Costa Rica is not one of the world’s richest countries. Yet it currently sits fourth in the international happiness rankings.
For context, the UK has a significantly larger economy and considerably more wealth but languishes in 29th place.
I was intrigued. So I went!
True story – one day, I went trekking through the Costa Rican rainforest. According to my guidebook, the jungle would be teeming with wildlife: monkeys, armadillos, exotic birds, giant insects and those impossibly cute little green tree frogs pictured on the front cover.
This was not a gentle stroll through British woodland. It was dark, dense, steamy and ever so slightly terrifying.
I was examining every tree, bush, branch and suspicious-looking shadow. I saw nothing. Not a monkey. Not a toucan. Not a treefrog. Just a few ants that appeared to have wandered in from Chernobyl.
After an hour of careful trekking, I came across a local ranger who led jungle tours. In my broken Spanish, I pointed accusingly at the tree frog on the front of my guidebook.
“Where are all the creatures?” I asked. “Are they having a day off?”
He looked confused. Then he walked over to the nearest tree and gently touched one of its branches.
It moved. Stick insect.
He bent towards a bush and, within seconds, revealed a tiny green tree frog.
He pointed upwards. Toucan.
He shook a nearby tree and a troop of monkeys scattered through the branches, shrieking indignantly.
The jungle had not suddenly filled with wildlife. It had been there all along. The problem was not that there was nothing to see. The problem was that I did not know how to look.
And perhaps happiness is a little like that.
We search for it in promotions, holidays, lottery wins, new kitchens, better bodies and the vague promise that life will finally begin when everything settles down. We imagine happiness is somewhere else. Somewhere exotic or just beyond the next achievement.
Costa Rica taught me that the good stuff is not always absent. Sometimes we have simply stopped noticing it.
Happiness is not necessarily waiting at the end of the road. It is scattered all along it, hidden in plain sight.
The trick is learning how to look.