Many people think that happiness is one of those things that elude as much as we try to attain it. But, that’s not true and we can all experience happiness with a few minor changes in our behaviour, surroundings, and relationships. Happiness doesn’t happen just like that and we need to put in our efforts and empower ourselves to make changes that bring in better health and longevity. We all get our happiness from within when we learn to tame our negative thoughts and make optimism our mantra. Before we get to know how we can live a much happier life, let us understand what happiness actually means.
- Happiness is a state of being rather than a permanent personality trait. It keeps on changing depending on various factors.
- Happiness is all about feeling content and need not be necessarily related to more intense feelings like joy or ecstasy.
- Happiness can be both an internal and external experience that can be either felt internal or can be shown to others externally.
Happiness is not something that can be achieved once forever, but it is a state of being as discussed above. To be happy most of the time and lifelong, we have to cultivate the habit of being happy. It is an ongoing process that needs practice on a daily basis. Here are some habits or practices that need to be exercised regularly to imbibe happiness in us.
- Be positive: To achieve long-term happiness, we need to train our brain to be positive and detach from the negative mindset that we have, if any. Training our brain towards cultivating a positive mindset is not a challenging task, but is a tedious one that needs efforts from us day-in-day-out. We all have some positive aspects in our life and we ought to identify these and feel happy for these by spending at least 2 minutes every day 3-4 times daily. If we do this activity for around a month, we get habituated to feel happy for the positives in our lives.
- Celebrate little wins: Nobody has a life full of victories and joys. But those who want to live a happy life know and understand how to celebrate the little victories in their lives. As discussed above, if we remove the negative mindset, we can forget the lows of our lives and focus on the positives. When bogged down by the failures, we often tend to forget the numerous little victories we have achieved so far. Noticing and celebrating these small yet valuable victories will add up to a positive attitude and help us be happier.
- Be mindful: Being mindful goes a long way in making us happy. Mindfulness brings awareness and helps focus at the present moment. This helps us in being in the present moment without the baggage of past and future apprehensions. By being mindful of our all activities, we can reduce stress, find peace and stay positive.
- Be you: Just be yourself and don’t try to impress others forever or wait for others’ approval. Spend quality time to understand yourself, what your beliefs are, and what makes you happy. Accept yourself as you are and live happily.
Getting rid of persistent negative emotions and replacing those with the little victories, positive experiences, positive affirmations and living in the moment is all that is needed to be happy. Being happy should be our way of life and not just a moment in life. Let’s all be happy and make others happy.