Israel is now the happiest country in the world. But how did they do it? Let’s find the answers.Even though sandwiched between Muslim nations – their enemy for so many years – they are still happier and more peaceful than their counterparts.

Israel is a country in Western Asia. It has a total area of about 20 thousand square kilometers with more than seven million people. It is the 33rd richest country in the world in per capita GDP and has a parliamentary government system.

One thing that makes Israel the happiest is their spirituality. Almost two-thirds of the population are Jews and believe in God. As a matter of fact, 12 years of Bible schooling is mandatory.

They also love the Bible. For them, Bible is a word of hope in time of difficulties. There is an old Jewish joke that reinstates this:

Two elderly Jewish ladies are sitting on a park bench in St Petersburg, Florida. “Mrs Levy,” asks the first, “what do you hear from your son Isaac in Detroit?” “It’s just awful,” Mrs Levy replies. “His wife died a year ago and left him with two little girls. Now he’s lost his job as an accountant with an auto-parts company, and his health insurance will lapse in a few weeks. With the real estate market the way it is, he can’t even sell his

house. And the baby has come down with leukemia and needs expensive treatment. He’s beside himself, and doesn’t know what to do. But does he write a beautiful Hebrew letter – it’s a pleasure to read.”

Also, with their spirituality comes their fertility. Israel is one of the most productive countries in the world in terms of babies. In fact, the most religious Israelis are the most productive, producing nine kids averagely. Compare it to other Christian countries like Poland – who has the highest attendance at mass – possess the lowest birthrate in all of Europe.

Lastly, Israelis has a different and somewhat inspiring way of thinking. They do not think of death often or God’s judgement as they are sure they will live eternally and will never extinct. Moreover, it so easy for them
to talk about the wonders of life. It is like it is part of their tounges that speaking in a positive way seem so normal.

It seems like most countries realized the value of happiness.In the International Conference on Happiness and Public Policy staged in Bangkok, participants of the conference were discussing about the Gross National Happiness (GNH) and its positive effects to every country: global development, economic prosperity and productivity.

“It is intimately linked with the quality of life and the society in which we live. Concentrating on gross domestic product alone does not necessarily lead to well-being.” Thai Deputy Prime Minister Paiboon Wattanasiritham said.

The 300 or more participants of the said conference compared their country’s life expectancies, standards of living, education levels and will tackle to discover the necessary measured to attain happiness.

The GNS conference was first held in Bhutan in 2004 on which King Jigme Singye Wangchuck first had an idea of the Gross National Happiness. They already implemented it in their country and so far has got a favorable response. Former prime minister of Bhutan Lyonpo Jigme Thinley said:

“The Bhutanese experience is being discussed and perhaps it has come to provide inspiration to others,”

No one want to be unhappy, well of course, some people want but just for a short time. Sadness is vital to happiness as it creates contrast.The World Health Organization predicted that in a few years, depression will be a great problem worldwide and can extend to the increase of mortality rate. The culprit here is depression; intense sadness.

Common sense dictates that the enemy is someone opposite of him: goodness is the enemy of evil and vice versa. Meanwhile, Sadness’ enemy is of course Happiness!

So we have a solution to the imposing global problem of widespread unhappiness. Unfortunately, happiness is not a pill that can be taken orally with the effect felt immediately. It is also not a book that can be read and understood. Happiness is an emotion and emotion has no definite meaning. We can say we are happy, very happy, a little happy but unlike the English lexicon where everything has a word, happiness is felt and is very hard to define.

This leaves us to this question: Can Happiness be Learned?

Journalist Henry Anatole Grunwald once said that

“Everything can be learned, including, to a very large extent, to be what you are not…”

He has a point there. Through years of rote memorization, analytical thinking, and curiosity, who would have thought that we are formerly cave dwellers who survive by eating anything that moves and breathe? Amazing how we discovered fire, built buildings, learned how to fish and now, trying to be immortals. We learned to be what we are today and it is very far from where we began.

Buddhists believe that everything is controlled by the mind. The mind has the power to change ourselves immediately and that when we train our minds properly, we can be happier. For them, happiness and sorrow are our own responsibility. From the own words of Buddha:

“We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world.”

In addition, they believe that negative emotions bother us and causes all our suffering and unhappiness. This includes anger and desire. What they do is to meditate and they are freed from the harmful emotions.

The psychologists agree. They discovered that by meditating – a practice of Buddhist monks in attaining a state where they are not distracted by things around them, emotions or thoughts – is beneficial to the body as it reduces stress, depression, insomnia and even physical pains.

