One of my favorite documentaries from PBS is Happy. I recommend it. This is not as simple as it may sound. There are themes that emerge.
Money doesn’t do it, although minimal food and shelter allow people to be less distracted by trying to survive. Status, education and good looks dont do it either.
Rather, values, soulfullness and connection, intrinsic rewards are the seeds of happiness.No one is happy all the time. We live within cycles of loss and gain and fallow times. But the foundation of a fulfilling life is meaning.
The happiest people in the world cross-culturally are those who are embedded in webs of relational meaning: with nature, with animals, with people, with people. Those who give are happier and enriched by purpose.
