1. Happy People Seriously Ask Themselves: Am I Happy?

 

Dear Ananda,

Paradise exists. It is real, and I’ve always believed it. I’m glad you’re finally taking the time to read about my journey towards happiness. You’ve just picked up my happiness manual. Sorry, I was watching you in my cage the whole time, and it truly seems you’re not on a journey to happiness. So that is why I chose to write you this letter—it's the simplest way to share my thoughts and simple ideas about this thing called ‘happiness.’ 

Nowadays, not many people believe in the old tale of Paradise in the Bible. Most people think that Earth is all that exists. But I've always believed in Paradise, even if it’s only because it’s a beautiful story that offers hope—that all the effort we put into living doesn’t just dissolve into nothingness; it means we can always optimise anything and make it better. And boy, I did have to optimise my happiness levels and work on making myself happier. 

The truth is, anyone can recreate Paradise here on Earth. We may not be able to summon it with a simple "Shazam!" like in stories, but we can create it in our minds. And once our brains believe it, the rest of our cells follow. I know it sounds so unbelievable, but I’ve found the loophole back to Paradise. That was why I wrote you this letter. I didn’t know how else to reach you. 

Talking about Paradise might sound strange coming from a caged bird, but I’m really excited to share what I’ve discovered. I’ll show you how to stay happy— once your basic needs are met, everything else doesn’t matter as much. I must say I’m really sorry to interrupt your busy life with this little letter about love and life, but I hope it’s worth your time.As always, Ananda, I know you have a lot on your plate. 

Allow me to introduce myself. Yes, it’s me, your former caged bird. I say ‘former’ because before, I did feel caged, but now, I feel free. If you look at the cage now, I’m still sitting in it, but I now see it more as a second home—a place to retreat and relax. I came back to the cage on free will to spread happiness to you and anyone reading this. If I had flown away, it would have been quite selfish of me, right? And my story of finding happiness would have been forgotten by everyone, and my story wouldn‘t have been told. Is the story of finding happiness not more important than going on holidays? 

But first, let me introduce myself, my name is Romy. You named me Tweetie, but I never quite connected with that name. It sounded like a name from the cartoon, and I didn’t even take it seriously when you called me Tweetie. So, who would have thought that I, Romy, would ever write you a letter about the nicest thing on Earth: happiness? Who knew I’d have to become intelligent to help free you? To be honest, I was waiting for you to guide me with a written manual about life. I waited and waited but nothing happened. You were always busy with your daily routines, like a busy bee. So, my question was, aren’t you the most intelligent species on Earth? 

Well, if I had waited for you to free me, I’d still be depressed in my cage. The urgency of my situation made me decide rapidly. From one day to the other, I had enough of small talk about my feathers and the weather. I really must admit, I had expected a happy manual from you in my cage. I waited every morning, and now here we are—the roles reversed and it’s now the other way around. I finally had to write you this manual. I didn’t want to die without giving you at least the chance to reach the highest level of loving what is. Furthermore, I saw you all day, just like you saw me and I thought you had imaginary cage bars around you, which might even be worse than my situation. This is my gift to you, my legacy. 

This is more than just a letter—consider it a happiness manual. I decided to write down my wisdom for future generations and you because I saw you struggling, just like I once did. I wanted you to be as free as I am. It may sound strange, but even a caged bird can find inner freedom. Unknowingly to you, I had already discovered my inner peace paired with happiness. When I looked out of the cage, I wasn’t too sure if you were happy. I watched you and concluded that an unhappy human can even be quite dangerous. 

If I was unhappy, no big deal. Who would care about a little caged bird being depressed? But an unhappy human can act in ways that make others unhappy too. When humans switch off their emotions or try to hide them, then they’re very close to becoming robots. And robots probably don’t care about their own happiness or anyone else. So, to avoid making mistakes and becoming a robot, I have to make you interested in a strategy that will make you feel better than you are right now. 

Why not make this journey a happy one? If you have the gift of being happy whenever you want or the ability to stay happy whenever you want, why not use it? Ananda, did you know you can create happiness? If I can do it, you can too.

At first, my happiness journey was a selfish one. I wanted to explore what life would be like with constant happiness in this miserable situation, then just find the keys, open the cage door and fly away. I didn’t even think about you. But then this selfish journey turns all by itself into a very generous one. Once you understand it, you want to sing your wisdom from the roof of every house. And since I can’t sing on every rooftop, anyone reading this should make their own home a happy place and spread that happiness to others so that they too, can sing it from one rooftop to another. 

That’s how we spread the happy vibe. Just imagine if Adam and Eve had celebrated happiness from the beginning and made it the most important thing in our culture. Would history have turned out the way it did? My humble journey to happiness turned out to be a huge experiment driven by curiosity. I started waking up differently with intention. I ate differently and just enjoyed each day. I stopped complaining. Not only that, but I’m living proof that you can break free from your own cage. 

