Cultivate Happiness

I’ve been making the argument that happiness matters.  I think it specially matters among those of us who are working towards social transformation.  I believe there is a way to be happy and still face down the horrors that abate our world.  I am convinced that when movement builders find and cultivate this sort of clear eyed happiness we will actually become a powerful attractor for those who yearn to build a better world but have not yet found a way to do it.

In this brief video (4.5 minutes), Harvard’s Tal Ben-Shahar gives us a five useful tips towards becoming happier:

1. Accept painful emotions – it means you are alive and you are not a psychopath!
2. Spend quality time with the people that you love – become time affluent
3. Exercise! – it’s as good or better than any anti-depressant
4. Cultivate Gratitude – Keep a gratitude journal, it takes few minutes per night and there is an app for that!
5. Simplify – do less rather than more, create phone and e-mail free zones

Movement builders know that there is a lot of work to do and so it becomes difficult for us to be wise about our time, but this is a marathon not a sprint and happy people are more attractive than miserable people – let’s make movement beautiful!