“Put your heart, mind, and soul into even your smallest acts. This is the secret of success.”
Swami Sivananda

An article written especially for VilNews by Ronald Stiles

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Psychologists who have studied happiness have learned that material gain boosts happiness for only a short time
Mr. Styles,

When I read your article, many thoughts flashed through my mind. Let me just share a few:

My heart skipped a beat when I read what you wrote about success: "I believe that a successful individual is one who does things that bring him or her satisfaction, things that allow a person to put their heart, mind, and soul into even the smallest act..." I recall one of my relatives who regarded herself as a failure, because she believed that cooking and cleaning house were not regarded as meritorious occupations. Yet she was a marvelous housekeeper. I never saw a speck of dust in her apartment. Her cooking was not only delicious, but extremely healthy -- and the results were immediately apparent. All of her friends marveled at how she looked fifteen years younger than her years would suggest. Having cleaned house, cooked my own meals, and cared for my son when he was a toddler and I was unemployed, I know how challenging the chores of daily life can be. But done regularly, chores become effortless habits. In the words of the great philosopher Aristotle, "We are what we repeatedly do. Virtue {excellence in living] is not an act, but a habit"

Psychologists who have studied happiness have learned that material gain boosts happiness for only a short time. Dr. Philip Brickman studies a group of happiness and found that while they experienced a temporary boost in mood, within as short a time as a month, they returned to their former levels of mood. People in many prosperous countries like the United States, reported being no more happy during the economic boom of the nineties than they were decades ago. In fact, the incidence of depression, especially among young people, has skyrocketed.

Like you, I have learned that the happiest moments of my life have not been associated with the achievement of success as defined by the society I live. After passing my oral examination for my doctorate, I was surprised that instead of feeling jubilant, I felt strangely detached, almost empty. When was I happiest? As a child playing with my friends in a poor working-class neighborhood in Chicago, or when I first discovered the joys of learning on my own and spent an entire summer, sneaking into the adult section of our local library. As a teacher when I saw the gleam of sudden understanding flash across a student's face when she or he grasp a difficult concept. As a mountain hiker, beholding the beauties of the verdant valley below. Harvard psychologist Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar has noted his best-selling book "Happier": "Meaningful and pleasurable activities can function like a candle in a dark room... For a single parent, a happiness booster in the form of a meaningful outing with her children over the weekend can change her overall experience of life..."

Although material things are important in so far as they help us obtain the necessities we need to survive, neither they nor fame will bring us success, which to me seems like a very dangerous word due to its ambiguity. As you have observed, if we cannot take joy in the acts we do today, when will we experience the happiness we seek?

Boris Bakunas

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