I was surprised to hear that March 20 was international happiness day—did you know? Did it make a difference to your sense of well being? Is this like the World series baseball, that caters only to North American teams … can this be called international when the songs for this event are all English?

But I do not want to be the naysayer only … my friend suggested that I not blog not only sad posts … The majority of time, I am an upbeat person, I have experienced sadness though. I am not alone in that.

Leo Tolstoy said “If you want to be happy, be.”

Is it that simple?
What do you think? Dr Seuss said “unslumping oneself is not easily done.”

Please, give me your best unslumping tips.

My tips would include, but not limited to: Distraction, practice laughter, connect with people, connect with yourself, listen to positive music, travel. A tip from a sister – “Think less, drink more.”

The fog is closing in here on this first day of spring, and the close of international Happiness day, and the dog upstairs continues to bark. Perhaps I could write the sequel to the curious incident of the dog in the night-time. (Mark Haddon)

Some of my favourite quotes on happiness:

“Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.”
― Ernest Hemingway

“Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.”
― Abraham Lincoln

“For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

“They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.”
― Tom Bodett

“You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness.”
― Jonathan Safran Foer

“Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination.”
― Mark Twain

“And I can’t be running back and fourth forever between grief and high delight.”
― J.D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey

“Happiness is not a goal…it’s a by-product of a life well lived.”
― Eleanor Roosevelt

“So we shall let the reader answer this question for himself: who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed?”

― Hunter S. Thompson

“… the secret to joy is to keep seeking God where we doubt He is.”

―Ann Voskamp 

“Sadness gives depth. Happiness gives height. Sadness gives roots. Happiness gives branches. Happiness is like a tree going into the sky, and sadness is like the roots going down into the womb of the earth. Both are needed, and the higher a tree goes, the deeper it goes, simultaneously. The bigger the tree, the bigger will be its roots. In fact, it is always in proportion. That’s its balance.”

― Osho, Everyday Osho: 365 Daily Meditations for the Here and Now

This last quote by Osho, made sense to me … this was a concept a good friend and I discussed, how the parallel tracks of life, Joy and Sorrow hold hands to make our lives richer. We can only fully appreciate happiness, when we have known its absence.

And let me know what makes you happy. The  laughter of children always works for me.

Pablo Casals said: “Music is the divine way to tell beautiful, poetic things to the heart,”      Here are links to poetic messages for your heart’s happiness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Sxv-sUYtM (Pharrell Williams Happy song)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02m5w5p (The BBC’s list of songs for International Happiness Day.)