The happiest people on earth have remarkably few things in common. One of them, however, is gratitude.
If you want to be happier, try being more thankful.
Your life is an amazing miracle, which, truth be told, you did absolutely nothing to deserve. It’s a gift, a daily birthday present, a sumptuous banquet set before you absolutely free of charge. Your only job is to accept the gift, to take the seat that’s been offered, and, well… eat, man!
The people in your life are all volunteers. Thank them for choosing you to spend their time with.
“When you’re born, you don’t come into this world, you come out of it,” noted the late Zen philosopher, Alan Watts. The universe made itself into you like an apple tree makes apples. That alone is worthy of worship, in my view. No deity required.
Your bad self is just a tarted-up dollop of the slime that grew on a rock adrift in the inky blackness of space some 4 billion years ago. Be thankful the universe is the kind of place that turns rock slime into you. Each day, be thankful that you get to spend another 24 hours on top of the rock instead of 6 feet under it.