How to be Happy in One Easy Step

The ultimate guide to straddling two universes

Photo by Egidijus Bielskis on Unsplash

“The Answer to the Great Question… Of Life, the Universe and Everything… Is… Forty-two,’ said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm.” ― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

I was ten years old when I first came across Douglas Adams’s books. His wacky, wildly humorous stories were a balm for my soul. Tales of the hapless Arthur Dent, who gets whipped away on an intergalactic extravaganza, tickled my child’s sense of humor.

Those books went on to influence me profoundly.

If I close my eyes now, I can see the granite Cornish cottage I grew up in, the wind howling across the heather and gorse moors.

There I am, lying on my bed, a pile of purring cats next to me. My yellow-flowered wallpaper, my arts and crafts projects, my rock collection, my books and toys scattered here and there.

Giggling to myself over The Hitch Hiker’s Guide, while my parents and teachers and the outside world spun around me. The adult world seemed crazy to me then. Hurtful, and full of theatrics. It still seems the same way to me now, much of the time.

Books were my friends at a time when I needed friends.

“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.” ― Charles W. Eliot

---

This isn’t about my pain. This isn’t about me.

This is about your journey to happiness.

I want you to know that humor can heal your hurt.

Whatever you’ve been through in your life, others have been through similar. Worse, maybe.

You’re not alone.

The wound that you carry doesn’t have to define you. It doesn’t have to hold you back. It’s not who you are.

You’re no victim. You’re made of Divine substance.

There’s a place that I think of as ‘straddling two universes.’ This is where the Douglas Adam’s reference comes in. It’s the place between your inner world — who you are inside- and the world outside you. It’s the place at the border of both worlds.

You don’t have to be lost in your thoughts, swimming around in your inner world. Nor do you have to be mesmerized by the outer world, lost from yourself.

You can sit, comfortably detached, observing from the line between those two universes.

Wake up, right now, and find yourself there.

“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.” ― Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

---

Please don’t nurture your pain. Don’t cherish it like a baby. It doesn’t serve you. Let go your grasp.

You can let your pain heal right now if you choose, in an instant. Or little by little, if that’s what you choose.

Just, whatever you do, choose to let it heal.

Don’t indulge in it, but don’t block it out. Don’t hide it or hide from it.

Instead, expose it to the light.

Open up that tight place where you’re holding your pain and let the lifeforce wash in like an ocean. Let the goodness that infuses everything sweep through you and touch you where you most need to be touched.

Let the tears come, if they need.

Then read Douglas Adam’s books and laugh.

He’s your friend, and so am I.

---

Thank you for reading. I wish you everything