Celebrate them too
If you want to be happier, there is one profoundly simple strategy for more happiness, so obvious and effective, and yet that almost no one uses, all because of Old Happy conditioning.
Said strategy: find happiness in other people’s happiness.
In Old Happy culture, we’re taught that we’re separate from other people. That means that, if something good happens to you, it belongs to you and only brings you happiness (and I should be jealous of you, because it means that I didn’t get those good things and the happiness that they bring.)
What that means, though, is that your happiness is entirely dependent on you, and making sure that things going well—for you and for you alone. If you have a setback, or a bad day, or life otherwise doesn’t go how you want it to go, you become unhappy.
But if you see that you are connected to others, then that all changes. Because now, if something good happens to you, it also happens to me. I can find joy in your joys, exactly the same way I would for my own joys.
This perspective shift can completely change your life by removing so much of the pressure that we put on ourselves to control and achieve and win. When the people in your life succeed, or fall in love, or have a great day at work, or make a difference for someone, or create something beautiful, you get to feel that right alongside them.
So open up to it. Let yourself feel the joy of others as though it was your own—because that's what makes it your own, too.
The Definitive Guide to Happiness
A groundbreaking new approach based on a decade’s worth of research and brought to life with beautiful artwork, New Happy shows you the proven path to happiness.
