"Happiness is a mental or emotional state
of well-being characterized by positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy".
It is one
of the most difficult things to explain in the world. It has 'n' number of
interpretations by same number of people. It can be as small as a seeing a
smile on someone's face to as big as working hard and eventually getting the
results for the toil. Studies have shown that happiness leads to a high level
of mental activity and stimulates our thinking. It has a lot of positive
effects on brain and the way we live our life.
Happiness
starts from the birth of an individual when the happiest people in the world
are the parents. The smile that adorns the face of our father and the wet eyes
of our mothers are the biggest symbols of the happiness. Happiness is closely
associated with the people we care for.
Happiness
is to give up a lucrative marketing position to focus on our true passion. It is when we say “I know it was the right
move. I feel much healthier!” But most people don’t have to make such
drastic steps.
The
biggest impediment between human mind and happiness is Expectations. The time
when we learn to downplay the role of expectations in our life, we reach the
stage of real happiness. It is true in all the aspects of life. If we do anything
with passion then we really feel great and happy. Have we ever noticed the
reason for it. It is because we do not keep expectations about the result. If
Roger Federer goes into the field each time thinking that he has to win do you
think he will come out as a winner? The answer is "probably not" .
Federer himself once said that when he goes into the field he goes there to
enjoy his game. It is this enjoyment that leads him to pose a tough competition
to the opponents and come out with flying colors.
Coming
to a real life example from my life, I still remember the day when I got good
grades in class XII. My father who is normally a very thrifty fellow threw a
huge party for his friends. I can still aptly imagine the smile that adorned
his face . He was really happy that day.
Happiness
can be measured on the following scales:
- The Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS) :This a four-item scale measures global subjective happiness.
- The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS): It is used to detect relation between personality traits and positive or negative affects at this moment and past few days.
- The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) is a global cognitive assessment of life satisfaction.
Some tips on how to find happiness for yourself.
1. You choose: You can choose to find happiness in small, everyday things. You
can choose to interpret what happens in a positive way.
2. Focus on the
present, not yesterday or tomorrow: You only have now. And now. And now.
Yesterday is a memory and you cannot change it.
3. Don’t forget to be
grateful: A few things you can feel gratitude for are for instance: The sunshine
and the weather. Your roof. Your health. A good TV-show, a movie or a song. Your friends, family, co-workers and just about
anyone walking down the street.
4. Help someone else find happiness : Make someone else happy – by, for
example, helping them with something – you can sense, see, feel and hear it.
And that happy feeling flows back to you. And then, if you’d like, you can
boost you own ego by thinking something like: ”Wow, I really made him/her
happy!”.
5. Get rid of a couple of your less valuable desires : If we throw away a few of those desires that we may not really want or
need that much anyway we’ll probably start to feel less stressed and worried.
6. Do what you like to
do: But you almost always have a choice to do more of what you
really want to do. There is always time. Or time you
can free up. You have a choice.
7. Or at least do something: One of the best ways to not find
happiness is just to hold yourself back and do nothing.
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