When we look around at all the issues in the world, how can we possibly be happy? How selfish to laugh while we know about all the world's misery and unhappiness, when we know about war and hunger and all the rest of it? Or is it? What if science showed us otherwise?!?! Unhappiness, grief, sadness, it's all around us. And when it's far away, we might feel there's not much we can do about it, except providing funds or maybe going there and helping on the ground, which not many people "can" do, whether we're considering the human side or technical/logistics side of it. If we consider something slightly easier and look at health issues, we hear daily about clinical studies focusing on problems, such as stress, diseases etc...More problems, more unhappiness. How often do you hear about a clinical study exploring a solution? For example, are you aware that there are studies about the positive impact of relaxation? That article from the University of Maryland Medical Center provides a good review of the impact of relaxation on our health. That might explain that more and more hospitals are offering meditation and relaxation services. But my preferred one is this one : "Dynamic spread of happiness in a large social network: longitudinal analysis over 20 years in the Framingham Heart Study". In plain English : "Is Happiness contagious?" And guess what the conclusion is: "People's happiness depends on the happiness of others with whom they are connected. This provides further justification for seeing happiness, like health, as a collective phenomenon.". Layman's terms: "Yes, happiness is contagious!" You'll find all the detail about this study, involving 4739 individuals followed from 1983 to 2003, on the British Medical Journal (BMJ) website. Therefore, what about being selfishly happy? Now that we know scientifically that to spread happiness, we have to FEEL it, what about making happiness grow in our life? That doesn't make all the unhappiness and misery in the world any more acceptable, and when we can do something practical about it, by all means, let's do it, but isn't it a bit easier to think about solutions when we're happy and relaxed instead of worried and tense (there are medical studies about that too...)? It seems we CAN ALL do something for our direct neighbours to begin with: let's see the happiness in our lives! What made you happy so far today? Did you say "thank you" or feel gratitude for it? What about taking a minute to find out right now by reviewing your day, or even your last week? On the same topic, you might want to read again the blog about "Being loving or being love...". Be happy!