Title: Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy
What you should know: There is more happiness than you can imagine.
I imagine you are saying “Really? What do you mean?” so let’s explore.
How many happy moments did you have last year? How many really happy moments? You could count a moment of laughter, a wedding, a holiday, a majestic sunset or some other positive personal experience. Well, let’s be rather conservative and say you only had one. Yup, just one. But it was a good one! You know, either that laugh out loud BIG happiness, a feeling of deep inner peace, or some moment of exhilarating ecstasy.
What about everyone else? Well, let’s assume they had only one too. We must realize that some people may have such horrific lives that they didn’t have one single good moment throughout the entire year and of course these people would not fit into this calculation. These are the people who need our help the most, but for current purposes, they will be a small fraction.
Let us also assume that everyone’s happiest moments of the year are evenly distributed. It is true that there will be clusters around major holidays, religious festivals and the like, but with so many different cultures and time zones, even distribution is a reasonable assumption. (Then again, who says seeing your relatives on holidays brings happiness?)
Even though the actual number of people on the planet is about 6.7 billion, to accommodate those who have truly terrible lives (and again to be conservative), we shall say there are just 6 billion people on the planet. So, with 6 billion people having one happy moment each year (that are evenly distributed overall), doing some quick math indicates that there are about 16 million different people having their happy moment each day of the year!
Further, if you break down the numbers into smaller time units, we find that there are 190 NEW people having the happiest moment of their entire year EVERY SECOND!
Just try to picture that - almost 200 people having the happiest moment of their whole year. By the time you read this whole sentence, the number of people having their happiest moment will be close to 500, and these people are all smiling, laughing, joyous or feeling deep serenity.
Why you should know it: In a world where bad news is news and good news is rare, it is important to realize that there is more happiness than you can imagine. Additionally, this unimaginable happiness is occurring constantly.
Further thought: Unfortunately, this is also true for sadness. I don’t mention this to bring you down, but because the truth should also be acknowledged. So what does this discussion mean and how should one think about things? As one’s perception of their relative standing can affect mood, and that knowledge of the great misfortune of others often serves as a stimulus to help them, I suggest that you think of all the happiness in world when you are feeling down and that you think all of the people who need your help when you feel fortunate and resourceful.
(end note)
The Math: Using 6 billion people, that means there are 6 billion happy moments. Assuming they are evenly distributed throughout the year, just divide by days in the year, or 365.
6 000 000 000 / 365 = about 16,438,356
16,438,356 / 86400 = 190 happy moments each second.
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