What is Happiness?
We often hear people say…
- I want to be happy
- If I get to go on a holiday to Europe, I’ll be happy!
- I would be happy to have some ‘ME time’
- I’d be happy to get into Harvard
- I’d be happy to help
What do these statements tell us? Simply that happiness is not something that we can see but it is a feeling that we experience. We can define ‘Happiness’ as a mental or emotional state characterized by positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy.
Have you met some people who just by their presence make you feel happy? Or, vice versa, your presence makes someone happy!
Happiness is not just about you, it involves others too!
How does happiness contribute to our well-being?
There has been enough research to show that there are mind-body connections. Because of which, the condition of our physical state affects our mental state and our mental state affects our body. This in turn affects our personal health and well-being, our relationships and even our work life.
Since the mind-body connections can impact a person so much, it is worthwhile to talk about the different factors that contribute to our happiness. Some of them are:
How we look at life – our emotions, our attitude, curiosity, looking forward to new things
Are we able to see beauty in our surroundings, weather, food, people around us?
Do we feel grateful for our safety, freedom, and all that we are blessed with?
What is the quality of our relationships?
Do we find purpose in whatever we do?
Are we able to see progress in what we do, even if it is baby steps?
How we recover from life’s inevitable negative events.
Are we contributing to the well-being of our family, community, workplace, society, the world at large to make it a little better?
How we deal with each of these factors, is what contributes to our happiness quotient. To begin your journey of happiness by choice, you first need to check out what are your happiness beliefs.
Are Your Happiness Beliefs Right?
Do you believe that getting into a good University, getting a good job, a great salary, a fancy car, a lavish apartment and so on, will make you happy?
Contrary to our happiness beliefs, research has shown that these things do not make us happy in the true sense. All these things bring us momentary happiness at the time we get it – the admission in the university, the job we wanted, that raise in our salary, the car or the apartment. When we look back and try to recall that feeling of happiness, it does not come back.
Recollect the day you bought your new BMW home. How thrilled you were to explore the new features and experience the smooth drive. Six years on, you drive the same car, but do you experience the same thrill? In other words, materialistic things do give us moments of joy or happiness.
What we think our happiness beliefs are – actually bring the smallest component of our happiness. The bigger part comes from all kinds of positive actions, intentions, achievements, behaviours that we have. Let us understand how they impact our happiness.
Do you remember the occasion when you wanted to buy a gift for someone you loved? You scanned through so many things going from store to store or maybe online. Finally, you found something that you thought was perfect. The joy that you experienced from this action of buying would keep making you happy every time you think of it.
Intentions like wanting to go on holiday bring great joy. You start experiencing happy feelings from the time you decide to go on a holiday. The preparation from deciding on the location, booking tickets, reservations for stay, all the research about the place gives you joy. Finally, when you reach your destination, your happiness is complete!
Achievements, particularly those that you achieved after a lot of toils give you longer lasting happiness. It could be your doctoral degree, your national championship, a relationship, the birth of a child or even just cleaning your house and getting rid of all the junk. All these achievements come at a cost, but the degree of happiness is greater than the pain that you experienced in the process of achievement. Even as days pass by, you will remember the happiness you experienced rather than the toils you put in.
Behaviours that you display will bring you joy if they are positive. Any negative behaviour will not only cause you to be unhappy but will also make others unhappy. Positivity is contagious, be positive!
Relook into your happiness beliefs and you will surely find that materialistic things give short bursts of joy but greater happiness comes from positive experiences!
Remember to focus on the factors that contribute to our happiness and well-being, put them into practice. You will surely experience what happiness is!
