Everyone wants a happy life. But if you look around, you cannot find that many people who actually manage to lead happy lives. They say Koreans are comparatively less happy than those who live in other countries with similar levels of income. Korea’s suicide rate, one of the highest among OECD member countries, illustrates this fact well. What is the matter? Has’nt Korea joined the club of rich countries already? Most Koreans are free from the worries about basic necessities such as food, clothing and shelter.

I guess the main culprit is the suffocatingly competitive social atmosphere which has rendered us to live under a tremendous amount of stress from early childhood. When I was young, there was not much private education going on which devastated the bodies and souls of young children. Since we had to go through three levels of entrance examinations from that of junior high schools, the situation back then could have been much worse than today, Unlike children of these days, however, most children at that time were free from the devastation of private education. With ever increasing pressure of competition, our society has become an unbearably competitive one all of a sudden.

Another horrifying environment awaits us when we enter the society after finishing schools. Think about the pitiful situation of the average salaried person who faces the pressure to retire voluntarily in his or her early 50s. Could he feel happy when he ponders about what will happen to him after retirement? With insufficient savings and pensions, he should endure miserable poverty during his long retirement years. What makes worse, the period during which he should live in retirement has become much longer with ever rising life expectancy. Would it be possible for the average Korean who is living such a stressful life to feel happy in his everyday life?

It is definitely not easy to escape this trap of unhappiness by one’s own efforts. Besides, there is another bad news. According to studies by psychologists, genetic factors have a great impact on people’s feelings of happiness. Genetic factors account for up to 50 percent of all factors that influence the feelings of happiness. That is to say, some people could have a hard time to feel happy from the beginning of their lives.

Then should we just give up our efforts to become happy? Based on my experiences as someone who has lived over 70 years, I think not necessarily. Even though the social atmosphere is bad and genetic factors act as a limitation, the efforts to become happy definitely do help. Certainly, there is some room to make your day-to-day lives happier through your efforts to enhance the feelings of happiness. But the question is in what one should do to increase the feelings of happiness.

People who call themselves the ‘teachers of life’ tell us many ways to become happy. For example, some advises that you must always maintain a positive attitude, or that you must never give up hope even in adverse situations. Moreover, some says that you should let go of useless greed and feel satisfied with your current circumstances. In actuality, however, putting these into practice is easier said than done. In addition, it is unclear whether such efforts will actually make you happy.

Hence, I would like to introduce two things that I have been practicing and have found to be quite effective in enhancing the feelings of happiness. The first one is very simple and easy to put into practice. On a sunny day, I quit working and go outside to take a walk enjoying the view of blossoming flowers and trees. However busy you may be, you can surely spare half an hour to refresh your body and mind. I can confidently predict that giving yourself a break from exhausting daily routines even for half an hour will indeed make you much refreshed and happy.

I hope you don’t look down on this method. The fact that it is effective has also been proven scientifically. There are numerous studies that show being in the sun makes you happier. It is widely known that people living in countries with little sunlight tend to have higher numbers suffering from depression. Moreover, a research on happiness shows that living a life that is close to nature increases the feelings of happiness. You can greatly increase the feelings of happiness by merely taking a walk under the bright sun enjoying the view of flowers and trees.

The second one is a roundabout way to reach the goal of happiness by trying to achieve good health first. I believe that this is surely a good way to increase your level of happiness effectively. Health is the most important precondition to happiness. It is a widely known truth that unhealthy people cannot feel happy. The cause of many people’s unhappiness can be found in their bad health. Therefore, striving to live a healthy life will certainly lead to a happy life.

The question is how can we achieve both physical and mental health. I think a certain kind of prioritization is necessary in this context. That is, we had better focus on physical health rather than mental health. This is because a healthy mind comes naturally from a healthy body. That is not the only reason. The question of how to make one’s mind healthy is not an easy question to answer. Therefore, working to improve one’s physical health first is a more practical approach.

In order to make a healthy body, we must first-and-foremost eat good foods. We must reduce the consumption of junk foods and processed foods. We must foster a habit of consuming only healthy foods. This is easy to say, but it is actually a difficult task to do. Especially for young people, it could be close to impossible to abstain from junk foods. But nothing is gained in this world for free! Leading a healthy and happy life requires the determination to forgo short-term pleasures.

The second element of maintaining a healthy body is adequate exercise. It is good to enjoy any kind of sports as a hobby. You must have the experience of feeling refreshed and happy after you sweat a lot doing some sports activities. If it is difficult for you to exercise regularly for some reason, you must at least find some time to take a walk. They say that brisk walking has the same health-improving effects as any other form of arduous exercise.

The last element of maintaining a healthy body is adequate rest. Just as a machine working non-stop soon breaks down, you can never be healthy if you overwork your body and mind. Even if things that should be done pile up like a mountain, be sure to make the effort to take some rest. If you do not take a rest because you think it is a waste of time, you may end up wasting more time by falling ill. Let us not forget that taking adequate amounts of time to rest is the most effective way of managing your time.

I think I have lived, on the whole, a fairly happy life so far. And I believe that my ways of enhancing the feelings of happiness that I have explained above have turn out to be quite effective. That is why I wish to share my experiences with you. I am sure that you won’t be disappointed if you follow my steps. I could not be any happier if you try it out and find it effective. As your teacher, leading you to happy lives is what I find most worthwhile.

The author is an emeritus professor at Seoul National University’s Department of Economics. --Ed.