I recently read The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World which is an account of a long meeting on Joy that was led by the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu in 2015. The underlying teaching from these two spiritual leaders is that joy takes work, happiness takes work. You need to work on making yourself happy and joyful, it doesn’t just come to you for no reason. Besides getting deep into the power of meditation and prayer, they speak at length on gratitude,
Gratitude, the act of giving thanks for something in your life, is very powerful medicine. We are wired to remember bad things easily–this protects us from dangers. But finding things to be grateful for, especially when you feel everything is going wrong, can rewire your brain and make you happier. Sure, you’ve heard it before. Yeah, yeah, yeah… I’ll be grateful when the day gets better. I am going to attach links to a good handful of articles I think you should peruse, especially if you haven’t been working on your gratitude muscles. It will pay off for you, I can promise that.
Gratitude changes you
