- HubPages»
- Health»
- Mental Health»
- Emotions»
- Happiness
What is Happiness? How to Find Happiness?
What is Happiness?
The dictionary defines happiness as "a state of well-being and contentment, a pleasurable or satisfying experience".
Do we all agree with this definition?
To me happiness is a state of the mind, an abstract feeling which cannot be explained in words but rather by actions.
=================================================================
=================================================================
Do you know what you really want?
The key to finding happiness is the answer to this question. Sit back, relax and think what is it that you really want which will make you happy at the present moment.
- You want to be with your loved ones or
- You want to be alone and spend quality time with yourself or
- You just want to take a break from your job and travel to one of those destinations where you have always wanted to go to.
These are just some examples of what the answer to the above question could be!
You choose what you want and go ahead with your choice. Never think of what others will think about your choice. The moment you do that you will become unhappy once again.
=================================================================
How can you find Happiness?
There are many ways to find happiness but we are so busy pondering on the thoughts which do not make us happy that "how to find happiness" takes a complete setback! The thought is present in some remote corner of our brain but we never harvest it or bring it to the forefront. Maybe we have just forgotten to be cheerful and satisfied with our lives, jobs, family, friends and ourselves.
Have you ever seen a child happy?
Simple things make a child happy. Yesterday I observed this child at the shopping mall, he threw his cap down from the stairs, ran down to pick it up, climbed back up only to throw it down yet again! He kept repeating the same steps over and over again but he never seemed tired or unhappy! This prompted me to think that happiness is all about loving what you do at the present moment. The child's innocence taught me one of the keys to finding happiness.
=================================================================
Keep negative thoughts away
How many of us are unhappy with one or more things in life?
Most of us are unhappy with our lives and our jobs. We always tend to complain about how badly things are going on in our lives and we are always dissatisfied with our jobs.
Do we ever remember the good things that happen as much as the bad things?
When things turn out the way we wanted to, we feel happy and forget about it but when they don't move forward in the right direction we tend to complain about them forever. We do not encourage the positive energy to grow within us when we feel happy whereas when we are depressed we whine and pine forever and fill ourselves and our surroundings with negative energy.
When we feel happy we need to share it with others so that positive energy flows from one person to another and when we feel unhappy we need to think of something which makes us cheerful to convert that negative thought into a positive one. Share joyful stories with your friends and family and focus less on the negativity around you. One example of keeping negative thoughts away is through meditation.
Why do ashrams have meditation halls?
Meditation is nothing but concentrating on your positive energy. You are asked to think about joyous occasions during meditation. When many people think about positive things together there is a flow of positive energy across the room and it relaxes your senses and calms you down. It brings a smile on your face and that is how you experience a feeling of elation through meditation.
Don't do what you don't like!
If you don't like something don't do it to please another person. You would do it half-heartedly because you did not want to do it in the first place and the recipient would receive a poor quality of your work and would not be very glad about it! So both of you would contribute to cultivating negative energy within yourselves.
=================================================================
Stop thinking about what others think about you
We are always thinking about what the world will think about us. It could be the way we look, dress, eat, sit, stand, speak, think, in fact it could be everything!
Why are we thinking about others and making ourselves unhappy in the process?
The bottom-line is to stop comparing yourself with others and not to judge them too much. We just happen to look at people on the streets and come up with all possible conclusions about them and then think how we are better or worse as compared to them in every possible way!
GET RID of that thought NOW!
=================================================================
To conclude.....
There is no perfect rule in life to finding happiness. People achieve it in their own ways. Some people believe that it could be achieved through meditation and prayers, others feel that it could be achieved by doing simple things during everyday life - reading a book, listening to music, watching a movie, enjoying a cup of coffee with friends etc. and yet some others believe that taking a break from your everyday chores and pampering yourself can do the trick. It varies from person to person but the crux of the matter is in understanding what happiness means to you.
The thoughts that I listed down here focus on erasing the negativity of everyday life which I think makes us unhappy. If you have any other thoughts please feel free to share them in the comments section.
If you find my hubs useful make sure to get free content updates via RSS Feed.
=================================================================
Spread Happiness, watch this short video!
=================================================================
