Write down a list of things that you want to start doing today that will help you achieve your goals for becoming a happier, healthier, more radiant you.

Make your list action-oriented, practical, and possible. Be sure to include both those things that you think will be easy to incorporate into your life, as well as more challenging. Dream big and visualize yourself accomplishing each item on your list as you focus your energy on making it a reality.

If you don’t know where to begin–talk to family and friends about what they want to start doing in order to live a happier life, or borrow ideas from the article with Tips for How to Be Happy.

Then inspire others to do the same. Continue to help motivate one another, challenge each other to make greater changes, and help each other to break through barriers.

Sample Finding Happiness Bucket List:

• Try to spend at least 15 minutes in nature every day.

• Commit to a bi-weekly or more yoga or exercise class.

• Try to learn something new I’ve always wanted to do.

• Take an around-the-world trip and explore new cultures.

• Be kinder to my loved ones.

• Make a complete stranger smile.

• Volunteer at least once a month, even every week, to a cause I truly believe in.

• Learn to meditate.

• Try a new healthy recipe each week and share it with family and friends.

• Make happiness a skill, something I can practice and study how to be happier each day.

• Start the day with a happiness quote, and share it with others to inspire them.

“When you change, your whole world changes.” Begin the journey to finding happiness.

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When I was ten years old, the only desire I had was to be happy. It was amazing to me, even then, that almost no one ever talked about happiness in the way I intuitively knew they ought to.

They believed that if you went to college, married and had children, and got a good job that brought you lots of money and success, you’d be happy. The idea was that if you added these external things to your life, they would magically create the fulfillment you were looking for, and you’d suddenly find yourself happy.

Even as a child, I was suspicious of this plan, and it left me in an awkward spot. I had the opportunity to follow the external path and do all of the things everyone said would give me happiness. And because I couldn’t quite believe it would work, I felt paralyzed, because I could see the end of that road clearly, and it wasn’t a place I wanted to be.

I wanted to be in a happy state of consciousness – without having to tack on a bunch of things to make my life outwardly just right.

It was only years later, as I began to awaken to the possibility of inner realities and inner transformation, that I realized my childhood intuition had been right. There really was a way to be happy within yourself, and from that state of being, to relate to money, home, relationships, and everything “out there” on the surface.

I discovered that when the inner state of consciousness is right, everything falls in place. But if your inner state isn’t balanced, and if it isn’t focused on something meaningful, it doesn’t matter how many accoutrements you pile on, because there will always be inner discontent.

In this way, I became aware of a central fact of life: that joy is within you. The lasting happiness we’re seeking is a consciousness that we can cultivate. I came to understand that, step by step, we can develop the attitudes, actions, and practices that create happiness.

How I wish I’d been told these principles as a child, instead of being asked to memorize the capital of Brazil and the primary exports of France.

Once we learn that happiness is within us, we realize a profound truth: change yourself and everything changes.

The obvious next question is, “How do we change?”

Once we ask the right question, the answer is usually close at hand. How can we change? How can we put ourselves in a state of consciousness where our happiness grows from inside?

The “method” is, first of all, to understand that when you take care of the inner reality, your outer reality automatically adjusts. It’s like tuning a radio – whatever station you tune to inside, that’s the music you’ll hear outside.

The lovely thing is that it isn’t an all-or-nothing proposition. It’s not that you must suddenly leap from complete darkness to total light. Every step you take, no matter how small, expands your capacity to experience happiness, so that the journey becomes the goal.

It’s instructive to observe those who’ve walked the happiness-path for a very long time.

I remember a vacation that a group of us from Ananda took with Swami Kriyananda.

Next to the lobby of the hotel where some of us were staying was a small jewelry shop. For hours every day, a woman sat alone behind the counter.

Swamiji remarked, “I never see any customers in there.”

There was nothing in the shop he wanted to buy, but the next day he went in, and we followed.

“I see you sitting here day after day,” he said to the woman. “There are so few customers. What do you do all day? It must be lonely.”

She seemed startled by being addressed in such a personal way, and touched by his kindness.

“I read,” she said. “I have a little paperwork to do.” Her voice trailed off. “It is lonely,” she said, her eyes filling with tears.

Swamiji offered no words of comfort. He was silent and still, but as I stood next to him, I was suddenly enveloped by an expanding sense of joy that was emanating from him. He was reaching out to her with his spirit. Suddenly her eyes shone with happiness. When Swamiji saw that she had received what he’d come to give, he wished her well and we left the shop.

After that, whenever he passed, he would greet her with a smile through the window. Often, she would come to the door and follow him with her gaze until he was out of sight. Just seeing Swamiji seemed to ease her loneliness.

