Happiness comes when your work and words are of benefit to yourself and others. (Buddha)
Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory. (Albert Schweitzer)
The Grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. (AK Chalmers)
That man is richest whose pleasures are cheapest. (Thoreau)
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For several years, I have been contemplating the concept of “personal sustainability” – how to live our lives in balance with the natural systems that created and sustain us. I have come to realize that sustainability, at the personal level, is very similar to a much more familiar concept: happiness.
Happiness is neither easily defined nor easily achieved. But, when approached from the prism of sustainability, it can be systematically sought. Like sustainability, we may never fully achieve happiness, but by pursuing it daily, with care and discipline, in time we can become healthier, wiser, better… happier.
I tend to take a “left brain” approach to happiness, in contrast to my friend and sounding board Ed Essey, whose brilliant publication aphorism and egoism charts a more spiritual path.
In future posts I will describe some life experiments with “happiness training” that you might find interesting.
