Seven Secrets To Happiness

Beenish Saleem |

Happiness is a state of mind which is difficult to describe in words. It is a feeling for which everyone is concerned. People search for happiness throughout their lives. But they don’t actually do what exactly is needed to bring happiness in life. However there is no standard definition set for happiness, I have asked many people that what is happiness according to them, and the answers were different. For some people, materialistic things are a source of happiness and for others’ nature and beauty is a reason for their happiness.

According to positive psychology, happiness is an internal state of being not an external one. Most people studying happiness have concluded that genetic predisposition toward happiness — called trait happiness — accounts for a large portion of what makes humans happy. As much as 50 percent of why we’re happy may be found in our genes. The other half of human happiness is slightly more within our control. While about 10 percent are life circumstances like income and relationships, the remaining 40 percent consists of choices made by the individual.

People usually can’t source the reason for their depression and they blame everything from a bad job to a bad environment etc, but they never take responsibility for their state of mind. Being depressed is a horrible experience. Some people have everything in their life like a good job, a well-furnished house on a pleasant location, cars, and other luxuries but still, they are not happy in their lives. Because they have set some other standards of happiness. It is the human psychology for the man to urge for something he does not have. They don’t focus on the things they have in their lives. So the reason why most of the people are away from happiness is that they merely desire for happiness but they don’t try to get it. In my opinion, happiness isn’t really hard to achieve and there are no hard and fast rules to attain happiness. There are few basic rules or steps which can ensure your happiness and they are as follows. 

1. Be grateful for what you already have

 It is usually seen that most of the people are ungrateful for the things they have. They pay no attention to the blessing they have. They keep on following what they have not. Losing the charm and joy of their life. They feel that they have nothing meaningful and in this race of achieving more, they lose their satisfaction with life.

2. Have hobbies related to your dream?   

People have to learn to inculcate their hobbies into their lives, the hobbies which are directed towards their dreams. Research has found that a person can find leisure in anything. So try to find leisure in those tasks which are more relatable to your dreams. My passion was to be a journalist but unfortunately, even though I don’t have a degree in journalism I write articles as a hobby and find leisure in this task. So, I’m also fulfilling my dream and achieving my happiness.

3. Forgiveness

Britney Spears a famous pop star has unlocked the secrete of happiness. According to him having poor memory is a great blessing. No memory no pain, just live in the present to live happily. Happiness is easily accessible when you have the courage to forget the mess that had happened in your past. Try to forgive mistakes of others. Happiness is the name of confidently moving forward. You feel happy when you will try to learn the art of forgiveness. 

4. Helping others

Another key to happiness is to help others. If you help others out in their difficult times, it will bring happiness in their life and this will automatically make you a happy person as well because you will have an inner peace of mind and satisfaction. Happiness increases by sharing. The more you spread happiness the more you will receive happiness.

5. Define your own happiness and success 

Own your meaning of success and failure. No two human beings are the same so why should we set equal standards for their success. There will always be someone better than you and there will always be someone in a terrible state than you. You will not have time to do everything. You will have to understand that everything has an opportunity cost, you have to let go several things for achieving your dreams and that’s completely okay. We must define success and happiness in our own terms because if don’t, society will do it for us, and we will always fall short. We’ll always be left wanting. We’ll always be stuck comparing ourselves with others and competing with other people. Our lives will be an endless race for the next best thing. We’ll never experience contentment.

6. Be Tolerant 

Tolerance is another key to happiness. Its fruit can be tasted in the long term. Tolerance can also bring peace of mind. Sometimes we feel something is good for us and want to achieve that but couldn’t get that. So at that time if we show tolerance then we might later on in life realize it was perhaps for the greater good.

7. Flow 

In positive psychology, flow, also known colloquially as being in the zone, is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. Flow is an important source of happiness in life. As a person in flow has some goals set for life and that person energetically remain engaged in the fulfillment of those goals and after attainment of those goals a person feels happy and relax. According to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Happiness takes a committed effort to be manifested.” Motivation is necessary to keep flow in life.

Follow these secrets and live a happier life!

 

 Beenish Saleem is an educationalist and an activist for education. The views expressed in this article are authors own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Global Village Space.