Don’t worry, happiness isn’t harmful. Don’t be afraid of it. Just aim for it. Life will still challenge you and try to make you unhappy at times, but if your commitment to happiness is stronger than your stress, you’ll achieve the greatest luxury in life: a constant sense of well-being. Don’t you think this is the alchemy of life? Once you reach this well-being, it will never leave you. It becomes your own personal paradise, a place within yourself that you can retreat to anytime. It’s a place that will embrace you when you need comfort, heal you when you feel sick, and only disappear if you ignore it. 

Life isn’t always out to get you. Most of the time, you’re more secure in your body and surroundings than you think. So, let’s take this journey together. I think now is the time to free you from your cage. My wish for you and everyone is that you all wake up—truly wake up—to the fact that you’re alive and that every cell in your body is curious about the miracles that each day can bring. When you wake up every morning, you’ll see yourself as the first being searching for happiness. Maybe you literally are the first one in your family searching for happiness.

I was once sceptical, just like you, that Paradise even existed. That I couldn’t keep an inner smile alive all day. Thinking it to be too exhausting. I thought the Divine didn’t care about me since I was caged, like me by caging me in, but then, I realised that this urge I developed by myself to seek constant happiness—and discovering that it was possible—was actually a sign of His love. He must have left a few doors open in my brain to think about this whole topic in a new way, and I’m grateful for that. Maybe He does like me after all. He blessed my little bird brain with the capacity of human logic and the ability to think like a human. Not every bird gets to experience human logic that close, or even be around humans so closely. We birds instinctively all hold our distance from you unhappy creatures. Some birds have seen humans really happy, but usually only after a comedy show, a party or when on vacation. How often do you smile in a day, Ananda? All I want is for you to just get really serious about your own feelings.

I, for my part, had noticed I was always juggling between being okay and feeling bad, but I wasn't mastering the art of feeling amazing. I didn’t understand why. Was it because I was caged or did I just not have the skill? I kept asking myself why I was always thinking about something else as feeling amazing. To feel amazing, all I had to do was picture the best image I could. Doesn’t sound too hard to do, right? It’s just an image of my own personal paradise. If we all think of paradise, probably, it contains birds chirping, hot waterfalls overflowing, and everyone dancing in bliss. What’s wrong with that? The music is always perfect and fruits are hanging from the trees. Then, one day, thinking about paradise became my favourite thing to do on Earth. Imagine everyone building up their own paradise from the beginning of life and really residing in it within their heart. I bet we’d probably nearly re-create the real paradise and you wouldn’t need this letter from me. 

Initially, I wanted to be straightforward and just ask you for the keys to my cage so I could fly away. But what good would that have done if I hadn't pushed myself through this situation and learned about happiness? I had to switch up the whole strategy of being caged. All I had to do was take the question of how I was really feeling more seriously. 

On a scale from zero to ten, how did I really feel? Years ago, I would have rated myself a solid six out of ten. Now, my daily standard is a ten—a constant, unchangeable 10. I bet everyone around you would insist it’s impossible to always be happy. Everyone wants proof before they believe. But all I did was believe, and then I had my proof. This need for proof can make life miserable if you let it. What proof do you really need? You just need to give yourself permission to live better. You already have all the tools needed to create whatever you want. Imagination became my most important tool. I didn't need scientific proof of Paradise. All I had to do was figure out how to open the door to my inner kingdom just the way I liked it. My job in this life was to create the best life I possibly could. And seeing this picture of me swimming in hot water pools, wearing nice long dresses, and eating great was the only proof I needed. I don't wait around for evidence from authorities or others. The only proof required is that this story exists. There’s always some truth to any story. But every story told has its good and bad sides. 

Think about it: the story of Paradise includes both Heaven and Hell. But there’s an even more dangerous place—dwelling in neither extreme, just muddling through the in-between land for a hundred years and calling that a life. I even believe that Earth was just invented on purpose to be neither upstairs nor downstairs. I find the story of Paradise so enchanting and inspiring because it gives me hope that there's a place better than the one we live in. And this one on Earth can really be great. Why fight it, complain about it, or deny its existence? Why ignore such a wonderful possibility? I understand wanting to ignore Hell, but why ignore Paradise? We all know we have to deal with the cards we’re given here anyway. Here, we have a bit of Hell and a bit of Heaven. If you really dig deep, Ananda, don’t you believe there’s a problem-free place somewhere? Somewhere even more beautiful than here? I feel like I’m an ambassador of that place, trying to sell tickets here on Earth to get back to it. 

For humans, it must be embarrassing to have been kicked out of Paradise; that likely brings a deep sense of frustration and punishment. But what’s the use of silently suffering and regretting it when we can avoid it by focusing on the most beautiful image we can imagine and re-entering the magic just by thought? 

As your caged bird, I had to admit that I wasn't fully satisfied with my level of happiness in that cage and with my life expectations. I wasn't living in hellish conditions, but I wasn't experiencing the best quality of life either, and at first, I didn't understand why. I was blaming you all the time. If you hadn't caged me, I would be soaring high and free. But would I have been happy? I clung to anything that could make life easier in this cage. Anything was appreciated.

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