How To Become Happy

In my blog 'How To Become Happier' on 26Mar10, I discussed that we can always be happier disregard we are happy or not, and went through some ways that can help us becoming happier. In this blog, I'll take one step further and discuss on how to ultimately become happy.

A. Always Be Happier
    As a first step, we can always be happier as mentioned in my previous blog, and as such, I do not intend to repeat here any further.
B. Appreciate What We Have
    While we should always aim for higher and better, nonetheless we should always be content of what we are having; our family, friends, what we process and our status quo. Remember, the present is always already a present. Do not be unhappy unnecessarily.
C. Seeing People Around Us Happy
    We will feel happy when we are surrounded by happiness. When we are in Disneyland, we feel happy because we are surrounded by a happy environment and atmosphere, and by happy people everywhere. Likewise, when we see that our family, friends and neighbours are happy, we will be happy too.
D. Making People Around Us Happy
    By making people around us happy, we can have happiness around us. As result, we'll feel happy as mentioned in C above. There are various ways we can make people around us happy. We can employ whatever means appropriate to us, e.g.:
. buying a gift for our family and friends
. sharing funny and interesting stories, and our favourable experiences with others
. helping out with people needing help
. making donations to charity
. performing voluntary work in our community
. to a larger extent, be a philanthropist and contributing back to the society (some of) what we gained from them
E. Seeing That We Can Make People Around Us Happy
    When we see people around us happy as result of us making them so, we'll have a very high degree of personal satisfaction. The happiness we acquire from such at that moment is usually far beyond any words of description.

As we expereience, happiness from material gains (e.g. living in a big house, having a delicious meal or enjoying a luxurious holiday etc.) is usually superficial and short-lived. Happiness gained from sharing happiness with others are mostly much more intense and long-lasting, and surprizingly, usually comes for free!

Be happy always!