Little tips and tricks for happiness

After a semester of being burned out and after not having been able to write anything for what seems like too long, I woke up surrounded by 2015, floating in the seemingly unreal air of blitheness.

Sometime during my teenage years with superfluously agonizing but typical teenage problems, I learned an important lesson: human memory is selective. You remember what you choose; and your experiences are shaped accordingly.

Here comes another key to happiness.

I’ve since been learning to master the act of selective memory. When I speak to my friends now, I’m often surprised at how much they remember, or, in other words, how much I’ve forgotten. The very fortunate me has been training my own brain to forget the sorrowful pieces, let it be people, remote incidents, or periods of ongoing pain. Half-consciously, I’ve handpicked the silver linings in the storms and discarded the rest. Regarding happy periods, I revisit them often to ensure they are preserved in pristine condition as best as my flaw-ridden human brain can provide.

I don’t believe in revenge, perhaps because I am too plain to work out an elaborate revenge plan, and because I know too well how little I control the universe. Sadly, I witness – and am myself a victim of – cruelty that bitter individuals exercise when they themselves suffer in the past. No, I’m no longer too naïve. Dreaming of changing them would be too ambitious; but I have been breaking the cycle when it gets to me. All the resentful hatred, worded vaguely as “I suffered in my time, so I shall make you guys suffer” ends at me. My motto becomes "I suffer now, so I will never make someone suffer like me." Making some people smile again surely adds to my “silver lining playbook.”

Isn’t the best revenge to repay evil with blessing?

Tell you what? It works. If there’s one thing I know, it is that I am happier than I could ever be had I chosen to bear the grudge.

Truth is: We all have some power in putting an end to our own misery and building our own happiness. No one can be sad forever. And that’s how the world goes round.