International Day Of Happiness 2018: Share Happiness
The International Day of Happiness is marked annually on the 20th of March. It was proclaimed during a resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations of 12 July 2012 in recognition of the relevance of happiness and well-being as universal goals.
The theme for this year’s International Day of Happiness is Share Happiness where people are encouraged to focus on the importance of relationships, kindness and helping each other.
How does someone attain happiness? According to Action For Happiness (actionforhappiness.org), there are ten keys to happier living. They are: Giving-do things for others, Relating-connect with people, Exercising-take care of your body, Awareness-live life mindfully, Trying out-keep learning new things, Direction-have goals to look forward to, Resilience-find ways to bounce back, Emotions-look for what’s good, Acceptance-be comfortable with who you are, Meaning-be part of something bigger. The ten keys spell out Great Dream.
The World Happiness Report ranks countries from the most happy to the least happy. The ranking is done by averaging the ladder score, that is, the Cantril Ladder question asking people to evaluate the quality of their lives on a scale of 0 to 10. For each country, the score is averaged over the years of 2015-2017. In 2017, Kenya was ranked at 112, the position held by Albania this year. Kenya dropped in the happiness index to rank 124.
It would be hard to pin point the reason for Kenya’s drop in the happiness rank. Is it that we are unhappy or have other countries become happier? Whatever the case, on International Day of Happiness, make sure to grab some happiness for yourself and spread it to others.