A corollary of the law of happiness is the discovery that our happiness grows as we extend our awareness to include the realities of others.

In giving others kindness, compassion, and sympathy, even in small and simple ways, we find our happiness mysteriously expanding from within.

The desire to find happiness and avoid suffering is such a universal and inescapable fact of life that it deserves to be called a law. Some people, of course, seek their happiness in the wrong places – mistakenly believing that they can remove an obstacle to their happiness by treating others unkindly, stealing, or even murdering. But the law of happiness is inexorable – happiness comes by an expansion of consciousness, never by contracting our awareness in the hope of shutting out all but our own limited reality.

How can we develop the capacity to understand where our true happiness lies, and find the courage to follow that inner guidance? Life itself teaches us many lessons – we learn what works and what doesn’t in life’s school of hard knocks.

But there are shortcuts. Deep understanding can carry us over many of life’s dangerous passages. The world’s spiritual teachers tell us that we can find the source of wisdom within. By harmonizing the feelings of our hearts and quieting our thoughts in meditation, we can learn to hear the “still, small voice” that is continually whispering its wisdom and wants only our highest good.

Swamiji led with his heart. From the side, he looked like a strung bow: straight spine, outwardly curving chest. The clarity of his mind came from the courage of his heart.

“In teaching meditation,” Swamiji said, “people speak of the need to calm the mind. In fact, it is the heart that needs to be calmed. That is why devotion is fundamental to success in meditation. When the heart is calm and one-pointed in its focus on God, the mind is also still, because there are no restless feelings to disturb it.

“Jesus put it this way, ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.’ Purity means the absence of any other desire except the desire for God. This is our natural state. It is not something we have to acquire. All we have to do is remove the impurities of the heart which keep us from knowing ourselves as we truly are: One with God.”

About Asha:

Nayaswami Asha is the spiritual director of Ananda Sangha in Palo Alto, California, and the Ananda community in Mountain View, California. She served as content manager during the producing of the Finding Happiness film.

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I don’t read the papers much, but several years ago I came across an article in the Sacramento Bee that fairly begged to be disbelieved.

Here’s an excerpt:

In a Journal of Medical Ethics article titled “A Proposal to Classify Happiness as a Psychiatric Disorder,” Liverpool University psychologist Richard P. Bentall argues that the so?called syndrome of happiness is a diagnosable mood disturbance that should be included in standard taxonomies of mental illness such as the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. Happiness, as Bentall states in his abstract, is “statistically abnormal, consists of a discrete cluster of symptoms, is associated with a range of cognitive abnormalities and probably reflects the abnormal functioning of the central nervous system.” (In this regard, as Bentall later notes, happiness resembles other psychiatric disorders such as depression and schizophrenia.)

The author of the Bee article, New Republic contributing editor Maggie Scarf, related Dr. Bentall’s suggestion “that the term ‘happiness’ be removed from future editions of the major diagnostic manuals, to be replaced by the formal description ‘major affective disorder, pleasant type.’”

When I read the article aloud to a friend, she doubled over with major affective disorder, pleasant type.

“That’s such amazing cock-a-doo!” she howled. “It’s so carefully reasoned – yet it’s completely incredible!”

The Practice of Happiness 

It is nutty-cakes. And yet, is there anything actually wrong with using scientific methods to study happiness? After all, it’s what the spiritual explorers of all ages have done – studying happiness in the laboratory of their bodies, hearts, and minds, and keeping tidy notes of what works and what doesn’t.

For most of us, at any rate, happiness is hardly a “diagnosable mood disturbance” – it’s the answer we’re seeking. And if we can get more of it with the help of scientific orderliness and method, so much the better.

That’s the message of Finding Happiness. The film reveals how the members of nine small intentional communities scattered around the globe have made happiness the cornerstone of their lives for more than forty-five years.

(Disclaimer: I’ve lived in the Ananda communities for 40 years.)

Because the world’s spiritual adepts have made a specialty of researching the factors that increase happiness and decrease suffering, what they say may be particularly worth hearing, in these times of pandemic unhappiness.

After all, their approach is practical. They tell us, for example, that we’ve been born with five instruments that we can use to boost our happiness – the body, heart, will, mind, and soul. And they further explain that as we grow up, we pass through five stages, each of which lasts about six years, during which these “happiness tools,” in the order listed, become the prime focus.

Happiness, they tell us, increases as we learn to use the tools “expansively.” (More on “expansion” later.) Thus, the most important time of our lives for learning to nurture and increase our happiness is when we’re growing up.

