Happiness is one of today’s most important currencies. It has always been perhaps, but in modern society where the simple life has escaped us, happiness is eluding most of us as a result of the unbelievable pressures of life, new threats to life, high speed and anxieties of living and new challenges from wars, to relationships to anxieties and depression. With television and the speed of the internet, sadness poodles affect us in more ways than one.
So the war in Syria is raging, deaths and murders in the United States, bombers in Afghanistan and immigration woes affect us so much deeper than ever before because we can see them in our living rooms and feel ultimately connected. Not only are we upset that we can’t do much from where we are, we worry about our own concerns, school fees, food on the table, a horrible boss and an ending love story. Indeed, happiness seems like a distant reality but we must consciously get the happiness buzz in order to help us cope when the world around us seems to be narrowing and it looks like nothing is worth it.
This column wants you to understand that your life, your smile, your skills, your gift and your happiness means a lot to us. Stay positive, look to the brighter side, there is someone out there that you are better than. Let us help you brighten the spark in your life. As the year is three quarter way gone, promise us and yourself that you will learn to find happiness no matter what is going on around you, that you will seek help when you need it and surround yourself with only positive people who will heal you and lead you to nirvana or at least near nirvana.
This is the time to stop living in your head or hang out with toxic persons who do not mean well if you must get to the end of the year in high spirits. Books transport us to a great place and we learn about other people’s struggles and how they conquered their challenges. Here then are five books to help you get off your butt and find happiness or just activity that helps to heal you.
1) Art Therapy, the science of happiness by Paul Catalini. This book’s subtitle is; overcoming stress, depression and anxiety using the power of music, dance, writing and drawing. This book encourages you to go creative as calming therapy for unhappiness and does not require you to be a Picasso or have the mad skills of Leonardo da Vinci. Just simple strokes of something to enjoy and a passion for these things that heal. According to Picasso the purpose of art is to remove the dust of our daily lift from our souls. How profound!
2) Social Media and its terrifyingly negative effects on people with depression and anxiety is a book that has researched the link between social media and depression, especially among the younger generation. It shows the negative effects of excessive use of social media. This book validates my belief over the years that when you spend too much time on virtual reality, real life becomes difficult to cope with and can negatively affect happiness. Time to slow down, take a break from something that tells you that you are not good enough compared to everyone else out there or something that puts you under such immense pressure. Trust me, your popularity is not as important as your health.
