The Secret of Happiness

Hello, people on the internet,

Once, I was one of that hopelessly-optimistic-type of person that pissed off all my friends. (me in the left, friend in the right) But then life happens. I have became more realistic and calm as I grew up. A friend once told me to cherish being innocent and youthful, because you only get it once. And once you get pass that, you can never go back. (Supposedly) Now these words finally make sense to me. Because my innocence and youth have taken off.

But deep down I know I still want to be the annoyingly happy person. So I started to search everywhere to find source of happiness. I found two answers lately.

The first is from a Tedtalk video called “Money can buy happiness”. I clicked at it right away, because if I could, I would totally pay for happiness. The video talks about how the they did a research on a group of college students by giving everyone 5 dollars. They asked half of the students to spend the money on themselves while the other half to spend the 5 dollars on someone else. They also had them fill out survey both before and after spending the money. And statistic shows that people who spent on others are significantly happier than people who spent on themselves.

I think it makes sense. Because when you buy a cup of Starbucks coffee for yourself, you bought it and drank it, the end. But when you buy a cup of coffee for someone, that person remembers it and wants to do something nice to you or others to give back, so it forms a positive cycle of goodness. And thus making you happier.

So, I have to act on it! I started a list of things I want to do/buy for people I love. The first being my mom’s birthday presents. I picked out some pretty photos of hers, printed them out and put them into a sparkly picture frame that I know she loves. I paid 5 times how much the picture frame is worth so I can send it across the Pacific Ocean to get to her in time. (which it didn’t but close enough) And my mom told me that’s the best give she has ever received. It makes me ten times happier than when I spend the same amount of money on shopping. I also listed out some other things I want to do for my friends and family. Oh, and listed out the budgeting. I am serious with the money buying happiness strategy.

The second secrete of happiness, is to live in the moment. In this ted talk, they did a research through sending out smart phone survey to 15,000 people around the world and collect 65,000 data entries. In the survey, it asks if this person is focusing on what he or she is doing or mind wondering; and if he or she is mind wondering, is it about happy things or sad things.

The result shows that people are always happier when they are focusing on what they are currently doing; even though the thing is waiting in traffic. Moreover, even mind wondering about happy things turned out to be slightly less happy than when he or she is focused.

I am guilty of wondering a lot. But when I look back in my life of those time that I was truly happy, it always was those time when I was focusing at the moment and trying everything I could to remember every little details at the time. And I think, how convenient is it to be innocent, right? Because of the inexperience, everything seems to be new and exciting. It is much easier to be surprised or want to grasp every minute of a moment. But starting from now, I want to try and refocus on my current life. And when I did that, I realize my life is pretty freaking awesome.

So that’s the secret of happiness to me. What about yours? 

A-ca