Finding Happiness: How to Appreciate the Little Things in Life

There was a time when the powers that be tried to figure out ways to make life easier. So they invented things like computers, cell phones, PDAs, and MP3 players to achieve this goal. After all, a happy society is a digital one, right? Well, not necessarily.

While many of us have these things (and they do indeed make our lives a little convenient), the happiness gained from them isn't a long term thing. I like my iPod, and I like listening to it when I take a thirty minute walk, but for the other twenty three and a half hours that it's sitting on my shelf, it's not really doing much for my emotional state.

It seems that as technology has advanced, the pace of society has gotten faster. However, our overall happiness levels haven't seemed to rise at all. In fact, it seems that there's more instances of depression than there ever were back in the days of old fashioned appointment books and telephones that had cords. Or maybe depression is just talked about more now. No matter the reasons, I believe very few of us really stop to enjoy the small things in life. We're so focused on getting to appointments, answering our cells, and checking our email that many of us forget that there really is a beautiful world beyond our technologically advanced workspace.

The following is but a small list of the things found in everyday life that can bring us appreciation if we just take the time to notice and acknowledge them for what they are: small gifts of beauty and acts of kindness that come from a place that technology has yet to find. While you won't spend most of your day avoiding the computer, taking even just ten seconds to really appreciate things that come into your life on a regular basis can go a long way towards making you a happier person.