The pursuit of happiness

I guess most of us don’t think what is happiness?. We know the feeling when it comes along, it feels comfortable, its described as joyous, contentment a feeling of gratitude, but what is happiness?

According to the definition in the Vocabulary dictionary -

Happiness is a sense of well-being, joy, or contentment. When people are successful, or safe, or lucky, they feel happiness.

The "pursuit of happiness" is something this country is based on, and different people feel happiness for different reasons. Whenever doing something causes happiness, people usually want to do more of it. No one ever complained about feeling too much happiness.

So we know what happiness is, the definition of it, we know it when we feel it, but how do we get it?

I hear often, weekly, I am not happy. I don’t like this and that, Im struggling with myself, my energy is not where I want it to be and this is making me feel, UN-HAPPY.

So what makes some people happy and others not.? Listening to a podcast from Gelong Thubten, a British Tibetan Monk, he says that happiness is a learnt behavior and something that you need to work on.. He advocates, as do I actually that happiness comes from compassion and meditating on compassion is a great road to feeling happy and content.

People often talk about day-to-day happiness like it’s just a state of existence that lands on you. As if it’s just how you feel and there’s nothing you can do about it. Or that some people are just optimistic and that’s all there is to it.
According to Tom Bilyeu from the Impact theory, happiness is neuro-chemistry.

He has this to say -

The first thing to notice about the neuro-chemistry of happiness is that mirror neurons matter. A lot. If someone smiles at you, you are wired to respond. Most of the time, receiving a smile boosts happiness. And it encourages you to smile back.

So that’s the first tactic to being happier. Smile at other people and they will often smile back. Those mirror neurons firing in tandem will make both of you just a little bit happier.

The next tactic is to change your posture and breathe more deeply. Your posture affects your brain and vice versa. Good posture brings more energy, better balance, less stress and less fatigue. Breathing deeply triggers the body’s automatic repair response, and you can often actually feel your negative thoughts or emotions weaken and dissipate.

Everything looks better when you stand up straight.

Another tactic that works surprisingly well is just to laugh out loud for seven to ten seconds. Now, this may require some privacy. And it may be that you’ll need to watch a comedy or do something else to spur the laughter. But the mere physical release from laughing has a powerful mood-altering quality, and of course, laughter sends signals to the brain to release stress.

Finally, here’s one tactic that doesn’t get enough notice. Find something that absolutely fascinates you.

Kids are often really good at this. Adults, unfortunately, seem to sometimes forget how to do it. But there is nothing that improves mood like getting lost in awe and wonder. Curiosity is a great driver of big goals like success and learning, but it is also a large part of basic well-being.

The next time you are really stressed about a project or a social gathering, find something about the people or work involved that just completely fascinates you. Give yourself permission to delve into it, like you would have done when you were seven years old. You might be surprised at how much of a difference that childlike sense of discovery can make.

Namaste Yogis and Wellness advocates

Amber

“For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.”

― Ralph Waldo Emerson