Dedication To my mother, the greatest person I've ever known. The one who puts up with my bad sides, accepted my mistakes and left behind the times I've disappointed her. The one who never doubted me and my potential even in the darkest of times, and made me believe I can achieve the impossible. I loved that feeling so much that my goal became making others realize it too. I'm grateful for having the chance to do that through my biggest passion - writing. Contents Introduction About the book About the author Definition of happiness Elements of happiness Gratitude Going with the flow Living in the present Compassion Fixing your relationship with yourself Do what you love Positivity Letting go Enjoy and Go Slowly Contentment Habits of happy people Happiness techniques Conclusion The Most Important Moment of Your Day Contact Introduction Hi there! We haven't met, but I think I know something about you already. You often ask questions and look for answers. You often wonder why things turned out this way and whether they're going to get better. You may consider yourself an optimist, but sometimes there's darkness in our souls that even our loved ones can't remove. At these moments you wonder if you're ever going to be happy. The course of events may make you think it won't happen, others may tell you that you don't deserve it, but deep inside you will always find a light. That's hope and it's a magical thing every human being possesses. You just need to be reminded of it every now and then, to be encouraged and to find inspiration. I'm here to tell you that you will be happy again. And this time it will last. I'm not an expert and everything you'll read here is my opinion, experience and things I've seen and learnt in my 22 years. But that doesn't mean it's not true. Actually, I'm sure that by the end of this book you will know how to be happy. It's so simple and you already have everything you need. The point is to notice, realize, make a connection and see things you haven't appreciated before. So are you ready to take this journey with me? Everyone wants to succeed and have great relationships, build a career and become the best version of himself. All these are simple - there are certain things you need to do, changes to make in your lifestyle and steps to take. But it's not easy. It requires dedication, time, effort, often money, support, sacrifices, hard work and perseverance. That's why so few have achieved it. Another thing everyone wants is to be happy. It's also simple, but what separates it from the things mentioned before, is that it's easy. You can be happy right here, right now, without changing anything in your environment or looks. It takes a few deep realizations, but once you do it, everything changes simply because you start looking at things with the eyes of a happy person. So join me on the way to happiness and dive into a world full of contentment, positivity, appreciation and bliss. But first, let's discuss a few other things. After being disappointed in ourselves and others, we start judging, comparing, we regret our mistakes so much and yet we go back to them all the time, we're constantly discontent with the results and look for relief in external sources. We then come to a point where we're just looking for a reason to fail and not to be happy, because actually achieving a goal and showing ourselves we're worth it would feel weird. We start sabotaging our dreams, being dramatic, ruining our relationships with people we love and feeling hopeless and empty. Then many start to ask themselves why this has happened and look for the answer anywhere but inside them. They blame their parents, teachers, everyone that criticizes them. They never take responsibility for their actions and often feel unlucky and think the universe is against them. That's a vicious circle no one wants to be in, but is not a rare thing these days. To avoid all that, you need to grasp a few things. One of them is that we're all equal in our fights, weaknesses and tragedies. You need to let go of comparing, blaming and judging and try to understand others, feel their pain, connect with their human nature and help them. You'll feel wonderful because that's how we're meant to behave. Not to make war, not to hurt and make them feel bad, not to take things from them so that you can have more. All you need to do is try to see the world through their eyes for a while, walk in their shoes and show compassion. Then you will see your world changed too. Now the little daily worries and fears won't feel like such a big deal and you will have a better perspective. The point is to realize that we're most equal in one thing - our desire to be happy. Happy with who we are, what we do and where we're going in life. We're all having the same dreams here, we make the same mistakes and feel the same way after that. We're not so different after all. And don't worry, I won't make you work together with others to achieve what you want. Team work is not my thing either. Moreover, everyone must take this journey for himself before he can become a person who is to have great relationships and go after what he wants in life. It's really important that you do all this on your own. After all, it's your path and only you know the way. You have everything you need, all it takes to become a living legend and do remarkable things with your life, you just need to see it. Also, the journey takes place inside of you - your mind mainly, your heart, body and soul. It's easy and simple and unlike success, relationships and other areas of life, it doesn't require any knowledge, time or efforts. All you need to do is explore yourself a bit, change your relationship with yourself, start looking at things in a bit more different way and come to a few important realizations. But after that, you will feel reborn and absolutely ready for the things life has in store. People think life is complex, that we don't deserve happiness, that everything comes for a price, and no matter what there will always be something to ruin your pleasure, that every day is a battle and so on. But this attitude itself is self- destructive. It's too much pressure, anxiety and stress. That makes things complex. Otherwise, everything's easy, peaceful and pleasant. You don't need to work for your happiness. Don't confuse it with success, money and being in shape. It's the easiest thing simply because you can do it in an instant by just going with the flow, seeing all the beauty around you and the positives in your life, experiencing the moment and letting go of the limitations you set for yourself. You are literally moments away from the ultimate happiness and it’s only because you haven't decided that you deserve and want to be happy. Maybe you fear it in some way because... well, everything will be great then and you won't have anything to worry about. But life in the comfort zone, the one we're used to leading, includes constant worries and it's somehow comforting to have many thoughts in your head all the time and feel like many things are going on. If that's so, you've got a bigger problem than just not being happy. About the book This book is my first bigger project. I enjoyed every second of making it - from the outline, the actual writing and the formatting, to the editing, publishing and announcing it. I hope you'll feel the same pleasure while reading. My goal with it is to put everything you need to know about happiness in one place. Also, to let you realize how easy it is to achieve it and that you're meant to be happy and not doing it is a waste of your precious life. You may know a few or many of the things I'll write about. Some of them are what we do daily, things we've been told we must do quite often, but never actually knew why and what difference it will make. But others will be new to you. The least this book will do for you is to make you smile a couple of times, to inspire you, to make you think and to inform you. But I want much more. I want it to have an impact on you and make you see things from another point of view, to notice the beauty in little things, to start counting your blessings and to come to a few important realizations that will make you much contented with the life you already have and the person you are today. People these days need inspiration more than ever. They also need encouragement and to be reminded of their potential and powers. Support is always needed in times like these when we're surrounded by hopelessness and stress. Why Tao? The Tao in the title represents the basic ideas behind happiness and focuses only on the essential ones, allowing them to naturally put the rest of your life in place. And I will do my best to use the ancient wisdom of Taoism, Zen and Minimalism, together with what science knows about happiness and finding joy and contentment. Everything is simple, sometimes unconventional (because let's face it, we won't get far when living by conventional wisdom), easy to read, easy to understand and easy to do. Why happiness? I'm simply giving you what you need, what I need more of and what the world in general needs - more people who are satisfied with their lives and who they are, who are contributing to the society and helping others, who inspire with their happy habits and deeds and that are full of peace, bliss and gratitude. About the author The most important thing you need to know about me for the purpose of this book is that I'm the happy person behind it. I'll share the realizations I've come to, things I think work best, and everything needed if you're willing to make a big change and see things from another perspective. I promise you a reading full of happy thoughts and techniques, real-life examples, things I've tried and succeeded in and at least a dozen of important things you may have not heard of. I consider myself a person full of inspiration, ideas and a great desire to share that with other like-minded people willing to do something about their life. I do it through the best way possible for me - writing. And yet, if you want to know more about me and haven't yet visited my blog, you can read more here. Before we begin, I'd like to ask you for a favor. We live in a world of mediocrity, conventional thinking, wrong perceptions of good and bad, happiness and success. So I'll ask you to leave everything you know about happiness behind and let me tell you my version of it. I think I'll cover everything you need to know about it in the book. And when you finish it, you
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