[Faith-talk] Five Minutes To Happiness: A Reason To Smile

[Paul Smith]

The following piece was written for the little book called "Lessons On 
Life," and I hope you all enjoy it.

Devoting time each day for happiness will change your day and change 
your brain chemistry.

It can be so easy to get caught up in the rigors of modern life that we 
tend to forget that happiness need not come with stipulations.  
Happiness becomes something we must schedule and strive for a hard-won 
emotion and then only when we have no worries to occupy our thoughts.  
In reality, overwhelming joy is not the exclusive province of those 
with unlimited time and no troubles to speak of.

Many of the happiest people on earth are also those coping with the 
most serious challenges.  They have learned to make time for those 
simple yet superb pleasures that can be enjoyed quickly and easily.  
Cultivating a happy heart takes no more than five minutes.  The 
resultant delight will be neither complex nor complicated, but it will 
be profound and will serve as a reminder that there is always a reason 
to smile.

So much that is ecstasy-inducing can be accomplished in five minutes.  
Alone, we can enjoy an aromatic cup of our favorite tea, take a stroll 
through the garden we have created, write about the day's events in a 
journal, doodle while daydreaming, or breathe deeply while we listen to 
the silence around us.

In the company of a good friend or treasured relative, we can share a 
few silly jokes, enjoy a waltz around the room, play a fast-paced hand 
of cards, or reconnect through lighthearted conversation.  The key is 
to first identify what makes us dizzingly happy.  If we do only what we 
believe should bring us contentment, our five minutes will not be 
particularly satisfying.  When we allow ourselves the freedom to do 
whatever brings us pleasure, five minutes out of 14 wakeful hours can 
brighten our lives immeasurably.

It is often when we have the least free time or energy to devote to joy 
that we need to unwind and enjoy ourselves the most.  Making happiness 
a priority will help you find five minutes every day to indulge in the 
things that inspire elation within you.

Eventually, your happiness breaks will become an established part of 
your routine.  If you start by pursuing activities you already enjoy 
and then gradually think up new and different ways to fill your daily 
five minutes of happiness, you will never be without something to smile about.

And there you have today's article about happiness.  When I first read 
this article some weeks ago, I just knew that a translation of the same 
into Esperanto would be in order for our blind and visually impaired 
colleagues in eastern Europe, and I wasn't at all disappointed, as a 
number of recipients there wrote about what made them happy even in the 
face of Communism.  Perhaps in future I'll share with you some 
reactions from them, if enough people are interested.

And that will do it for today.  Until tomorrow when, Lord willing 
another article of this type will be posted, may the God of Abraham, 
Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, in 
these last days in which we live.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul