How to Spread Happiness Around
Think of happiness as a diamond in its original state, encased in hardened mud, looking not unlike any other crusted stone. Its true nature is revealed only when you work on it rubbing off this gangue. At every moment of our life you are surrounded with happiness wrapped in a mud crust that needs to be rubbed off if you wish to enjoy its beauty. Spreading happiness around yields the same result as rubbing off the crust off a precious diamond.
When people hear about spreading happiness they tend to think in terms of money. I don't want to be associated with such a limited concept. Spreading happiness certainly conveys the idea of sharing its own good fortune with the less fortunate, but being good to people goes well over being charitable with money. Money is no synonym of happiness. Giving money is not even always related to generosity. Not all those who give money to charities are good souls. Some are even the very opposite.
People give money for a variety of reasons: out of guilt; in an attempt to save their souls; because their religion advocates it; in their search for fame; for tax reasons; for publicity; to attract business of groups and associations who are concerned with charities… The list goes on for there can be as many reasons as there are donors.
Many business people are happy to pair business and charities and I fully approve. One must understand however that those tax deductions those entrepreneurs benefit from are, in fact, largely at the expense of taxpayers. In other words, when a profitable business deducts a donation to charities, such donation should be done in the name of all taxpayers. Many personal donations are also worth a tax reduction for the donor. The incentive derived from tax deduction is, in my view and notwithstanding the abuses, one of the excellent ruling made by politicians we so openly and, quite often, rightly criticize.
The gist of this is: spreading happiness around can take as many forms as the number of people dispensing it. Money is only one way amidst a constellation of possibilities. The best gift one can give a fellowman comes free and unlimited: it is genuine friendship. Practice being genuinely nice, friendly, and pleasant; see the best aspects of things as well as the very best traits of humans and say it aloud. A smile, a hello, a thank you, a compliment, a phone call, an e-mail are as many ways of spreading happiness around. It also contributes to a more peaceful and pleasant world. One is much less prone to being tough with a friendly person as against a perfect stranger who seems insensitive to his feelings and needs.
Criminals and terrorists have their own reasons for doing what they do but it is certain that if these people were in harmony with the whole creation they would not act the way they do. They would not be what they are. Most of them have a grudge against other people or groups of people. We know that most terrorists are also indoctrinated and manipulated by people with a political, religious or financial interest. Yet if these "soldiers" were happy they would have much less chances of falling victims of predators who use them to access a power that drives them mad. Let's share our happiness with them before they are brainwashed by fanatics or criminals.
In the present context, the most important criteria for charity is that one has to be comfortable with it. Giving under fear or constraint is without any merit. Money or clothes or food or other material things, give or not as you choose. Your time, you can give or not. All this is irrelevant per se. There is no value in all this unless the intention is pristine. Sharing what you are instead of sharing what you have could even prove to be much more beneficial to both parties than anything else. Friendship is food to the emotional brain while knowledge is fuel to its intellectual counterpart. Friendship and knowledge are very powerful motivators and have the capacity to change the world around you for the better.
According to different circumstances, I have various ways of spreading happiness around. How is of no importance here. The idea is to do one's best on every occasion. Yet one has to be consequent with the concept: Human's ultimate goal is to discover happiness but happiness won't let itself be found if one is not to spread it with his fellow men.
We are all aware that a smile is the most inexpensive way to improve our look. If you don’t already do it, do yourself and your neighbor a favor: Smile to yourself, smile to other people and smile to life as often as you can and watch the magic operates, transforming dull moments in sheer happiness.