Money CAN Buy Happiness

"All I ask is for the chance to PROVE that money can't buy happiness."
--Anonymous

This just in: Money can buy happiness...as long as you spend it on others.

Of course, the cynics were quick to deride the study cited here: maybe these people were just happier to begin with. And I'm offering myself up as a sacrificial lamb to all those who want to get happy. I take Mastercard, Visa and of course, cash.

And yet other studies I've seen come to fundamentally the same conclusion. Not only do you not have to be rich to be happy...often being rich is a reliable predictor of unhappiness.

The Secret and other get-rich-quick-by-the-power-of-positive-thinking books are missing this basic step in the process. Yes, if you want to be rich, you must first imagine yourself as being rich. But how you do this is crucial. If you close your eyes and picture yourself rolling in it, surrounded by all manner of affluvia, you're doing it wrong. Open your eyes and notice how rich you actually are. Right now. Without all that crap.
Not working? Not surprising. Our society is full of certain "wealth markers", the absence of which supposedly make you poor. Don't own your own house? You're obviously a loser. No car? Not cool. You call those things shoes? What athlete endorsed those shitkickers? Shoeless Joe?

Whenever you hear those voices yammering away in your head--and most of us do, at some point--suggest sex and travel to them and don't spare the profanity. Because they're flat wrong, and even allowing them an inkling of credibility will eventually turn your soul into a bank vault.

The truth is, Descartes was wrong. "I think, therefore I am" is wrong. Thinking alone won't get you far. Some of my best thinking happens on the toilet: I rest my case.
Think all you want...the way to know is to experience. And how do you experience, for example, being rich? Especially when you don't think you are? Simple. Go find somebody poorer than you and give them some of your wealth. Then notice the mindset you find yourself in.
Hey, I'm richer than I thought. I have to be, 'cause I just gave that poor sap something. I didn't even ask for anything back. Humph. I didn't think I was rich enough to just give shit away, but apparently I am.
Make that a habit and you'll be rich. Simple like that. The funny thing is, you will probably find yourself having more money after a time...because you gave money away.
The same principle works for any emotion you care to name, too. Want to experience love? Experience yourself as loving...by giving love away. It sounds counterintuitive. It sounds like bullshit. But it works.