I choose to be Happy Today- Happiness

What exactly is happiness? Has anyone given it a thought? Just for one moment sit back while reading this article, think and try to define this very popular concept known as happiness. I am sure you may have come up with a lot of ideas. When i think about happiness what comes to my mind is good grades in college and a high paying job in my future. What comes to your mind? Happiness is very subjective it means different things to different people. When i asked my parents what happiness meant to them my mom said a healthy life for her daughters and her husband, for my dad it was being able to support my family throughout and being able to fulfil all our wishes. For some happiness is money, for others it may be good health. Think of a poor kid on the streets, for him getting a packet of chips or a chocolate on a day, or for a poor family sitting on the streets getting a good meal a day may be happiness and for an animal being able to roam around freely in the wild may mean happiness. Thus It varies from person to person. Happiness may also vary as we grow. In childhood getting gifts and chocolates meant happiness, during college-grades and co-curriculars, during early adulthood- a good job, after marriage a happy family and during old age being free of diseases and self actualisation may mean happiness.

How do you then think a person may become happy? I believe the following may make people really happy and these are easy thing which we can adopt in our day to day lives and see whether we feel happy or not:

• Helping others: Going out on a hot summer afternoon with juices and water bottles to give to the beggars on the streets may really make you happy. Also not only helping a poor person but also your friend who may need your help, helping them to solve the situation may bring a lot of happiness to, a sense of satisfaction.
• Paying Gratitude: As part of my psychology practical, i did a study to see the effects of gratitude on happiness. The participants were asked to write a thank you note to one person they feel gratitude for. After the activity we found a substantial increase in happiness levels of people when measured using a psychological instrument. Most people stated that they wanted to thank the other person but couldn’t do so as it never occurred to them but after writing that thank you note they felt this unusual happiness.
• Think positive: This according to me is one of the most important thing that leads to happiness. Thinking positive and seeing the bright side of the stressful situation in hand may actually lower down the stress levels and you may be able to solve the problem more easily.It will also lead to increased amounts of happiness. Not putting much thought into what went wrong and thinking more about how you can learn from it, and not thinking too much about future or past and living in the moment may lead to happiness.

Effects of Happiness:

Happiness has a number of positive effects on our lives to which we never put a thought to. Happiness has been linked with greater life satisfaction, psychological and physical well-being, increased longevity and freedom from illness. At school and workplaces it is associated with reduced stress and improved performance.

Guys please be happy as much as you can 🙂

At last i would like to conclude by quoting Jacques Prévert who says

“Even if happiness forgets you a little bit, never completely forget about it.”

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