Don’t Look For Stories With A Happy Ending: Be Happy Without So Many Stories

Children’s literature is full of stories with a happy ending. It is as if on its last page the world regained its harmony. As if by magic, all its outcomes are satisfactory and ideal.

Well, this is the opposite of what happens so many times in reality. In it, there seems to be not a single couple who enjoy eternal happiness. Far from being solved, the problems multiply. And, the wicked, as unfair as it may seem, usually win the game.

However, neither the stories of Charles Perrault nor those of Hans Christian Andersen were as innocuous as Walt Disney has led us to believe. The princesses of the original stories did not always marry, they were happy and ate partridges.

However, both adults and children need some hope and enthusiasm to live. That is, we often need to believe that everything is going to turn out just fine for the result to be favorable. There is no doubt that positive thinking implies a better attitude to face adversity.

However, it is not about making up any event or falling into the temptation to idealize, for example, affective relationships. In this article, we invite you to reflect on them and other related issues.

Are they all stories with a happy ending?

You probably have a memory about an event that did not have a particularly pleasant or idyllic ending. Despite this, you may consider that the experience was worth going through.

Perhaps you are thinking about that relationship that made you suffer so much in adolescence and that it took you so much to overcome. But, at the same time, you recognize everything he taught you … Even today, you recall it from time to time as something that you even like to review.

This is just one of the possible examples. So, although everything did not turn out as we expected, they are experiences that are part of one’s own identity and personal history.

Therefore, ‘the best stories’ do not have to always be those with a happy ending to be great stories. We learn from all of them, especially those that pose significant challenges for us.

Be happy without so much story

Tal Ben-Shahar is a psychologist, Harvard professor, and a successful writer thanks to numerous books that teach us how to be happy.

Despite the fact that it is a topic that has often aroused interest, it seems that giving people tools to achieve greater emotional well-being is something more or less recent. Yes, it may sound strange, but it is.

• Books like Ben Shahar’s Pursuit of Happiness highlight how humans seek answers to their own existential voids. In this sense, the contributions of Positive Psychology are revealing.
• Dr. Ben-Shahar insists that life is quite different from those tales with a happy ending. In fact, he encourages his readers to get rid of the false aspiration to a permanent joy, because, among other things, it does not exist.

• Thus, far from nurturing high expectations or wanting perfection, appreciating what we have in the present is posed as a healthier alternative.
• For example, a common mistake is to condition all satisfaction on the achievement of certain goals. These usually refer to having an eternal partner, a wonderful home, and an ideal job.
• Although dreaming and setting goals is necessary to progress, it is also necessary to do it in the right measure. How? Well, being prudent and looking for balance.

The stories or, what is the same, high expectations, fantasies and false ideals are prisons for personal growth. Therefore, when one does not achieve what has been proposed, the shadow of unhappiness arrives. But what if we settle for a little less?

Your best moment is the present

Another mistake that we usually make is to focus all illusions in the future. That is, to think that when we have this, we can do the other. Or that when we find the right person, we will feel complete. We even come to believe that when we finally have a vacation, we will be happy and calm.

• With this type of reasoning, the only thing we achieve is to postpone our own emotional well-being. It may be healthier to delay tasks, activities, and appointments and start enjoying yourself sooner.
• The best opportunity is this, the now. Why cling to the idea that we’ll only be okay when certain circumstances take place?
• What if we give value to the people who are close and who show us that they love us?

What stories with a happy ending will you write?

However, we see that being happy is something very different from that magical perfection that children’s stories transmit to us. Despite the fact that these promote the imagination of children, as adults we know that the outcomes in reality run through other channels.

In other words, great moments don’t always end well. However, they often leave us some message or learning that makes us grow. How will you write the next chapters of your story?