Happiness Is a Mental Habit Which Can be Cultivated and Developed

"Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be," said Abraham Lincoln.

"Happiness is purely internal," says psychologist Dr. Matthew N. Chappell. "It is produced, not by objects, but by ideas, thoughts, and attitudes which can be de­veloped and constructed by the. individual's own activi­ties, irrespective of the environment."

No one, other than a saint, can be 100 per cent happy all the time. And, as George Bernard Shaw quipped, we would probably be miserable if we were. But we can, by taking thought, and making a simple decision, be happy and think pleasant thoughts a large share of the time, re­garding that multitude of little events and circumstances of daily living which now make us unhappy. To a large extent we react to petty annoyances, frustrations, and the like with grumpiness, dissatisfaction, resentment and irri­tability, purely out of habit. We have practiced reacting that way so long, it has become habitual. Much of this habitual unhappiness-reaction originated because of some event which we interpreted as a blow to our self-esteem. A driver honks his horn at us unnecessarily; someone interrupts and doesn't pay attention while we're talking; someone doesn't come through for us as we think he should. Even impersonal events can be interpreted, and reacted to, as affronts to our self-esteem. The bus we wanted to catch had to be late; it had to go and rain when we had planned to play golf; traffic had to get into a snarl just when we needed to catch the plane. We react with anger, resentment, self-pity—or in other words, unhappiness.