All one needs to learn happiness is by learning to control our emotions; avoiding negative thoughts which causes the problem, hence the culprit. Fears, anger, and depression can be controlled just by learning saying no to them.

Unfortunately, learning happiness is not an easy road. As with all learnings, one needs to understand themselves to locate the problem. This may take quite a while. Research shows that it takes 21 days to hardwire our brains to the new attitude and up to 63 days to eventually solidify it.

But it is not necessarily hard for us to be happy. Dalai Lama says that in order to be a happy person, one must be good to others. There’s is no need to practice Buddhism to do this, all we need to do it to make a habit of kindness to others, spreading love, respect and a sense of gratitude.

So, can happiness be learned? Yes. After all, Harvard University’s most attended course is about Happiness.

Let me leave you with words from Robert Louis Stevenson, a neo-romanticist writer:

“…Ultimately, genuine happiness can only be realized once we commit to making it a personal priority in our lives. This may be new behavior for some of us and a bit intimidating. Be gentle with yourself. It will all unfold. Today you may not be familiar with the happiness habit. But like any new behavior, happiness can be learned.”

Have fun being happy!

Here is a charming article we found from a Philippine News report:

Estrella Clamar turned 100 years last May 3, despite her age, she can still cook, do gardening and go to the market; all by herself.What made her stay that long?

She answers that she always put labor into practice. “If you don’t work, your blood will not properly circulate throughout your body, making you feel weak,” she said.

Her 60-year old daughter Lilia Camral is telling her mother to stop working because of her old age, but her mother just continues to do so because that is what makes her happy!

This native from Iloilo City in the Philippines said that she is still alive because she simply loves to be happy. She said that worrying about problems in a big no-no. “There’s no use in wallowing in our daily problems, as long as there’s joy… dance! I’m a good dancer you know,” she said, laughing.

Source: www.abs-cbn.com

When I first saw the French movie “Le Fabuleux Destin Le Amelie Poulain,” I am instantly astonished. It maybe for the fact that the main actress (Audrew Tautou) gave justice to the character so much that I can’t think of anyone else playing the role; she’s also cute.The story is quite simple. She accidentally discovered a small tin box of childhood memorabilia in her apartment. After asking her neighbors, she found out that the box is hidden by a boy who lived in her apartment years ago. Realizing it is important to the boy – now an old man – she embarked on a quest to find him.

With the help of her neighbor, she successfully found the person. Preferring to be anonymous, she put the box on an empty telephone booth and rings the number when the person passed by it. He picked up the phone and saw the box. He was moved to tears instantly. Amelie never stopped there, she followed the man and observed him secretly. She saw the positive effect she had on him. In that moment, she devoted her life bringing happiness to others. To make the story short, she became some sort of a “happiness-agent,” bringing happiness to others by helping them and thereby making her happier in the process. Her actions dramatically changed her life forever.

Amelie had altruism, or showing unselfish concern for the welfare of others. It is the motivation in a person to help others by doing good things without expecting any kind of reward.

I’m sure we can also emulate what Amelie did. Simple acts of kindness to someone is very easy to do and takes away little or no resources. By helping others, we can appreciate what we have and realize that we are more fortunate than others. Mother Theresa, a Nobel laureate and a humanitarian has a say on this:

“If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one. ” -Mother Theresa.

After all, helping others is not about the amount or volume, it is the compassion we share with others. Happiness cannot be extracted from the act of kindness if we give more than we desire to.

There is a story in the Bible about a poor woman who gave her last money as an offering to God. She gave it with all her heart yet she felt happier and blessed than others who give more but with an intention of being seen as socially wealthy. If we apply it in our daily lives, a small act of kindness like helping a elder cross the street (just like what Amelie did) makes both the giver and taker happy. The elder has difficulty crossing the road, one wrong move can send him to his death, no matter how small it is, someone helping him makes difference between life an death. It may not be big for the helper but for the one helped, it is some kind of a gift from above.

On the other hand, there are several studies attesting having a helping attitude prolongs life. Scientists, psychologist and philosophers have been debating on this topic for several years but the bottom line is having a generous helping hand is beneficial to one’s and others happiness.

“A good exercise for the heart is bending down and helping someone to get up.” -Proverbs

Do you know that the World Health Organization morbidly predicted that by the year 2020, the second most common cause of death in the world is depression?

Scary isn’t?

I am wondering how can depression kill. Suicide, I assume. Why is it that the feeling of intense sadness has the capacity to end one’s life? That’s too bad.

