Read the text about happy living and then, do the exercises below.

Marta Hilgier The Ultimate Guide to Happy Living

Have you noticed that all bookshops have a self‑help section? If you have a peek athave a peek athave a peek at any one of them, you’ll realize that plenty ofplenty ofplenty of shelves bend under the weight ofbend under the weight ofbend under the weight of volumes devoted to achieving eternaleternaleternal happiness. It probably should make us wonder – if there are tons of books on the subject and they are at our fingertipsat your fingertipsat our fingertips, why are there so many people who feel down in the dumpsfeel/be down in the dumpsfeel down in the dumps? Why aren’t our streets flooded withflooded withflooded with grinninggrinning [grin]grinning passers‑by? Doesn’t it make you question the value of information included in those manuals? Perhaps there’s one thing we should do with all these self‑help guides – throw all of them out the window and look for the answers somewhere else?

The first step to achieving satisfaction in life and adoptingadopting [adopt]adopting an optimistic outlook on the worldoutlook on the worldoutlook on the world is to remember that everything is in your head. Your emotional well‑being doesn’t depend on what a psychologist wrote in the book, a celebrity said in the interview or an influencer posted on social media. What is crucial to know is that none of them know who you are and what really makes you tickmake you tick [make someone tick]makes you tick. You should take control of your life by following two universal steps. But trust me, it won’t be an easy process.

Let’s move back in time to get some inspiration from ancient philosophers. Zeno of Citium was the founder of stoicism as a movement but the term itself was coinedcoined [coin]coined later. In modern times a stoic means a person who is indifferentindifferentindifferent to pain, pleasure, griefgriefgrief and joy. This approach is characterised by life not governed by emotions and this can be achieved when we applyapplyapply logic and reason. In other words, we need to use self‑discipline and reflectionreflectionreflection to be in charge ofbe in charge ofbe in charge of how we think because as human beings we are unable to control what happens around us or what other people do and say. If we understand that so many events are beyond our control, we won’t blameblameblame ourselves for failures or obstaclesobstacles [obstacle]obstacles that we couldn’t overcomeovercomeovercome or foreseeforeseeforesee.

Another tip from the wise men of the past is to program your mind so as to think about daily events in a different way. As StoicsStoics [stoic]Stoics pointed out, destructivedestructivedestructive emotions, unhappiness and evilevilevil are the result of ignorance. If someone is unkind, they are unaware of their reasons for behaving like that. So to analyse their judgement and behaviour, they should think if their rudenessrudenessrudeness comes from the things they can or cannot influence. If it’s the latter, well, what’s the point of feeling miserable?

Achieving happiness means finding out what you really want from life, not what other people think you should do. So it’s high time you found couragecouragecourage within you and dareddared [dare]dared to dream big. Don’t think that everyone else in the world is there to make you stumblestumblestumble and fall. If you understand this concept, you’ll have more resilienceresilienceresilience and awareness that there is nothing you can do about the rules of the natural order of things but they don’t act to your disadvantageact to your disadvantage [act to someone’s disadvantage]act to your disadvantage. So use the values of a stoic lifestyle and you’ll find you can be perfectly happy more often than not and even over the moonbe over the moonover the moon every once in a whileevery once in a whileevery once in a while.

1 Źródło: Marta Hilgier, licencja: CC BY-SA 3.0.