What is the Key to Happiness?

People have searched and searched for generations and are still searching for that one thing that will change their lives and make them eternally happy. Is eternal happiness really possible?

Can a person be happy at all times? Is a person supposed to be happy at all times? What do we want to feel at all times? Is it practically possible to be at your emotional best at all times? Or is the new best going to be a new emotional low? Is there a pattern? Perhaps a certain flow in which our emotions rise and fall like the seasons? As human beings we don’t have our own feelings in sync with what we do in our lives. Some people say,

“I just want to be happy” or “I will be truly happy when ……”

What defines true happiness? And for how long can you actually stay happy at a stretch, without medicating yourself with drugs of course. Is it truly just materialistic, or is it being around the ones you love, or is it just entirely subjective?

The human brain has been programmed in such a complex manner for centuries, we don’t seem to have a generalized recipe for eternal happiness. So searching for happiness will never work. You need to put together one. Happiness is customizable. Because the world is a too chaotic a place to put happiness together for you. That is something you have to do something in the beginning.

Yep. You cannot keep happiness as an end product, like a trailing emotion behind all your needs and wants. If you do that you will never be happy. And you will regret living a miserable life on your deathbed.

You have to learn to be happy first.

If you still have no clue where to start, Here are some pointers.

Progress=Happiness.

You are truly happy as a human being when you progress in life. In whatever you are doing. There should be no point in your life where you should just be stagnant . Your stagnation will result in you soon feeling lost or stuck. Progress along the lines that you feel like you should be moving.

Just Move.

If you want to get fit, move. If you want to read, move. make movement. Catch some momentum. Mentally or physically. If you sit there and watch the world go by, you will lose out on life. You will lose out on your happiness. Turn your wants into movement. And keep consistency. Your mind will be at peace once you have no things that you will be “wanting” to do, as you would already be doing them.

Acceptance of Reality

Start of by telling yourself that life sucks. Sounds depressing. I know, but telling yourself and accepting that everything is a mess puts you in a place from where there is nowhere to look but up. If you try to make the world perfect, which it isn’t, you will disappoint yourself.

A billion people around you, everyone thinking about themselves, acting in accordance to their selfish interests, there are ought to be clashes, there are ought to be fights, quarrels, riots and wars. There will always be things that would be out of your control, no matter how much power and prestige you have or desire to have someday in order to control it. That doesn’t mean you just sit there and don’t attempt to change something that’s wrong with the world.

The point with acceptance is to acknowledge that something is broken first, and then proceed on to fixing it or not. The latter part is totally up to you. But the day you accept it and make it a part of life, you will be happy. At least at peace if not happy.

Gratitude

Its an old saying. “Count your blessings.”

Everyone feels that their problems are the most severe, important and to be dealt with first. Whether it’s their morning cappuccino, or their promotion in their office, they feel entitled to be first in line to be served ahead of everyone else, because of some xyz reason. Feeling entitled and saying “I want this” or “I don’t have this” is simple. But you must first acknowledge of all that you do have, whatever it is. A simple act of expressing gratitude everyday or momentarily makes you intrinsically happy, and it sets you on a path of achieving everything else with a smile on your face. It helps you in enjoying a rough ride. Just knowing that what you already have is valuable and you are fortunate to begin with, sets you on a path full of optimism.

“I cried because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet” — Helen Keller

Happiness is right there, if you know how to put yours together, it will always be there, no matter what you face.