Happiness is a great goal to have, and it’s something you’ll need to work toward every day. Being happy isn’t something you achieve and then hold onto — it’s a series of decisions that you make every day. Start by cultivating positivity in your life and living your life in a way that feels right to you. Additionally, spend time with positive people, connect with others, and support a healthy body and mind. However, keep in mind that mental illnesses like depression can make it hard to be happy without treatment from a mental health provider. The most sustainable form of happiness is creating a meaningful life. Take the time to understand your life’s purpose or move toward that if you don’t know what it is. Your values and your strengths are a good guide toward figuring out your life’s purpose.
- Create a positive mindset
- Replace Negative Thoughts with Positive Self-Talk
- Compliment Yourself atleast once in a day
- Stop comparing yourself to others
- Look for something positive when you are facing an obstacle
- Use mindfulness to help you focus on the present
Comparison kills happiness, says Tibetan Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard, often described — much to his embarrassment — as the world’s happiest person. The French renunciate and environmentalist, who lives in a monastery in Nepal, is articulate and talks a great deal about what could bring us happiness. Mostly, according to him, it is benevolence and altruism. Once you practise these regularly, you are bound to get that happy feeling that lasts so long as you practise kindness and selflessness.But once you start engaging in comparisons with others, you’ve had it, according to him.
That makes sense, since it has also been said that the intensity and nature of what you feel, think and experience, are all really relative. These are subjective states and so are bound to change when you try to measure yourself against the achievements and failures of others.
Once you wrap your head around basic values and attributes like empathy, compassion and being helpful, there are less chances of feeling low and sad. Selfish people are seldom happy, whereas those who are giving and caring, always extending themselves, are usually of a happy disposition and less likely to indulge in negative thoughts and feelings. Also, when kindness is extended to other species, including to crops and vegetables, it is bound to yield a harvest rich in goodness, which is what we seek all our lives.
Excerpts from the “The Speaking Tree” article in the Times of India newspaper
Creative Comma Positive Turns 