“The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things”.
– Henry Ward Beecher
This quote from Henry Ward Beecher reveals a simple and effective technique for being happy, which everyone should apply in his/her life. He says, in order to be happy you need to focus on being happy and not to allow anything/anyone to spoil your happiness. According to him, we can extract happiness from common things , We should not run after the luxury and so much of appreciation to find happiness.
People since the ages have shown their eagerness to know about the true or absolute happiness. Is happiness a physical reaction? Does it depend on certain external circumstances? Or it is just a state of our mind.
Wikipedia says, “Happiness is mental or emotional state of well-being which can be defined by, among others, positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy”.
The main aim of most of the people, even if they are not aware of it, is happiness.
Actually, most of us feel happy,
- when we accomplish any unmanageable task
- when we solve a problem that has been a daunting task for a long time
- when we win a lottery of some handsome amount
- When we enjoy a party with our near & dear ones
- When we get a desired job/promotion or project to work
In all these situations, We experience a feeling of joy and contentment. For an instant,If our mind is free from all kinds of stresses, plannings and worries then we may enjoy the happiness. But,now arises the main question, is it the true or absolute happiness ? A big no from my side. That is not true or absolute happiness at all, It is just a pleasure, fun or joy that comes as a ‘gust of wind’ and it leaves us tottering.
There are people, who believe that accomplishment of their definite goal would create happiness in their life. But is it true for you? A big no from my side again. Often, when we achieve our goal, we just move for the next goal without even enjoying and celebrating our achievement. Here, the happiness is a transitory element, remaining for small period after success.
Most of us overeat, drink, smoke, go to cinemas or go on vacations. Have you ever thought, Why does it happen? As per my understanding, We unconsciously believe that these activities will make us happy. But the thing is, does this happiness stay longer? Again my answer won’t favour it . Because, after a while, when our brain comes back to its habitual routine and complications of life, we feel, as our happiness has vanished.
Just imagine it, is happiness the key to life? Is it something artistic? Can we learn how to bring happiness? Are we able to influence others to be happy? What the heck is this happiness that everybody, since time immemorial talk about?
Many people have different opinions on happiness. Money is the key to happiness for one person and it is love that can bring happiness for the other? This happens because happiness is differently meant for different people but in the end it all comes down to what the person loves. May be the key to happiness is knowing that we won’t be happy all the time, and being OK with that. However, living only by the emotions can place us on a shaky foundation. To separate the feelings and the facts is important.
So, eventually we can say that finding absolute happiness is really like an impossible task for an individual at least. Because, whenever we try to remain happy, some uncontrolled emotions divert us. Let’s take an example of demise of our loving one, that will definitely derail our state of mind but still a person with strong desire can come on the track at the earliest by separating feelings and facts. Happiness does not mean laughing or smiling all the time. As per my understanding happiness is something when we attain the state of mind that helps us to keep all the time on the road of positivity and satisfaction.
What I have found that, we can remain happy or can achieve that state of mind by putting some positive efforts in our life:
- To stay happy, we need to stop focusing on the things that We don’t have, on the other hand we can say that we should focus positively on what we want to achieve
- To be happy, we need to calm our mind. Even it’s easy to say but difficult to apply, but we need to train our brain to achieve that state of mind. That training can be done by yoga or meditation
- Happiness can be achieved by living in the present moment, or by having optimistic mindset for the future endeavors.
- Society of people who have positive mental attitude can help us to stay positive in all the situations, so we need to be choosy to keep our loop positive.
- We can always shift our mind to find the solutions in spite of always having the pain of problems.
- By controlling our emotions we can control our anger also,that will definitely help to achieve happiness upto some extent.
- A positive vibration will always help us if we have tendency to keep ourselves happy.
- Be in touch with almighty always to be optimist or happy if you are a theist.
Have a happy journey to absolute happiness!
