As Mary Stuart said,
“To be kind to all, to like many and love a few, to be needed and wanted by
those we love, is certainly the nearest we can come to happiness.”
But what is happiness?
Happiness is an emotional state of well-being defined by pleasurable emotions associated with contentment, good spirits, lightheartedness and joyfulness. Simply put, happiness is the state of being happy.
Happiness is that feeling that comes over when you know life is good – that what you think, what you say and do are in sync with each other. It is a feeling that once you had it, you can’t help it but smile.
When people are successful, feel loved, or safe, or lucky, they feel happiness. However, success is not really the key to happiness but the other way around. It should be happiness is the key to ones success. Success is not easy to have, one really needs to go through a process to have it. But one thing for sure,if you are happy and love what you are doing, you will be successful.
Happiness really depends upon ourselves. It is not something that we can buy in the stores and not sort of ready-made things. It comes as a result of our actions. Our actions determine which course we’re heading, either to the happy road or totally to the opposite road.
Being happy doesn’t mean everything is perfect but it means you’ve decided to look beyond the imperfections. Happiness is acceptance. It is an art of learning how to bear what we cannot change! It is the art of never living on the past and not holding any memory of the unpleasant things that has passed. Happiness is the art of letting go.
And where this thing called Happiness come from?
Yes, one can be happy by their achievements in life, earning a fortune, being famous, having the things that they don’t have. People are often told that these are the things that contributes to happiness. That is why people leaned on to work and push harder to achieve more because we are given the impression that these are the things that we need to go after in order to have a good life. But these are just relative things that contributes happiness.
According to the study conducted at Harvard, wealth, fame, working harder and harder for more achievements are not really the source of true happiness.
The study shows that Happiness comes from one thing and it’s from good close relationships.
According to the study, good close relationships keep us happier and healthier with the following lessons:
1. Social connections is good for us and that loneliness kills.
People who are more socially connected to family, friends, to community are happier, physically healthier and lived longer.
2. Its not the number of friends you have or family members you have, but it’s in the quality of relationship that you have.
3.Good relationships don’t just protect our bodies but also our brains. Good close relationship is good for our health and well-being. It will help our brains stay sharp.
For most of our life, nothing wonderful happens. If we don’t enjoy getting up and working and finishing your work and sitting down to a meal with family or friends, then the chances are we’re not going to be very happy. If we based our happiness on major events like great achievements, having a fortune, trip to the world, it’s not a guarantee that we’re going to be happy much of the time. Moreover, if, on the other hand, happiness depends on a good breakfast, flowers in the yard, a drink or a nap, night walk, dinner with family or friends, etc then we are more likely to live with quite a bit of happiness.
I believe compassion is one of the few things that we can practice that will bring immediate and long-term happiness to our lives. And even if happiness doesn’t last forever, it doesn’t mean it’s not worth our while.
And we should always remember that good life is built with good relationships wherein someone accepts our past, supports our present and encourages our future.
Tell me how you define happiness and where it came from in your perspective by leaving your thoughts in the comment box below.