From birth to age 6, an infant must learn to use its body and senses. From 6 to 12, feelings come to the fore – these are the years when children are highly receptive to learning through the media of feeling – the arts, including stories, music, theater, painting, and dance.

From 12 to 18, teenagers embrace challenges to their will power, in preparation for independent adult life. At around 18, young people become fascinated with the life of the mind, engaging in endless discussions of politics, science, the arts, and philosophy. Finally, at around 24, many people experience significant life events that may precede a spiritual awakening.

As each tool takes center stage, the others don’t simply fade away. Thus, while a toddler’s primary challenge is to gain a certain level of mastery over its body and senses, it will also express its feelings – with the volume turned up! Nor do the stages begin precisely on one’s 6th, 12th, 18th, and 24th birthday; the transitions are gradual.

Why did nature decide on this particular system? In his insightful book, Education for Life, the founder of Ananda, Swami Kriyananda (writing under his American name, J.?Donald Walters) explains how each tool prepares the child for the stage that follows. Thus, feeling comes before will power, because feeling is the faculty that enables us to tell right from wrong. Before we can use our will power appropriately, with sensitive awareness of others’ realities, we need to develop our ability to feel their realities. Walters laments the ruinous consequences of cramming children’s minds with facts at the expense of nurturing and refining their capacity to feel, as is customary in schools today.

Here’s another way to look at it: each stage fulfills the preceding one. Thus, feeling motivates us to action, and will power gives us the energy to act on our feelings. Will power, in turn, finds its fulfillment in wisdom, which tells us which actions will give us the greatest happiness. And wisdom is fulfilled in spiritual practice – because in Self-realization, we unite our consciousness with the source of all wisdom and joy.

The history of education reveals that in ancient Greece and Rome, and throughout the Middle Ages and Enlightenment, the six-year stages were recognized as natural phases of a child’s life. Thus, appropriate teaching methods were devised for each stage, and schools were divided into the rough equivalents of our modern elementary school (age 6-12), junior and senior high (12-18), and college (18-24).

Expanding Awareness Equals Joy

As I hinted above, the spiritual teachings of all ages tell us that happiness comes by using our five human tools “expansively.” Like most abstractions, “expansion” is most easily understood with examples.

Consider what happens when we begin an exercise program. After the first two or three weeks, we find ourselves feeling happier and more alive. Why? Because the exercising body is generating more energy that spills over to nourish our feelings, will, and mind, expanding their range and force. Expanding our awareness through one “tool,” the body, has influenced the others. Good actions spread their effects – as do “bad” ones.

People tend to “specialize” in one or perhaps two of the “tools of expansion.” Thus, some of us go more by feeling, while others tend to lead with their willpower or mind. The spiritual teachings advise us to “go with our strengths,” and work to correct any weaknesses.

In many natural processes, the “tools of happiness” tend to appear in the same order as in a child’s development. When we fall in love, for example, the first attraction is generally, though not invariably physical. We see a person across the room whose appearance attracts us, and our feelings become aroused. We form a volition to act on our feelings, and we walk over and strike up a conversation. The mind probes for information: Is she married? Does he like children? And, if we’re wise, we’ll consult a higher guidance before entering this new life venture. We’ve passed through the five “tools” in order: body, feeling, will, mind, soul.

The System Is Rigged

It all sounds so straightforward: simply use the tools expansively and happiness will follow – rather like remembering to brush our teeth in the morning. But in real life, cultivating expansive attitudes turns out to be a challenge. That’s because the opposite urge, contraction, is strong in us also.

Life places essentially the same choice continually before us: will we use our bodies wisely, or allow them to decay? Our hearts, to love, or to hate? Our minds, to be wise, or merely clever? Our spiritual instincts, to aspire inwardly, or to dabble in psychic trivialities. History – ours and the world’s – is the eternal struggle between these two forces in human nature.

Also, the theory is simple, but the details are not. We’ve been given all of the tools we need to achieve happiness and success – or so it seems. The trouble is, relying too exclusively on our purely human tools, we find ourselves sooner or later bumping against their built-in limitations.

The five tools of expansion embody wonderful expertise, yet their very specialization can trip us. When that happens, we can still find answers by looking beyond the tools. Happily, we can use those same instruments to tap into an awareness that is endlessly wise and loving, and that has our best interests at heart.

But what of Professor Bentall? Researchers are discovering that happiness is good medicine. Shawn Achor, author of The Happiness Advantage, found that the most successful Harvard freshmen were not those who resolved to hole-up in the library and grind out good grades; they were the happiest students, who formed study groups and carried a positive, life-affirming attitude to their studies. And scientists at Heartmath Institute are discovering that expansive attitudes powerfully contribute to the health and efficient functioning of our bodies and brains.

