5 Tips To Keep Happy ... Even In Wartime

5 Tips To Keep Happy ... Even In Wartime
by David Leonhardt

601 words

The world is going downhill faster than an Olympic skier.
Terrorists lurk around every corner. Climate change will soon
melt the tundra and turn Iowa into a desert. Frankenstein foods
are flooding the market, cleverly masquerading as innocent
potatoes and beets.

And everybody is planning a war.

Sadam wants to unleash unspeakable biological evils. George Bush
II wants to unleash unimaginable military might. Germany and
France want to just unleash. North Korea ... need I say more?
India and Pakistan want to run a nuclear relay race, and worst of
all we won't even know who the good guys and bad guys are
supposed to be. And I know why my Israeli friend moved back to
New Jersey.

Just when we thought it was safe to sit back and take comfort in
knowing exactly how bad things are, some fool has to come up with
five tips to keep our spirits up in uncertain times. And that
fool is me. So here are the tips:

1. Count your blessings. We have so much to be grateful for.
Iraq's dime store missiles cannot hit anywhere too important
(defined more specifically as "where I live"). Then, of course,
there is all the "stuff" we have, like the flush toilet (I would
not want to have lived 500 years ago!) and the remote control.
We can be grateful for all the variety, such as 32 flavors of ice
cream on every corner and at least a dozen flavors of tooth
floss. We can count our education, our knowledge and our
opportunities. And we have soooo much more freedom than our
ancestors. Geez, with all these blessings to count, it gets hard
to enjoy living in terror of the big, bad world.

2. Smile at a stranger. If the world shows us a threatening
face, why not paint that face with smiles to make it less
threatening. Let's face it, if I smile at you, you'll smile
back. The more I smile, the more people will smile at me. The
more you smile, the more people will smile at you. If everybody
follows my advice, at least dentists will be too busy to fear
world events.

3. Learn a new skill. Imagine the sense of accomplishment and
the power of mastering a new skill. Like mesquite cooking. Like
whittling. Like pterodactyl breeding. Oh well, two out of
three. And if you learn that skill in a classroom setting, full
of other energized new-skill-masterers, you get the bonus of
seeing that positive face of the world, complete with smiles and
busy dentists.

4. Study history. Bad things happen. Good things happen.
That's history. Today will one day be history that somebody
reads about. So don't sweat it. (Editor's note: If nobody is
left to read about it, scratch this tip.)

5. Volunteer. One of the scariest things about the world today
is not just that it seems to be going downhill, but that we feel
powerless to stop it. Worse still, politicians and diplomats are
in charge. But we CAN take control and send the world uphill
right in our own neighborhood. We can help the local animal
shelter. We can work at the food bank. (That's my personal
favorite, and NO you do NOT get free samples.) We can help
little old ladies across the street. We can make a difference
right in our own communities where the politicians and diplomats
won't interrupt.

Sorry about those five tips. If you wish to ignore them and
return to the regularly-scheduled misery-wallowing, please go
ahead. After all, in wartime nobody really wants to be happy, do
they?


RESOURCE BOX:

David Leonhardt is the Happy Guy, even in wartime (he hopes!) and
author of "Climb your Stairway to Heaven: the 9 habits of maximum
happiness". Sign up for your free "Daily Dose of Happiness" at
http://www.TheHappyGuy.com/daily-happiness-free-ezine.html, or
visit the Self-actualization Resource Center at
http://www.TheHappyGuy.com/self-actualization-articles.html.

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David Leonhardt
The Happy Guy
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http://www.thehappyguy.com
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