MARY BRASWELL: Looking back at some observations on just what makes people happy

Each week Albany Herald researcher Mary Braswell looks for interesting events, places and people from the past. You can contact her at (229) 888-9371 or [email protected]. Follow @ABH_MBraswell on twitter.

The first International Day of Happiness was celebrated on March 20, 2013 and launched with Ndaba Mandela, grandson of the late President of South Africa Nelson Mandela and Chelsea Clinton, daughter of former President Bill Clinton and Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton at the TedXTeen conference in New York, NY.

They said it…

— It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness. — Charles Spurgeon

—Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. — Mahatma Gandhi

— Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be. — Abraham Lincoln

— The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself. — Benjamin Franklin

— Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn’t know you left open. — John Barrymore

— A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy? — Albert Einstein

— Happiness depends more on how life strikes you than on what happens. — Andy Rooney

— Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know. — Ernest Hemingway

— Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product. — Eleanor Roosevelt

— Happiness is like those palaces in fairy tales whose gates are guarded by dragons: we must fight in order to conquer it. — Alexandre Dumas

— The secret of happiness is to admire without desiring. — Carl Sandburg

— There is something curiously boring about somebody else’s happiness. — Aldous Huxley

— A sure way to lose happiness, I found, is to want it at the expense of everything else. — Bette Davis

— A smile is happiness you’ll find right under your nose. — Tom Wilson

— Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get. — Dale Carnegie

— A happy family is but an earlier heaven. — George Bernard Shaw

The lighter side…

— Whoever said money can’t buy happiness doesn’t know where to shop. — Gertrude Stein

— Happiness is good health and a bad memory. — Ingrid Bergman

— A man doesn’t know what happiness is until he’s married. By then it’s too late. — Frank Sinatra

— Happiness? A good cigar, a good meal, a good cigar and a good woman — or a bad woman; it depends on how much happiness you can handle. — George Burns

— Happiness is having a scratch for every itch. — Ogden Nash

— Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go. — Oscar Wilde

— If you were happy every day of your life you wouldn’t be a human being, you’d be a game show host. — Gabriel Heatter

— I have learned that only two things are necessary to keep one’s wife happy. First, let her think she’s having her own way. And second, let her have it. — Lyndon B. Johnson

— Nobody can be uncheered with a balloon. — A.A. Milne

QUIK QUIZ: From which “happy song” can the following lyrics be found?

1. “I see friends shaking hands, sayin’, ‘How do you do?’

“They’re really sayin’, ‘I love you.’”

2.”Hello lamppost,

“What cha knowing?

“I’ve come to watch your flowers growing”

3. “When you’re with me, baby

“The skies will be blue for all my life”

4. “Close my eyes, she’s somehow closer now

“Softly smile, I know she must be kind

“When I look in her eyes

“She goes with me to a blossom world”

5. “Now there, is this song I wrote

“I hope you learned it note for note”

6. “If somebody tries to take my place

“Let’s pretend we just can’t see his face”

7. “You’re my sunshine

“And I want you to know

“That my feelings are true

“I really love you”

8.”Now I don’t want you back for the weekend, not back for a day, no, no, no

“Baby I just want you back and I want you to stay”

9. “There will be children with robins and flowers

“Sunshine caresses each new waking hour”

10. “Meet me in the crowd, people, people

“Throw your love around, love me, love me

“Take it into town, happy, happy”

Song choices

— “A Beautiful Morning” (Rascals)

— “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” (Bobby McFerrin)

— “Good Vibrations” (Beach Boys)

— “Happy Together” (Turtles)

— “I’m Happy Just to Dance with You” (Beatles)

— “Shiny Happy People” (R.E.M.)

— “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’Groovy)” (Simon & Garfunkel)

— “Walking on Sunshine” (Katrina and the Waves)

— “What a Wonderful World” (Louis Armstrong)

— “You’re My Best Friend” (Queen)

From a pro … Just a few ideas to becoming a happier person

— Let go of feeling guilty about something.

— Tell a harried retail clerk, “You have a terrific smile!”

— Turn in a project the day BEFORE it is due.

— When asked, “How are you?” respond with “I’m fabulous!!”

— Do something you’ve been putting off since last year.

— Make a date with yourself to do something you enjoy.

— Write down a “win” at the end of each day.

— Say “no” to something you really don’t want to do.

©2004 The Executive Happiness Coach®. www.TheExecutiveHappinessCoach.com. All Rights Reserved.

QUIZ ANSWERS

1. “What a Wonderful World”

2. “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)”

3. “Happy Together”

4. “Good Vibrations”

5. “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”

6. “I’m Happy Just to Dance with You”

7. “You’re My Best Friend”

8. “Walking on Sunshine”

9. “A Beautiful Morning”

10. “Shiny Happy People”