People can choose to be happy. Although sometimes, unfortunate events or situations happens and cannot be avoided.

A path to happiness has been debated for time immemorial. Philosophers like Epicurus and Aristotle argued how happiness can be attained. Epicurus said that the cause of happiness is pleasure and therefore should be prioritized but Aristotle said otherwise. He believed that pleasure should never be equated with happiness because if it is nothing more than pleasure, we will be slaves to our desires. He got a point there but it is still confusing.

Anyway, Buddha, got a different point of view. For him, happiness can be gained if we realize we are miserable; that we suffer. He want to pinpoint the problem first before applying the solution. Wonderful.

Choosing to be happy is a easy choice but very hard to accomplish. It is not just a pill we need to take but a lot of things need to be changed: attitude, view in life, personality.

If you wanted to learn more how to be happy, please feel free to browse our site. You will learn more and more.

Have a nice day!

Cognitive Daily had this interesting article where they surveyed people on what they thought it would take for people to be considered rich. Interestingly, they found that people randomly assigned to view luxury items had a greater perception of what they defined rich to be, both in terms of income and net worth.

Another interesting tidbit is that an average of 325,000 dollars in income would be needed to maximize happiness in respondents, meaning that any amount above that would not increase happiness. I’d be interested in finding out if showing people luxury items had an effect on this question.

The group that saw the luxury items said it would take significantly more income to be rich compared to all the other groups. Interestingly, there was no significant difference in the results for those who saw consumer goods, happy faces, or no picture. The pattern for net worth was similar:

Once again, seeing pictures of luxury items significantly increased how much respondents said it would take to be “rich.”

http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2008/04/casual_fridays_what_does_it_ta.php

For years, the pacemaker was synonymous with the heart. But new technologies are now pushing the positive effects created by the small electronic into the brain.Researchers from the Cleveland Clinic of the Harvard School and Brown Medical school created a brain pacemaker to treat depression and Obsessive-compulsive disorder, commonly known as OCD.

They already implanted the brain pacemaker into 17 people suffering from depression and on 26 patient with OCD. They tracked the depressed for a year and with OCD for three years and found substantial improvements in mood, social and occupational functioning.

Now, there’s no more reason to be unhappy!

Source: www.reuters.com

Stop putting off seeing the aurora lights, warming up in the hot springs of Greenland or learning a new instrument – just do it. If you often do one thing that makes you happy, then try another. Psychologist Rich Walker of Winston-Salem State University looked at 30,000 event memories and over 500 diaries, ranging from durations of 3 months to 4 years, and says that people who engage in a variety of experiences are more likely to retain positive emotions and minimize negative ones than people who have fewer experiences. Psychologist Barbara Fredrickson, at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, studies her broaden-and-build hypothesis of positive emotion. Her research suggests that the optimal ratio of positive to negative emotion in humans is above 3 to 1 and below 11 to 1. Walker has observed that once the ratio of positive to negative events hit 1 to 1, it opens the door to potential disorders, such as anxiety and depression.

Source: www.time.com

Dalai Lama, the world-revered spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism recently went to Toronto – the place with the largest concentration of Tiberans outside India and Nepal – to share to 16,000 people the “Art of Happiness.”

For him, happiness is available to human beings both as individuals and as communities and science proves that happiness is the optimal and normal state of human existence.

During his talk, he frequently cites medical references and research which he links to a healthy immune system and a greater peace of mind. He then told the audience that his philosophical approach is based on “secular ethics.” He then explained that secularism is not a form of rejection of religion. He cited Mahatma Ghandi to further accentuate his point: “Secularism – respect for all religions. All religions equally respected.” He said that once religious people accept secularism and participate fully, they are making contributions to the secular ethics for society on the basis of our common existence.

As for the Art of Happiness, he said that based on the law of causality – the relation between causes and effects – everyone has the right to live happily, without suffering. “we need to think seriously about the causes of happiness. Good result, happy result, entirely depends on good action, constructive action.”

He also stated that compassion – humane quality of understanding the suffering of others and wanting to do something about it – begins when a baby receives nourishment from his mother’s milk. “When warm-heartedness takes seed, it can transform to unlimited, unbiased compassion, not based on other’s attitudes. That feeling can even extend toward one’s enemy.” He continued “Loving kindness is the strongest antidote to anger.”

To sum it up, he had a practical advice to everyone: get enough sleep. At 73-years old, he has still a good physical health which he credits to his peace of mind and the way to achieve it is by having adequate sleep. “Peace of mind brings nice sleep,” he said.