Pope Francis Reveals Top 10 Secrets to Happiness Slowing down, being generous and fighting for peace are part of Pope Francis\u2019 secret recipe for happiness. In an interview published in part in the Argentine weekly Viva July 27, the pope listed his Top 10 tips for bringing greater joy to one\u2019s life:<\/p>\n
1. \u201cLive and let live.\u201d Everyone should be guided by this principle, he said, which has a similar expression in Rome with the saying, \u201cMove forward and let others do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
2. \u201cBe giving of yourself to others.\u201d People need to be open and generous toward others, he said, because \u201cif you withdraw into yourself, you run the risk of becoming egocentric. And stagnant water becomes putrid.\u201d<\/p>\n
3. \u201cProceed calmly\u201d in life. The pope, who used to teach high school literature, used an image from an Argentine novel by Ricardo Guiraldes, in which the protagonist looks back on how he lived his life. \u201cHe says that in his youth he was a stream full of rocks that he carried with him; as an adult, a rushing river; and in old age, he was still moving, but slowly, like a pool of water\u201d, the pope said. He said he likes this latter image of a pool of water\u2014to have \u201cthe ability to move with kindness and humility, a calmness in life.\u201d<\/p>\n
4. \u201cA healthy sense of leisure.\u201d The pleasures of art, literature and playing together with children have been lost, he said. \u201cConsumerism has brought us anxiety\u201d and stress, causing people to lose a \u201chealthy culture of leisure.\u201d Their time is \u201cswallowed up\u201d so people can\u2019t share it with anyone. Even though many parents work long hours, they must set aside time to play with their children. Work schedules make it \u201ccomplicated, but you must do it,\u201d he said. Families must also turn off the TV when they sit down to eat because, even though television is useful for keeping up with the news, having it on during mealtime \u201cdoesn\u2019t let you communicate\u201d with each other, the pope said.<\/p>\n
5. Sundays should be holidays. Workers should have Sundays off because \u201cSunday is for family,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
6. Find innovative ways to create dignified jobs for young people. \u201cWe need to be creative with young people. If they have no opportunities they will get into drugs\u201d and be more vulnerable to suicide, he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not enough to give them food,\u201d he said. \u201cDignity is given to you when you can bring food home\u201d from one\u2019s own labor.<\/p>\n
7. Respect and take care of nature. Environmental degradation \u201cis one of the biggest challenges we have,\u201d he said. \u201cI think a question that we\u2019re not asking ourselves is: \u2018Isn\u2019t humanity committing suicide with this indiscriminate and tyrannical use of nature?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
8. Stop being negative. \u201cNeeding to talk badly about others indicates low self-esteem. That means, \u2018I feel so low that instead of picking myself up I have to cut others down,\u2019\u201d the pope said. \u201cLetting go of negative things quickly is healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n
9. Don\u2019t proselytize; respect others\u2019 beliefs. \u201cWe can inspire others through witness so that one grows together in communicating. But the worst thing of all is religious proselytism, which paralyzes: \u2018I am talking with you in order to persuade you.\u2019 No. Each person dialogues, starting with his and her own identity. The church grows by attraction, not proselytizing,\u201d the pope said.<\/p>\n
10. Work for peace. \u201cWe are living in a time of many wars,\u201d he said, and \u201cthe call for peace must be shouted. Peace sometimes gives the impression of being quiet, but it is never quiet, peace is always proactive\u201d and dynamic.<\/p>\n
Source: catholicnews.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pope Francis Reveals Top 10 Secrets to Happiness Slowing down, being generous and fighting for peace are part of Pope Francis\u2019 secret recipe for happiness. In an interview published in part in the Argentine weekly Viva July 27, the pope listed his Top 10 tips for bringing greater joy to one\u2019s life: 1. \u201cLive and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2307,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.najicherfanfoundation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2306"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.najicherfanfoundation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.najicherfanfoundation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.najicherfanfoundation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.najicherfanfoundation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2306"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.najicherfanfoundation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16540,"href":"https:\/\/www.najicherfanfoundation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2306\/revisions\/16540"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.najicherfanfoundation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.najicherfanfoundation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.najicherfanfoundation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.najicherfanfoundation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}