1) Take care of your physical and mental health
2) Invest in relationships
3) Be engaged in the world
4) Adjust your attitude
5) Embrace spirituality
The beauty of his approach lies in its balance and simplicity. By focusing upon your body, mind, friends, community, and Spirit, you've basically covered all your bases.
1) Take care of your physical and mental health. If you're not eating properly, exercising both your body and your brain, and engaging in activities you love, you're not going to be as happy as you can be. Anything less than optimal health will create a physical and emotional drag that will keep you down. The best ways to insure physical and mental health are to do healthy activities with people you like and enjoy. Don't bust your ass trying to doa regimen that you hate. Even if it works in the short term, you won't stick with it in the long term, as most dieters can attest. So, find foods to eat that are good for you and that you like. Find exercise that is both healthy and fun. And watch your happiness level soar.
2) Invest in relationships. As the old saying goes, friends can get you through times of no money better than money can get you through times of no friends. "Invest" doesn't mean attempt to buy some friends. What it does mean is pour your energy and attention into others. Find out what they enjoy, what excites them, what makes their hearts sings and do whatever you can to facilitate those experiences for them. And, perhaps most important of all, show them appreciation. Of course, you want to comport yourself in this way towards family and friends, but try it also in relation to acquaintances, service providers, and total strangers! When the breadth and depth of your relationships increase, so will your happiness.
3) Be engaged in the world. Sure, sometimes the world seems pretty screwed up. And your personal influence seems miniscule at best. Be engaged in the world anyway. Even if your actions don't produce the results that you desire, the mere process of engagement will energize you and increase your happiness. So, be involved in civic activity, enjoy nature, support community initiatives, etc., and, lo and behold, you will find that not only does the mere act of engagement make you happy, the world also gives back to you!
4) Adjust your attitude. It's easy to get discouraged, angry, fearful or depressed. Luckily, it's also easy to adjust your attitude. It all has to do with focus. In any situation, you can choose to focus on what's lousy about it or what's great about it. And what you focus on will indeed create your attitude. Be the Sherlock Holmes or Miss Marple of positivity, and you can find the lotus in any mucky pond, the pony in any shit-filled barn. Aside from focus, the other key to ratcheting up your attitude is never to blame others. Your attitude is 100% your response-ability.
5) Embrace spirituality. If you really, really want to be happy, you've got to find something bigger than your puny little ego to either relate to or identify with. Call it God, Buddha Mind, Brahman, Allah, Spirit, or The Big Enchilada. Names don't matter, experience does. By embracing a higher, transcendent perspective on life, you won't let the little things bug you so much. You'll take the long view, the holistic view, the compassionate view of life and begin to experience your essential unity with all that is. It may sound a bit hazy and mystical, but if we can trust the testimony of sages, saints, and teachers of all times and faiths, embracing Spirit leads to ultimate happiness.
The key words are balance and harmony. Harmonize body, mind, relationships, world, and Spirit, and the result on a subjective level is happiness or psychological wealth. You, yes you, can be the Warren Buffet, the Bill Gates of happiness! Psychological wealth abounds! And it's all up to you. Help yourself!
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