonuses. Fast cars, flash houses, laptops, pads, pods and plasma screens. Life today is full of STUFF, and we’re all rat-racing at breakneck speed to earn the money to buy it, to flaunt our wealth and success. But does money make us happy? Global economic growth has risen sharply over the past few decades, but there doesn’t appear to have been a commensurate rise in our well-being.

What if our success could be measured another way? In 1972, King Wangchuck of Bhutan coined the phrase Gross National Happiness. The spiritual well-being of the people, he stated, is more important than the Gross National Product. The status of this staunchly Buddhist nation would henceforth be judged by the contentment of its citizens, not just the size of its bank balance.

Bhutan was beginning to open up to foreigners in the 1970s, and the king recognised the importance of preserving the spirituality of his people in the face of an encroaching modern world, and ensuring that capitalism didn’t erode the country’s core values.

And Bhutan is doing well. It has maintained its traditions (Argyle socks as national dress, a love of archery, fantastic folklore) and remains a largely happy place – though those breathtaking mountain views must help.

We may not be able to relocate to the high Himalaya, but we can still embrace GNH. Leave work on time to meet friends. Assess whether you’re working to live or living to work. And place less emphasis on physical acquisition and more on massaging your mental health.

LET GO OF THE LITTLE THINGS

SECRET LET YOUR RESENTMENTS, WORRIES AND SADNESS GO

Tradition Loy Krathong (Lantern Festival) Date 12th full moon of the Thai lunar calendar (November) Celebrated in Thailand

Sometimes it’s the nagging memory of an awkward comment made without thinking. There was no malice intended but you’re wondering if it might have been noted, and if someone thinks less of you now. Maybe it’s something someone said to you that had no negative intent but stung nonetheless. Or perhaps it’s something as simple as having to wait in line when you’re in a hurry.

Turning these repetitive thoughts over and over in your mind till your head gets thick with anxiety – these little accumulations need to go somewhere…

Held in northern Thailand, and usually falling in November, Loy Krathong sees thousands of candle-fuelled paper lanterns drift away into the night sky, creating a warm amber glow as these symbols of worry and anxiety are let go.

As the lanterns float away, a surprisingly gentle, undoubtedly happy celebration takes place below. It’s a simple act, but making these little burdens disappear into the air, perhaps combined with the beauty of their departure, has a powerful effect.

How can you do this at home? Why not start with something very simple, like writing down each thing that is irritating you on a separate piece of paper. Read each one, give it a moment of consideration, then make a ball of it and shoot for the wastepaper basket.

Or maybe go outside and let your inner pyromaniac loose for a moment, burning each symbol of irritation and anxiety, slowly and deliberately. Try practising cloud bursting, assigning each cloud a worry and watching it drift away. Ultimately, it’s not how you do it, it’s that you do it…

DIFFERENCE IS WHAT MAKES LIFE FABULOUS

SECRET ACCEPT YOURSELF (AND OTHERS) FOR WHO YOU ARE

Tradition La Vela de las Auténticas Intrépidas Buscadoras del Peligro (Fest...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Mind
• Body
• Spirit
• Acknowledgements