8 KEYS TO A HAPPY LIFE

By: Princy Narang

Engaginglifethoughts.blogspot.com

In this fast moving world everyone wants to be happy but they hardly do anything to achieve happiness. Majority of population feel that only success can give them happiness and if this is true then every successful person will be happy. But that’s not exactly the case. In the society you can see even many rich and successful person are not happy rather they suffer from stress and depression.

This means happiness and success are two different things. Success can give temporary happiness but not ultimate satisfaction. Then the question arises how you can be happy? Let us see what the "keys" to happiness are:

1. CHOOSE TO BE HAPPY

You must understand that Happiness is a choice. To be happy, the first and the foremost step is to inculcate the fact that in order to be happy you must choose to be happy. However there will be stress, work and difficulties in life but it’s your own choice to be happy in each and every situation and in any state of mind. You need to imbibe the fact that you are in-charge of your own happiness i.e. happiness comes from within. Only you can make yourself happy, as happiness lies in you and in your thinking and not with others.

2. DEVELOP THE ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE

Majority of people have a habit of complaining about a lot of things which they are devoid of but they never spend the same amount of time, in being thankful for the things they have. All this leads to unhappiness and discontentment.

So in order to be happy you should always be thankful for what all you have rather than thinking about what you don’t and also avoid comparing yourself with others. When you become grateful for what all you have achieved, you attain the feeling of satisfaction and content which in-turn leads to ultimate happy state of mind.

3. HAVING A POSITIVE OUTLOOK

Try draining out all the negative thoughts and negative attitude and cultivate positive attitude in yourself. This helps in looking at the brighter side of life and will in-turn make you feel stress free and calm. This will further help you in appreciating life in a much better way and thus leading to eternal happiness. Also to understand it better, there’s a famous quote by Marcus Aurelius, “The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”

4. LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT YOUR LIFE

Love is most important force that leads to happiness. Remove all the grudges, complaints, resentments in life i.e. forgive and forget the past happenings and try to love yourself and also love each and every moment of your life and it will help you in attaining the feeling of happiness and goodness about what you are and what you have.

5. BE KIND TO OTHERS

Always do good to others in any manner possible be it physical, emotional or financial. Helping and being kind to others in need makes you feel good and improves your self esteem and thus in-turn makes you happy and loved too.

Even Dalai Lama has said that, “Our prime purpose in life is to help others and if you can’t help them at least don’t hurt them.”

So fulfilling the main purpose of our life is to help and being kind to everyone and not expecting anything in return. This makes you satisfied and happy.

6. APPRECIATE LITTLE THINGS

Love and enjoy even the smaller things in your life because even those can give you great sense of happiness and all these small things when clubbed together will create a sense of overall wellbeing.

7. SOCIALISE WITH HAPPY AND POSITIVE PEOPLE

Happiness is contagious thus being with happy people will make you happy too. Avoid spending time with those who are dissatisfied and full of stress and misery.         

Being in company of energetic, positive and happy people will help you to smoothly swim in the direction of happiness and will push you further to achieve ultimate state of well-being.

8. PRACTICE MINDFULNESS

Mindfulness is a state of mind which will help you focus only on the present and frees you from thinking about past and worries about future and it can be achieved by the way of meditation. It will further help you in comprehending what’s going on inside you and around you without being judgemental.

It helps in reducing everyday stress, negativity and will further enable you to focus only on good things within you and around you. By regularly practicing mindfulness will elevate your mood, make you happy and will lead to improved overall quality of life.

Thus in the end I would say that happiness is just a way of living and if you want to lead a happier and better life then you need to believe that you are creators of your own happiness and making little changes in your daily activities can make a huge difference. Also remember that happy people may not have the best but they are capable of making best of everything.

In last I wish a happy and improved life for all.