In the Secrets of Happiness, Richard Schoch examines three thousand years of history and concludes that we can deepen understanding of happiness by reading different philosophical and religious ideas and applying them selectively to our lives. He reviews thoughts of the Greeks, Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, Muslims and Stoics, and then, invites you to ask:

a) Do you think you have a right to be happy?

b) What is required for you to feel content?

c) Can you be happy if others are unhappy?

In the end, only you can determine if your own sense of happiness represents something you need to feel complete, whether it represents an illusion or unattainable goal, or a mysterious feeling meant to gain significance through you life experience. You may determine happiness is the symbolic trophy earned through challenges, hardship, burdens and suffering. Perhaps you feel this state of mind can only result from deep and consistent spiritual reflection or honest self-examination. This is your journey. Fulfillment could be in this life or the hereafter. You decide what form it will take, that is, if you decide it should take any form at all.

Start with believing the truth of happiness is accessible and all you really need to be happy is easy to obtain. Focus on learning about yourself, on helping other people to satisfy desires and things necessary for survival, such as obtaining enough food, water, compassion and shelter, to meet basic human needs.  Helping the less fortunate also enables you to help yourself. 

Decide whether your sense of happiness must be connected to lower stress, minimum pain and maximum inner peace, or if another combination makes more sense to you. How you reach out to learn will enable you to plot your course.  The secret to your own happiness lies inside yourself.