It’s So Easy To Be Happy And So Hard To Be Simple
Sometimes we settle down with things that do not make us happy, whether it is out of habit, indecision or fear. Our hearts rust and our thoughts are locked inside by the barbed wire of our comfort zone.
Maybe we forget that being happy can be very simple; the difficult thing is to recognize what is important, what fills us and gives magic to our days. And then fight for it.
As they say, “It’s so easy to be happy, but so hard to be simple…” A short sentence, but a deep truth. To understand it, let’s think about something for a moment.
Most of us have been taught that we need to achieve certain things in order to have an identity, to gain status, to be in a certain way in order to achieve a certain goal.
We study and we get skills to get a job. We have a job to get an assumed state of happiness. Then we get assets and relationships that will fill us with happiness. However, this formula is not always correct. It does not always make sense.
Is happiness a scam? Absolutely. The true lie is that we believe we can “achieve” it. Because whoever insists on trying to find it will only fail again and again.
The search for happiness never ends well for one simple reason: it is a state of being.
And we can not forget: the same strategies do not work for everyone. Each of us must work on it in our own way.
From Hygge to Lagom : the fascinating world of Nordic utopias
Since 2015 , there is a word that has become known in the English-speaking world: Cosiness. The Danish secret to happiness has had overwhelming success, at least in the newsrooms. It invites us to this full, authentic well-being via the purest, most basic simplicity, which frees us from conflict in life.
Now Hygge has been moved to the back seat to make room for new trends, other complementary approaches summed up in a new word: Lagom.
The Scandinavians bring the world to a new trend that, as before, comes with great photos on Instagram. “Lagom” has been retweeted thousands of times in recent months, and Vogue, Elle and even Ikea have jumped on the bandwagon.
Lagom can be translated as “just right”. It encourages us, for example, to surround ourselves with the basics, the most important things. To buy only what we need, to take care of the environment, to decorate our houses with the simplest things. To eat just as much as we need.
Finally, it reminds us of the importance of never letting work take over our lives. You hear the idea that “less is more” and that happiness is found in simplicity.
That said, while these messages are positive and comforting, we can not overlook all the marketing behind these trends. Nordic fever, with its crime films, lifestyle and pioneering healthy society is attractive, without a doubt.
However, it can be a bit of a bitter utopia. It is an award-winning essay by the British author Michael Booth, entitled “The Almost Near Perfect People”, explains. He tries to give a realistic vision of the apparent Nordic happiness, which has already been suggested in Henning Mankell’s books.
An interesting fact is that the Nordic countries, which are apparently the happiest in the world, are number one in suicide rates. It seems like something is missing…
Make your own recipe to be happy
Books on how to be happy are always interesting and often useful. They give new perspectives, make us see things we have never seen before. They invite us to reflect and make changes here and there.
However, we must make it clear that
For example , it does not make sense to be told that we should not let work take over our lives if we do not have a job. Nor can we “live with the minimum” when what we already have is just the basics. With all this, we want to make one thing clear: happiness is tailor-made. It must fit our size and match our own life.
It takes effort, willpower and understanding that being happy can be very easy, no doubt. But it is difficult to get our priorities clear, since they may be completely different from other people’s.
And it takes courage, not an Instagram photo of a woman reading a book with soft wool socks and thick glasses on, and a coffee next to her.
Sometimes, to be happy, we have to put everything behind us and start again from scratch. But other times it can mean some real inner work to heal wounds, fix frustrations and find new motivation.
Let’s try to make difficult things easy, but also invent our own recipe for happiness.
