THE RULES OF HAPPINESS

Happiness is not a permanent state of affairs. It’s a transient thing. There will always be bad days, dark times, bleak years even. Understanding this is the first step to greater happiness, in an ironic way, because once you stop expecting to be happy all the time, it makes you less unhappy when you aren’t happy. If you see what I mean. In any case, without the lows we wouldn’t appreciate the highs, and happiness is very much about appreciation.

Now, while you can’t avoid the lows, there’s plenty you can do to feel happy as often as you can, and for as long as you can. So that your life’s graph of highs and lows is weighted as heavily as possible ...

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