A study of nuns found that those who lived longest were unrepentantly happy, and those who were disappointed with their vocation and bitter died at a younger age. From a London Times article on the study:

It’s difficult to resist the logic of the happiness doctors. Stay in your Eeyore-ish bubble of existentialist angst and have a life that’s short, sickly, friendless and self-obsessed. Or find a way to get happy, and long life, good health, job satisfaction and social success will be yours.

Find a Finding Happiness Movie Screening in your area.

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Finding Happiness went in search for the answer to the question “why are happy people happy?”

Here are our top tips for how to find true and lasting happiness in daily life:

1. Let go of negativity.

• Learn to forgive and forget.

• See every challenge as an opportunity for further growth.

• Express gratitude for what you have.

• Be more optimistic about the future and your ability to accomplish life goals.

• Open yourself up to success and embrace failures or mistakes that happen along the way.

• Know that none of us are perfect, we are all here to entertain and be entertained.

• Don’t worry about the little things. Take plenty of “worry vacations” where you train your mind not to worry for a certain lengths of time.

• If you want to be more positive, surround yourself with positive energy and people. Nurture the positive relationships that you have, seeking out more of those relationships that help uplift you.

• Accept and love yourself for the unique gifts and talents that you bring to life. Spend less time trying to please others and spend more time trying to please your higher self.

• See the humor in life and in our experiences. Take life less seriously and learn to laugh at yourself.

2. Serve and be kind to others.

• Treat everyone with kindness. Not only does it help others to feel better, but you will notice that you too feel good after having a positive interaction with others.

• Speak well of others. When you speak negatively of others you will attract more negativity to yourself, but when you speak positively of others, you will attract more positivity.

• Truly listen to others. Be present and mindful to what others are really saying when they speak. Support them without bringing yourself into it.

• Be careful with your words. Speak gentler, kinder, and wiser.

• Respect others and their free will.

• Put your trust in others and be trusted in return. Enjoy the sense of community and friendship that comes from this openness and faith in one another.

• Work as part of a whole. See others as partners in your efforts. Unite your efforts with them to create a synergy more powerful than anything you could do alone.

• Practice generosity and giving without expecting anything in return. Get involved with service opportunities and offer what you can to a greater cause.

• Smile more– to family, to co-workers, to neighbors, to strangers– and watch it not only change how you feel but also how they feel too.

3. Live in the present.

• Don’t replay negative events or worry about the future.

• Accept and celebrate impermanence. Be grateful for your life, for each moment of every day. Observe the constant and natural flow of change that surrounds us, and your small yet important part in the natural, divine flow of life.

• Observe yourself in the moment. Work on your reactions to outer circumstances and learn how to approach life harmoniously.

4. Choose a healthy lifestyle.

• Keep a daily routine. Wake up at the same time every morning, preferably early. Setting yourself to a natural biorhythm will make it easier to wake up and feel energized.

• Get enough sleep. Proper sleep is linked to positive personality characteristics like optimism, improved self-esteem, and even problem solving.

• Expose yourself to cold temperatures (especially first thing in the morning with perhaps a cold shower). It increases your circulation, helps minimize inflammation in the body, enhances weight loss, and energizes and invigorates you to start your day.

• Turn off the TV. For every hour of TV you watch, you reduce 22 minutes of your life expectancy.

• Eat properly. What you eat has a direct effect on your mood and energy levels. Eat plenty of organic, locally grown fruits and vegetables, nuts, whole grains, and dairy products that are both vitamin and mineral infused. Don’t overeat and try to practice healthy self-control.

• Exercise daily to the point of sweating. It not only helps to purify the body, but also releases endorphins which help to prevent stress, relieve depression, and positively improve your mood.

• Laugh more. Laughter is the best medicine. Like exercise, it releases endorphins that battle the negative effects of stress and promote a sense of well-being and joy.

• Practice deep breathing and yoga. The body and mind are connected. Emotions affect the physical systems in the body, and the state of the body also affects the mind. By relaxing and releasing tension through the breath or yoga practice you feel more calm and centered throughout the day.

5. Take care of your spirit.

• Strive to always learn new things. Constantly expand your awareness and discover new ways of expressing your divine gifts.

• Get creative. This will not only challenge you to learn new things, but will also help to keep your mind in a positive place. Practice living in the present moment and being a channel for the divine flow of creativity.

• Practice meditation. Research has proven that even as little as 10 minutes of meditation a day can lead to physical changes in the brain that improve concentration and focus, calm the nervous system, and help you to become more kind and compassionate, and even more humorous. Then bring the joy and peace you receive from meditation into your daily life and activity.

• Be honest. Telling the truth keeps you free inside, builds trust in relationships, and improves your will power and the ability to attract success.

• Surrender to the Universe Divine and allow it to take care of the littlest things in life to the greatest and most important.

6. Be inwardly free.

• Live minimally and simply. Often extravagant living brings more stress not more satisfaction.

• De-clutter your home to de-clutter your mind. Clutter is an often unrecognized source of stress that promotes feelings of anxiety, frustration, distraction, and guilt. Feel good in your own home. Make it your sanctuary by keeping it clean, organized, and uplifting.

• Go without certain things you think you need. Travel to new places where not everything is as easily accessible or readily available, and learn to appreciate what you have by expanding your world.

• Take some time away from life’s complicated outer involvements to get to know your family, your neighbors, and your loved ones better; and to get to know yourself.

7.  Reconnect with Nature.

• Take some time every week to recharge your body battery. On the weekend, escape to nature or a place where you can feel peace in time for a fresh start to the work week.

• Get outside whenever possible to breathe in the fresh air and feel the sunshine. Both of which studies have shown to have a positive effect on our health and our mood.

• Take some time to be silent. Be silent and calm every night for at least 10 minutes (longer if possible) and again in the morning before rising. This will produce an unbreakable habit of inner happiness to help you meet challenges in life.

• Observe the natural beauty that surrounds you and feel a sense of connection. Appreciate the details and miracles that can be found in nature.

Taking the Next Steps to Finding Happiness:

Ask yourself what makes you happy, and find ways to restructure your life so that you are able to do more of those things.

Then ask why you struggle to do the things that you know will make you happy. Why are you not yet happy? Why haven’t you taken the next steps to find your happiness? Why are you here? And what do you need to do to feel a sense of accomplishment in this life?

Visualize yourself happy, doing the things that will bring you inner and outer success in life and write down the things you need to do to create a Happiness Bucket List. Start with the little things you know you can do each day that will bring you joy. Then move on to accomplish greater and greater things on your happiness bucket list.

Sign up to receive our free daily happiness quotes, and download our happiness tips mini-poster gift to you, or view a list of our favorite happiness quotes.

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“People are more important than things.”
– J. Donald Walters

Genuine leadership is of only one type: supportive. It leads people: It doesn’t drive them. It involves them: It doesn’t coerce them. It never loses sight of the most important principle governing any project involving human beings: namely, that people are more important than things.

Work With People’s Strengths. As a leader, you will get the best results for the least amount of effort if you work with those who are in tune with your ideals. You would be wise not to give a disproportionate amount of energy to those who are not in tune. Creativity cannot thrive where too much effort is devoted to combating negativity.

Give Support. The leader who fears strength in his subordinates is concerned merely with protecting his own position. Any work that he and they may be engaged in is certain to produce only negligible results.

Make Action Your First Priority, Not Talk. When faced with any decision, make your primary criterion “what will work,” rather than beautiful (but impractical) theories.

Be Flexible. It is not weakness in a leader to admit error. Nor is it weakness to agree to other ideas than his own. The wise man knows that the fear of being thought fallible is itself a proof of fallibility. Human nature, after all, is fallible. But remember also: Truth always wins out in the end.

Leadership is Intuition, Guided by Common Sense. The wise leader is more concerned with what will work than with getting his opinions accepted. And he is more concerned with truth than with merely being thought right.

Leadership Means Loyalty. It is easy to drive people, more difficult to lead them. No matter how good an idea, if you can’t earn the loyalty of those charged with implementing it, by giving them your loyalty, your efforts will be doomed to mediocrity.

Leadership Means Service. Too much attention is generally given to the position, rather than the function of leadership. Once rank assumes importance for its own sake, creativity and meaningful progress grind to a halt. Only a weak leader feels the need to wave his position before his subordinates.

Leadership Means Setting Aside Personal Desires.

Leadership Means Responsibility. The true leader is concerned not so much with the opinions of others as with the truth, with getting a job done, with inspiring others to join him in working toward a worthy common goal. This concern implies a willingness to assume responsibility.

Leadership Is Not an Ego Game. What does leadership mean to you? Does it give you a thrill to think of others looking up to you, waiting breathlessly your slightest, but ever-wise, decision; or leaping to carry out your least, but always-firm, command? If so, you may have the necessary instincts to command a flock of sheep, but not to lead a dynamic organization.

What is True Success? A true leader is neither attached to success nor afraid of failure. He knows that success is not so much the completion of a specific project as the energy that goes into completing it. Projects can be destroyed, but never energy itself.

 Learn more Leadership Strategies for Happiness in the book: The Art of Supportive Leadership, by J. Donald Walters