Sixteen Snippets Of Happiness In Trying Times

The International Day of Happiness is on Friday 20th March in 2020 – happiness has never seemed so important or elusive.

I’m sharing sixteen more of my favourite happiness quotes as a gesture of solidarity. Every little helps as we try to reach out as cheerfully as we can to others, in a world where society is hunkering down.

Please join in and commemorate the day if you can.

“The best path to happiness is learning to change as rapidly as life does.” Don Miguel Ruiz

“You can never get enough of what you don’t need to make you happy.” Eric Hoffer

The next still applies although more of our ‘meetings’ will be via technology:

“Honest good humor is the oil and wine of a merry meeting, and there is no jovial companionship equal to that where the jokes are rather small and laughter abundant.” Washington Irving

“We imagine that if we had time we would quiet our more shallow selves and listen to a deeper flow of inspiration. Again, this is a myth that lets us off the hook – if I wait for enough time to listen, I don’t have to listen now.” Julia Cameron

“There is one aspect of happiness that’s been well studied, and it’s the notion of flow. Ask yourselves, when for you does time stop? When are you truly at home, wanting to be no place else?” Martin Seligman

“Stay close to any sounds that make you glad you are alive.” Hafiz

“Each month, 55 million people google ‘how to be happy.’ But it’s well documented what makes us happy – we find it in each other.” Tim Knox

“To find a person who will love you for no reason, and to shower that person with reasons, that is the ultimate happiness.” Robert Brault

“I can’t imagine trying to be normal. I gave up on that a long time ago, when I finally woke up to the fact that trying to be ‘normal’ seemed to cause endless misery.” Susan Biali

“You can choose to focus on the surprises and pleasures, or the frustrations. And you can choose to appreciate the smallest scraps of experience, the everyday moments, or to value only the grandest, most stirring ones. Ultimately, the real question is whether you want to be happy.” Chris Hadfield

“I enjoyed my own nature to the fullest, and we all know that there lies happiness, although, to soothe one another mutually, we occasionally pretend to condemn such joys as selfishness.” Albert Camus

“If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it.” Mary Oliver

“Most of us believe in trying to make other people happy only if they can be happy in ways we approve.” Robert S. Lynd

“If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive.” Eleonora Duse

My final choices are a paradox in celebration of older people, who are often misunderstood, from an artist famous for seeing things differently:

“It takes a very long time to become young.” Pablo Picasso

and advice from one of my heroes (so insightful that we might conclude he was an alien) about how to deal with being banished to a place we would rather not be:

All places that the eye of heaven visits
Are to a wise man ports and happy havens.
Teach thy necessity to reason thus:
There is no virtue like necessity.

William Shakespeare, Richard II

If you enjoyed any of these, you might like my original post from The International Day Of Happiness back in 2015 or my selection of quotes from Marcus Aurelius who, like Shakespeare, lived through times like these with less resources. And, speaking of resources:

Action for Happiness

A non-profit movement of people from 160 countries, committed to building a happier society. Action For Happiness has a new coping calendar online to print out or download and is asking us to share it:

The WildLife Trust’s Ways to Connect

Suggestions to help us connect with the natural world at (or close to) home, including projects for children.

Out of Kilter Ideas (why not?)

The Guardian’s list of 25 video games to help people of all ages socialise while self-isolating. 

I’ve never played a video game – although I did have a dog that read a paper, growled on command, and did chemistry experiments in test tubes back in the day – but who knows?

Please reach out to someone if you need help. I’m sending lots of love to every reader and passing on this benediction from Oddments:

“Wishing us all better times.”