Four questions about your happiness
A daffodil for you all because today is the start of spring. It was noticeable in Ottawa. Yesterday the temperatures were still close to freezing; today was 12 Celsius. (54 Fahrenheit) with a blue sky and a bright sun. I enjoyed my morning coffee on the sunny deck outside—what a moment of happiness.
Today was World Happiness Day. That is not just a trending hashtag or reasons for funny viral memes; this is an official day of the United Nations. Bhutan promoted the idea. Since the 1970s, the country values its national happiness over its national income. It prioritizes the Gross National Happiness index above raising the Gross National Product. In 2012 Bhutan initiated a resolution, accepted in the General Assembly of the United Nations, where the UN proclaimed 20 March as the International Day of Happiness.
Yesterday, I explained in The Planet newsletter that I try to send out only 'happy tweets' on the weekend. It balances the often disturbing information that I share during the week on how we ruin our beautiful planet and how we are too slow to take effective climate action. I also need a break from all the news about hate and violence. This past week was a particularly bad one in that aspect. At the end of the week, I need to detox by focusing on happy stories about the outdoors, wildlife, art, or kindness. That coffee in the morning sun this morning worked like magic on my happiness levels.
The ecological crisis of the planet threatens our happiness. In that light, it may be no surprise to see that Bhutan is the only nation worldwide to have become carbon negative. The country absorbs more carbon than it emits; this makes the Himalaya-kingdom a pretty cool country. All other countries in the world aim, or should aim, for something that Bhutan has already achieved. That is worth quite some points on any happiness index.
Your happiness
How is that for you? Happiness or richness? Here are four questions and a few thoughts.
Have you ever thought about what makes you happy? Try it. Name your top three essentials for your happiness.
I just did and came up with something about love/friendship, family/friends, health. Okay, I admit I cheated; these are five. And I didn't even get to peace, freedom, and a few more 'essentials' for my happiness (did I mention that coffee in the first sun this morning?)
Next question. Did you mention a million dollars, a new car, and a yacht as your top three? Good, I believe we may safely conclude that we don't need unnecessary luxury items to increase our happiness significantly. For most of us, they are not on top of your list.
But I wonder, did you chose food, clean water, and access to a toilet? I guess you didn't (unless The Planet is read all over the planet after only six days, which would make me happy). It is easy to understand that you would have filled in these priorities if you don't have access to these essential conditions.
Last question: what would the world's 2,153 billionaires of the world have answered to this question? What can make them happy? More billions?
A bit over a year ago, Oxfam calculated that their combined wealth was more than the 4,6 billion people who make up 60 percent of the planet's population.
So the way I see it is that there are minimum standards on which we can all probably agree. And once we have achieved these, we can lead a happy life, and we don't need millions of dollars on our bank accounts to become more comfortable.
I believe that today was a day about equality and fairness. More equality in the world would make billions of people happy.
Other’s happiness increases your happiness
And that makes me happy. This brings me to my last thought to share while writing this late in the evening of International Happiness Day: happiness feels good, and seeing others' happiness increases your happiness. In that light, I applaud all the silly happy video's that I saw (and shared) on social media today. It gave joy to many people. But on a global level, we have better tools than the dog-and-butterfly videos.
In a few remarkable months in late 2015, the international community concluded several important international agreements. One of them was on the Sustainable Development Goals, often referred to as SDGs or the Global Goals. I will refer to these in future The Planet editions since these goals focus on essential issues like poverty reduction, food, health, water, or peace. You could say that these SDGs form the agenda for the international community to improve our happiness.
The 17 goals cover most of the challenges that I often write about during the week. Solving these challenges is the road map to global happiness.
These thoughts are the extended version of yesterday's one-sentence remark about the climate change-related problems that get attention during the week and the happiness to focus on as an end goal on the weekends.
Do you live in a happy country?
If you want to know if you live in one of the ten happiest countries in the world, check out the latest chart that just came out:
Finland 🇫🇮
Denmark 🇩🇰
Switzerland 🇨🇭
Iceland 🇮🇸
Netherlands 🇳🇱
Norway 🇳🇴
Sweden 🇸🇪
Luxembourg 🇱🇺
New Zealand 🇳🇿
Austria 🇦🇹
I have lived in three of them, and I had my coffee in the sun: I am happy.
Never forget about those in less fortunate positions than you; we share this small planet.
That's it for today.
Oh, and don't forget the wisdom of Abraham Lincoln:
'Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.'
I wish you all a happy Sunday!
Notes:
https://www.oxfam.org/en/5-shocking-facts-about-extreme-global-inequality-and-how-even-it
https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/worlds-billionaires-have-more-wealth-46-billion-people
https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N11/475/68/PDF/N1147568.pdf?OpenElement
https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2021/happiness-trust-and-deaths-under-covid-19/
What an interesting post. I really enjoyed reading that. I could just picture having coffee on a deck in the sun (well, technically it would have to have been tea for me, but anyway). Loved learning that Bhutan initiated World Happiness Day.
I'm lucky enough to live in one of the top three happiest countries, but you're right sometimes we forget just how lucky we are. You're asking interesting questions. I think friendship (in whichever form it might come is really important), helping others is something that gives me great happiness and also learning new things through conversations with people from around the world. If I'm allowed a fourth it would be reconneting with nature and sharing nature's beauty with others (which would connect my 2nd and 3rd points). Actually thank you for making me think about this. Was just able to add another aspect to my dream.
That was a beautiful article Alex. First thing that makes me feel happy is my daughter and her health and happiness. You're right I didn't think about clean water, food and access to a toilet. But I sure would be very unhappy without those 😊.