HOW TO ACHIEVE HAPPINESS: – Happiness goes hand in hand with the capacity to assert one self with extroversion and empathy. Happy people are generally open to the world. They believe that an individual can exert control over oneself and one’s life, while unhappy people tend to believe they are destiny’s playthings. It would seem that the more an individual is capable of controlling one’s environment happier the person is. It is interesting to note that in everyday life, extroverts experience more positive events than introverts, and neurotics have more negative experiences than stable people.

How do we explain that there is ultimately so little correlation – 10 to 15 % – between health, wealth, beauty, and happiness? Because it depends upon the way people perceive the world, which is more important to happiness than objective circumstances. It is also about the goals we set for our own lives. Having a lot of money necessarily plays a role in the happiness of someone who has set personal enrichment as his main objective, but it will have less impact on some one for whom wealth is a secondary importance.

Don’t let your happiness be dependent on any object, person or situation. It is the art of living, the purpose of our existence. Happiness is the true index of quality of life. Without happiness, life is dry and meaningless. With happiness, life immediately becomes fulfilling and wonderful. Happiness is an infectious feeling that immediately lifts the sagging spirits of people. Happy people keep themselves happy because they know the little ways to appreciate themselves and to see the humor and magic in each moment.

Happiness and Humanity: – People are much more inclined to come to the assistance of a friend or of someone with whom they have something in common like ethnicity, nationality, religion and opinion, than to help a stranger to whom they feel no particular connection. The Buddhist approach is to gradually extend that sense of belonging to all beings. When our sense of belonging, extends to all living beings, we are intimately touched by their joys and sufferings. Those who believe themselves to be happiest are also the most humanitarians. When we are happy, the feeling of self-importance is diminished and we are more open to others.

HOPE: – Hope is defined by psychologists as the conviction that one can find the means to attain one’s goal and develop the motivation necessary to do so. It is known that hope improves student’s test results and athlete’s performance, makes illness and agonizing debility more bearable, and makes pain itself (from burns, arthritis, spinal injuries, or blindness, for example) easier to tolerate.