Happiness

The great John Lennon himself said, “Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.” Apparently, that is why happiness seemed to remain so elusive to most of us. We have become so focused on what it is we think we want that at times we really have just forgotten what it is we are really seeking for. But often, when we allow ourselves to ask ourselves “What is it we really want?” we realize we have a common theme behind all our desires. Simply said, it is to feel better, in various different names we’re looking for joy, happiness, inner peace, fulfillment, bliss, contentment, ease, satisfaction, well-being or the likes. We want to avoid suffering and find a more enjoyable state of consciousness and yearn for a more pleasant state of consciousness.

However, sadly, we got to engrossed in the end that we don’t know the means, we miss the point of life. We got too busy seeking inner peace, fulfillment, happiness or joy, and come up with a hodge podge of ways set about finding it. That is why our cultural conditioning has trapped us in a materialist mindset which says that if we are not happy then something in the world needs to change.

But the truth is, happiness is not obtained by merely searching for it and by acquiring things like money. Without a doubt, there are a lot rich people all over the world who are miserable and if you set out to make your self happy, you will find only find that happiness is very elusive.

But really, happiness is simple, it’s just a matter of making the decision to have a positive attitude. People who have a negative attitude only repel the very happiness they are trying to achieve. To remain positive, always try to bring happiness to someone else because when you do this, happiness comes back to you. In sharing of something good, something positive and desirable with someone else, then something good and desirable will come back to you. Further on, happiness can be simply attain by not taking yourself or life so seriously or be too “too busy making plans” as Lenon said. Realize that if you fail it is still not the end of the world. Dream about new possibilities because there are endless amount of them and always believe in yourself. To keep this up, you must do things you love as often as possible as well as welcome new challenges and experiences so that you can work on your self-confidence.

To further maintain and spread the positive attitude, do not watch, listen or read negative or evil things especially violent, depressive or insane things. Also, try to avoid becoming obsessed with anything because moderation is always self-control. Always try to find beauty in everything and put your focus only on beautiful things, the world has enough of the ugly ones. We are all meant to be healthy and illness often comes only as a result of negative thinking. Speakign of health, prevention is the cheapest and best health insurance so get an annual checkup. Take care of your body by eating and sleeping right, and stopping your vices, poisons and addictions fast.

And lastly, give close relationships more time than work for it’s the best antidote for sadness. Psychologytoday.com found that people who have close, supportive friends live with greater health and happiness. However, our increasingly individualistic society today, especially with the advent of internet, suffers from impoverished social connections. Some psychologists actually believe that this is the cause of today's epidemic levels of depression. So whether it is with your childhood friend or your spouse, a chat can be very refreshing. It is still our basic need to have humans to connect with and this is a driving force in our nature.

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