The art of being happy.

Which would you say is your most typical feature about your appearance? I think mine is my smile. (Although I can't say other people would agree on that...) I love to smile and laugh and I actually get shocked if people don't smile back at me. You know those beefy security guards - they can smile. Except that one in Edinburgh in 2005... I'm still shaken to the core!

Happiness is great, but it's also incredibly over-rated. You can't be happy all the time and it's completely okay not to be (regardless of what everyone else say). It comes in periods and you need the downs to appreciate the ups.
When I feel down I usually try to cheer myself up by thinking about funny things. A really silly joke, a very stupid conversation I've had - I have a few silly convos saved on my cellphone for those boring bus journeys. Sitting on a bus and wanting to laugh out loud over something private is horrible, because the more you want to, the more you realise that you can't and the harder it is to keep the laughter inside. (Before you nag at me and say 'of course you can' remember that I'm Swedish and don't show emotions to other people.)
If I feel incredibly down and a silly joke doesn't do the trick I tend to watch a really cute love-story - I know - I'm the cliché; the woman who sits in sweatpants under her cover and eats chocolate and watch the fates of other men and women. If I don't feel like love stories I usually end up watching a really depressing movie. The more depressing the movie is the better, because I get a perspective of how great my life really is. If this doesn't work I usually just go to sleep and wait for next day. Waking up to a new day makes me happy. Don't get me wrong - I don't always wake up with a smile on my face, but 85% of the times I probably do. My alarm sounds like one of those really old alarmclocks they always caricature in cartoons - you know that old clock that jumps up and down when it rings - and a friend of mine wondered how I can wake up in the morning and not hate the whole world when an alarm like that goes off at 5:40am in the morning. A new day, new possibilities. (Euch, what a cliché. This whole entry is just full of them!)

It's been showed (in some study somewhere made by someone) that if you smile for four minutes you will feel happier. It feels incredily stupid, but you will notice the result.
It's also been shown (in some other study somewhere else) that people who sing along to music loudly are happier. So the next time you feel like shite - just put on some music to match the mood and sing along!

What I really think makes a difference between happy people (like me) and none-happy-people (murderers) is the following:

1. I don't kill people.
2. I eat properly.
3. I can see the fun in rain when everything else goes to hell.
4. I know that it will get better.
5. I have enough time to sit down and write all this crap whereas they just shoot people.

Yes I know, that list made no sense what so ever, but did you smile?