Quotable quotes

“A good education is another name for happiness." - Ann Plato, educator and author

Happiness

"It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere." - Agnes Repplier

Making people happy

Bill, Hillary and Vice President Gore were on their way back to Washington on Air Force One, when Bill said " I'd like to drop a $100 bill out of the plane and make one person very happy".
Hillary thought for a moment then replied "I’d rather drop ten, $10 bills out and make ten people very happy".
To which Vice President Gore said " I would drop a hundred $1 bills out and make a hundred people very happy".

The pilot then spoke up and said " Why don't all three of you jump out and make 250 million people very happy?"

British school to offer happiness lessons

One of Britain's leading fee-paying schools is to offer classes on happiness to combat the malaise in society caused by materialism and celebrity obsession, its headteacher announced.
"We are introducing classes on happiness," said Anthony Seldon, master of Wellington College, in Crowthorne, Berkshire, west of London. "We have been focusing too much on academics and missing something far more important."
A psychologist will oversee a pilot project teaching "happiness lessons" -- or "well-being" as it is being called -- from the start of the next academic year. Pupils aged 14 to 16 will be given one lesson a week, learning skills such as how to manage relationships, physical and mental health, negative emotions and how to achieve one's ambitions.
The college's religious education staff will teach the course as a complement to, rather than a substitute for, conventional RE classes, said Seldon, who is also a political commentator and author. "To me, the most important job of any school is to turn out young men and women who are happy and secure -- more important that the latest bulletin from the Department for Education about whatever," explained Seldon.
"Celebrity, money and possessions are too often the touchstones for teenagers and yet these are not where happiness lies. "Our children need to know that as societies become richer, they don't become happier -- a fact regularly shown by social science research."

Live your own life

"We don't always know what makes us happy. We know, instead, what we think SHOULD. We are baffled and confused when our attempts at happiness fail...We are mute when it comes to naming accurately our own preferences, delights, gifts, talents. The voice of our original self is often muffled, overwhelmed, even strangled, by the voices of other people's expectations. The tongue of the original self is the language of the heart." -- Julie Cameron

We are each unique beings with a unique path in life. If we wish to be fulfilled, we need to go to our own hearts for direction. We might regularly ask ourselves:
- "What do I really want to do?"
- "What brings me greatest happiness?"
- "How can I bring more of these into my life?"
Life wants us to go for what brings us most joy and meaning.

"It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. ...I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing." -- Oriah Mountain Dreamer

Sloppiness and carelessness destroy our happiness

by Julian Kalmar.

By performing actions crudely, with little regard for the quality of the outcome, we have no chance of receiving satisfaction from our tasks. We also lose peace of mind. However, when we work carefully, something extraordinary happens. By dedicating ourselves to the task at hand -- attempting to do things as well as possible -- our minds become peaceful.

The task actually becomes enjoyable as a sense of productivity sneaks up on us. When it's over, we feel satisfied in a job well done. Conscientiousness, in our every movement, puts us in harmony with our tasks. This effect is magnified when we work in the spirit of goodness, in the spirit of kindness, or find the higher purpose in our work.

In sharp contrast, when we hate every moment of what we're doing, we could care less. We think, "Who cares... I don't." We fill ourselves with dislike, wishing it was over. We want to be any place but here, doing anything but this. The end result is that we are miserable. We waste part of our lives to bad feelings. A task takes the same amount of time whether we enjoy the process, or not. But... the passage of time is also subjective. By hating our tasks, time slows to a crawl and we sentence ourselves to prolonged suffering.

However, by putting our whole being into a task, time flies by. Before we realize it, it's over, time for lunch, or time to go home. We actually get paid for working fewer hours! Something else happens, too. By attending to every detail, our awareness improves. We become more sensitive to the signals we used to ignore. We aren't just pushing a broom. We feel how our body reacts to the push of the broom. We find ways in which we become less tired while sweeping.

We hear the way the broom sounds when it's a good sweep versus a sweep that misses dirt. We learn better how to hold the broom; the angle; the position relative to our body; the swing of our arm. We become aware of the subtle details, and we become more alive.

Aliveness is the sensation that we are fully in the now moment. We sense the world more vividly. We begin appreciating the colours, sounds, pressures, tastes, and smells to a high degree. We become more grateful and appreciative of everything around us. The result is a strong sense of well being. It's like the feelings we get from the glory of a Spring day when new life is bursting forth; the birds singing; green buds emerging... we feel great. Although it requires some initial effort, the conscientious way of working, it's worth the effort. We actually gain pleasure from the part of our lives we used to call "work."

Create happiness right now

"It is our basic right to be a happy person, happy family, and eventually a happy world. That should be our goal." - Dalai Lama

Little adjustments to our attitude and approach each day can create a major difference in our appreciation of life. On the surface, nothing changes. At the same time, absolutely everything does. Use your awareness or your imagination to bring happiness to this moment. Find something to appreciate. Do this as often as you remember to do so, and your world will transform.

" ... we can no longer afford to throw away even one ‘unimportant’ day by not noticing the wonder of it all. We have to be willing to discover and then appreciate the authentic moments of happiness available to all of us every day." - Sarah Ban Breathnach

Happiness

"It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere." -- Agnes Repplier