It probably goes without saying that everyone wants to be happy. It seems logical, then, that we would spend most of our time and energy in search of happiness and that the harder we search the happier we’ll be. But it turns out that this isn’t necessarily the case.
Professors at Brigham Young University suggest a better approach: build a meaningful life and let happiness find you. They cite research showing that obsessing over happiness ironically tends to leave people feeling less happy. One professor observed: “We don’t chase happiness. It’s something we cultivate, and then it can emerge as a natural consequence of living well.”[1]
So perhaps happiness is not a chase or a pursuit but a creation. It’s not a formula but more like a flower that we cultivate and nourish, and then we rejoice in the miracle of a glorious bloom. Happiness is not something we can force but something we invite simply by living a good life.
And what does it mean to live a good life? Consider the simple truths these people have discovered:
Woman: I find true happiness when I worry less about myself and more about others. If I can find someone to help, some small act of kindness I can give, or some way I can lift a burden for someone else—that’s when I find happiness, or when happiness finds me!
Man: When I try to take care of myself physically—when I take care of my body as a gift from God—I also feel better mentally and emotionally. And when I take care of myself emotionally and spiritually, I just feel better physically. It’s all interconnected.
Woman: I find that I’m more at peace and contented when I sincerely try to keep the two great commandments: love God and love others with all my heart. That’s it. It’s like I’m opening my heart to happiness, and it always comes.
Could it be that simple—that happiness finds us as we stop looking for it? It takes faith to exchange pursuing happiness for cultivating it day by day, little by little. But then, faith has always preceded miracles, including the miracle of happiness.
[1] Jared S. Warren, in Emily Smurthwaite Edmonds, “Let Joy Find You,” Y Magazine (Winter 2023), magazine.byu.edu.
______________________________
March 26, 2023
Broadcast Number 4,880
The Tabernacle Choir
Orchestra at Temple Square
BYU-Idaho Collegiate Singers
Conductors
Mack Wilberg
Randall Kempton
Organist
Brian Mathias
Host
Lloyd Newell
I Think the World Is Glorious
Alexander Schreiner; Arr. Mack Wilberg
I Will Follow God’s Plan
Vanja Y. Watkins; Arr. Nathan Hofheins
Festive Trumpet Tune
David German
Sheep May Safely Graze
Johann Sebastian Bach; Arr. Mack Wilberg
When We Love
Elaine Hagenberg
Unclouded Day
Shawn Kirchner
He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands
Spiritual; Arr. Mack Wilberg