Happier than yesterday?

Are you happier today than you were yesterda

Why not? Is there a way to become happier everyday?  

There must be. Whatever it is that we must do to become happier each day, will it eventually be all that we have time for? If we must increase the time we do that thing, it would make sense that we would have to do more and more of that thing each day, to be happier than we were the day before. Unless, the thing we must do everyday doesn’t have to take very long to do, say an hour at the most, and it could build incrementally on the happiness we established the day before. 

I could compare it to practicing piano, or playing tennis. I don’t do either one of those things now, but I know that daily practice will enable one to improve on one’s performance. And I believe the real improvement comes when one has a coach or teacher who will give the student or practitioner feedback so that they will know what they can improve on. In a vacuum or on an island, we have no one to evaluate our performance, except ourselves and it’s almost impossible to give oneself honest, and constructive feedback. If the feedback is constructive and given with empathy, the recipient of the feedback needs to be open, willing and prepared to take the feedback to heart, and change one’s behavior in order to improve on one’s performance. 

The same goes for increasing your happiness day after day. Lets’ say for instance that you write a blog everyday and it gives you some satisfaction to type up your thoughts and get clear about them, while maybe going into a topic and finding some angle, depth and insight about your subject that delights you. It’s the constructive feedback that you receive from others that can give you an objective perspective on just how clear your writing is, or the validity of the logic of your thinking, or the importance or relevance of your topic to anyone else’s life.

If other people resonate with your thinking and take the time to give feedback that can be a source of happiness. The difference of course with a blog post, is that the feedback usually comes from readers, who may or not like the subject matter, the way it’s written or the author, whereas a piano or tennis teacher is an expert in the craft and is invested in helping the practitioner to improve. Of course we are all practitioners, even so called experts. I was listening to an interview with Hilary Hahn, the talented child violinist, with her childhood instructor. The teacher stated that he also learned something while teaching. 

So whatever it is we are doing, hopefully something constructive, and instructive, to increase our happiness each day, our success will be more likely guaranteed with a competent, patient, and compassionate teacher to help guide our efforts.

One impactful way that people today are building on their happiness, is through practicing meditation, especially and more effectively when they have an enlightened spiritual teacher to provide meaningful feedback and encouragement.