This is the Happiness Manifesto. This is a call to all individuals who refuse to wade through the misery and victim mentality of society. This is a call to all individuals who refuse to accept that being content for a moment is all we can expect of life. This is a call to all individuals who fail at towing the party line and find beauty in ugly, hope in loss and humor in sadness. This is a call to all individuals who believe a better world is simply an attitude change away.
The call to happiness is not something we strive to hear or suffer to accept. Happiness is not at war with compassion. It is its ally. Happiness is a birthright. In accepting this invitation, you agree with the following:
Since time has been recorded, man has endured mayhem, mishap, pestilence, pain, oppression, repression, uncertainty and unease. Today is no better or worse than before. But there is one difference. You are here!
We understand that we choose how we feel. A person can get angry with the rain but they will still get wet. A person can fear the future and yet tomorrow comes. A person can choose to be happy in spite of everything.
You are part of society. Your choice to be happy despite your surroundings is not a call for communal living but for living in community. Happiness is a responsibility to see through the misery to find the hope.
Happy people are role models. We do not pull people up to our point of view. We show them the stairs. We do not spoon feed but we are willing to share a meal with them.
Perfection is relative. Happiness is absolute.
Happiness is an emotion. Happiness is intrinsic. Happiness feels like the awe of satisfaction. Satisfaction is not dependent on accomplishments. Happiness is the state of honoring the moment. And the next…And the next…
Happiness is not a compromise. Being content is a false bill of goods we were sold to keep us miserable. In a world of ‘I can’t get no…’ we are told to settle for what we have. Happiness is beyond this. It is not dependent on what we have but who we choose to be.
Happiness is not dramatically opposed to sadness, nor does it supplant any other emotion. Happiness is a companion and like every good friend, it gives us what we need as we need it. When it walks with grief, it gives us hope.
We are beholden to our progeny to set the example of happiness.
This army is giving notice to the world that we will no longer partake in the global pity party. We are individuals devoted to the principles of happiness. You are welcome to join us or get out of our way.
In creating your community, you must spread the word, identify and recruit likeminded individuals who will support, encourage and remind you of your commitment to happiness. We are changing the conversation. We are changing the wiring in our brains. We are changing the global attitude. We have lit the match and you are the fuse. This manifesto is for you. Print it, post it and pass it on.
One of the great things about being human is our indomitable ability to shit on our happiness. Let us explain: The moment we feel any pleasure, joy, gladness or happiness, we immediately look for the cause and the set-up. We begin to anticipate the rug being pulled or the preverbal shoe dropping that will return us to the misery of the status quo. This is the fuel of every conspiracy theorist and malcontent in our world and we will remind you that they are the majority. They are the ones that tell you that anyone hawking happiness is selling you something. They are the ones that will tell you that happiness is fleeting but ‘blah’ or ‘meh’ is the way to live. They are the ones that tell you that working at maintaining happiness is similar to trying to trap a fart in a jar; pathetic and the any positive results would be less than satisfying.
We are here to say that you can’t maintain your conspiratorial personality and be happy. The two ways of thinking are self-cancelling. To be happy, you must be able to accept the gifts of life and not look for the snakes to spring from the can. To be happy, you must be able to embrace the quirkiness of this life and not look for the hidden cameras or Alan Funts who are there to embarrass you. To be happy, you must be able to look at the moon and the wonders of the distant glowing satellite and not contemplate how we were duped into believing that we landed there (BTW, we saw the MythBusters where they busted any doubt that the moon landings were a hoax. All we say to these guys is up your antipsychotic meds and get a life).
So your Happiness Directive today is to identify the Doubting Thomas in your head and give him his eviction notice. Yes, he probably has an attorney who can keep him in residence for a while without paying rent but he will leave with a little diligence on your part to cut him off.
Sure, you can try to be happy but as you will learn from the manifesto tomorrow, like Yoda said, ‘There is no try. Do!’ We are excited to be sharing these ideas with you because, quite frankly, living in a world of misery sucks. We know. We have been there. We have wondered aloud when all things were wonderful, ’Wow, I wonder when God is gonna kick us in the nuts and steal our money?’ Not being this way takes a bit of effort not to slip into the common human response to positive emotions. But we ask you to fight the drift. Go ahead and step out of the mucky waters and walk on over to the clean waters of acceptance of your birthright to be happy and joyful. We’ll be there to hand you your sheets, flowers and tambourines.
Happiness is something that you are and it comes from the way you think.
-Wayne Dyer
We usually devote Wednesdays to smacking down celebs or training our snarkiness on society as a whole. This week we are unveiling our happiness series so we need this day to give you food for thought.
Happiness Directives:
You know that no one can make you feel bad but did you also know that no one can make you happy either?
We can usually believe that people cannot make us feel negatively about ourselves or experience bad feelings but we have a hard time taking responsibility for the positive ones. For example: ‘You made me love you‘, ‘You make me happy‘. The negative then, according to our warped sense of responsibility, is all ours while all the ’positive’ feelings are controlled by God, loved ones and society in general. Just know this is not of your making. Just know society has been manipulating happiness, love, joy and all the other ‘positive feelings’ for a long time.
All feelings are intrinsic which means inside. People tend to be a little irresponsible with their feelings and say things like ‘you make me so angry’ and ‘my kids are my pride and joy’. Because of this, we unconsciously put the onus of emotions outside of ourselves or we say that they are extrinsic. Things that are outside of ourselves are not in our control thus this is why we feel that our emotions are not our own.
Society has gotten together and secretly made a pact where we all accept everyone’s bullshit. In other words, ’You buy my story and I’ll buy yours’. So if we say, ’Gosh I couldn’t do any work because my grandma died,’ aside from giving condolences you will sub-consciously and consciously, blindly accept the persons lack of responsibility or sad mood. We all want to believe that the universe shits on us because to believe otherwise would be that we have some control. Control would indicate that we are responsible and that is just not acceptable.
Choice is a responsibility.
So here is your directive: Ask yourself, are you willing to live your life with your emotions, especially happiness, at the whim of luck or outside forces?
If the answer is no, please join our Facebook Page- 1 Million People Committed to Being Happy!
Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.
- Aristotle
