I can think of three possible reasons you might be reading this. First, maybe you’ve got time to kill. Second, you’re generally happy but curious if it’s possible to be even happier. And third, you may be in a mood that would require reading this happiness guide.
Although I don’t know much about happiness, I do have a decent amount of knowledge about pyramids. By “decent,” I mean Tintin: Cigars of the Pharaoh. Curiosity and fascination led me to dive into a random web search about pyramids, through which I learned that they were first built in ancient Egypt around 2630 BCE to preserve dead bodies, particularly of those in power. Since pyramids were built for pharaohs and the powerful, their shape showed hierarchy: many at the bottom, and just one at the top. Over time, the pyramid shape eventually became a way for us humans to visualize gradual progress, basic needs to top-level goals, and, interestingly enough, the progression from a bad day to a worse one.
Just imagine a three-tiered pyramid of a bad day. At the bottom, we have the “mediocre,” in the middle lies the “bad,” and at the top, we have the “horrible.” On some days, you reach the horrible all at once. On others, you probably reach a tier very gradually, or if you get lucky, you get stuck in just one.
Now, in such scenarios, the thought of optimism might seem as hard as teaching a monkey how to dance. However, maybe the idea of transforming a bad day into a good one is similar to that of a pyramid structure of a bad day? Maybe you start off with just existence, then move on to the ‘decent,’ and eventually feel the ‘great?’
The recipe to reach the stage of “the great” is, in most ways, just learning to exist., Well, that and a breathtaking slice of chocolate cake. Growing up, pyramid structures for me existed solely for desserts. The lowest included almond cake and apple pie. The middle consisted of pudding and fruit cake. And the highest went to brownies and a cheesecake. The combination of a good dessert and boredom, however, can be a little dangerous for high-sugar patients. Heals wounds you otherwise think it wouldn’t. Maybe it doesn’t get better. Or maybe it does. I guess that it is in these times that you teach a monkey how to dance and see the optimism in hard times. Say, “screw it,” and have that breathtaking slice of chocolate cake.