Gross Personal Happiness

Happiness runs in a circular motion. Thought is like a little boat upon the sea. Everybody is a part of everything anyway, You can have everything if you let yourself be. Happiness runs, happiness runs.

Donovan

Lessons from Bhutan.

My husband, Bill, and I just returned from a trip to India and Bhutan where we celebrated our milestone birthdays—his 80th and my 60th, respectively. It was a sensory overload experience beyond compare, and I’m just starting to sort out some of the key takeaways from the trip that will have a lasting impact on our lives. For those of you who are changing lanes, some of these insights might be valuable to you as well.

The stand-out tourist site was, of course, the incomparable Taj Mahal. No matter how may times you’ve seen pictures of this monument in print or film, nothing prepares you for the incandescent beauty of this space and its tug on your soul as you stand within its perfect symmetry. I joked with Bill that it reminded me of a baseball diamond in that there is something transcendent about its dimensions and perfect layout. Those of you who are rabid baseball fans will know what I mean.

To be sure, the colors, contrasts and vitality of India will stay with us forever, but it was our visit to Bhutan which resonated most deeply in our psyches. Wedged between India and China, Bhutan is a Himalayan kingdom of 700,000 people that has chosen to remain isolated from the rest of the world until the last few decades. It is an unspoiled Shangri-La, rich in pristine forests and rivers and beautiful people who cleave to their Buddhist culture while cautiously opening up to the modern world.

For example, no hunting, fishing, or tree-cutting is permitted. Men and women still wear their hand-loomed traditional skirts and tunics to work every day. No smoking. No plastic bags. Crystal clear mountain air and streams. People smiling and seemingly content with their lives. If this sounds like heaven, that’s because it is.

The much loved king recently abdicated the throne in favor of his son and declared a democracy. “Can you do that?” you may ask. Well, yes—they have drawn up a constitution and have held elections for the parliament which now rules the country with “oversight” by the king to ensure things go smoothly.

So far his oversight has been a blessing. Unlike some neighboring rulers, he has taken care to ensure that modernization means health care, education and environmental conservation and does not mean a McDonalds on every corner. In fact, there still isn’t a stop light in the entire country!

Here’s the best part. The king is promoting the concept of “Gross National Happiness” alongside his goal of achieving economic self-reliance. GNH is not just a campaign slogan, but rather a sincere attempt to measure and thereby manage the nation’s progress in terms of society’s greater good. In Bhutan, GNH trumps GNP as the appropriate measure of success, and specific criteria have been established to guide the efforts of the people and their newly elected government.

It’s so exciting to visit a country which sets such lofty goals. We asked the Khempu (Abbot of the monastic order) in Paro how they plan to achieve Gross National Happiness. His answer was illuminating: “We already have it,” he said proudly.  “Our challenge is how to preserve it while we enter the global society.” 

Got me thinking.

Wouldn’t life be sweeter if we in America learned to strive for Gross National Happiness for all our people? Well yes, but I quickly moved off that notion since we are well past our formative years, and GNP is likely to continue to drive our thinking about economic development. But how about applying this concept to the personal arena? How about Gross Personal Happiness?  How about using this as a measure of personal success rather than constantly striving to maximize our net worth, earning power, or corporate status?

In Changing Lanes, Susan and I observed that midlife presents an opportunity for renewal: a chance to realign what you do with who you are, and thereby achieve a sense of wholeness and explosive energy. As a first step, we advocated focusing on your physical, mental and spiritual health as a prerequisite for embarking on the journey of discovery. A quiet mind will allow you to keenly observe the road ahead and evaluate the options for renewal available to you. You can choose to rev up into a faster lane or slow down onto a country road. The key is to be true to yourself. Therein lays your path to Gross Personal Happiness.

So what’s your prescription for GPH? We and our readers would love to hear from you.

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