Posted By: Nichol Chukwuemeka
“The greatest part of our happiness depends on our dispositions, not our
circumstances.”
Happiness is achievable, but it entails some effort and the right attitude. We must have the proper attitude and outlook
in life to be able to focus and condition ourselves on being happy in all the challenges we face.
How To Increase The Level Of Happiness
Between our physical and
mental being, the mind has the greater influence for most of us. The
body, once it is well-taken
care of and sustained with basic necessities
in life, can easily function. However, the mind automatically records
every event,
no matter how trivial. Therefore, we must be
on guard with what is recorded in our mind because it can have an effect
on our
levels of happiness.
Marcus Aurelius cautions us,
"The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts:
therefore, guard accordingly,
and take care that you entertain no notions
unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature."
Inner peace greatly comes
from having love and compassion in our life. The more we feel loved and
the more we care for the
happiness of others, the greater is our own
sense of well-being. We have peace of mind if we do not have enemies.
This helps
remove our fears and insecurities, and gives
us the strength to cope with any obstacles we may encounter.
As long as we live in this
world, we are bound to encounter problems. After all, the world is not
“perfect.” If we just stop
to demand or expect things to be perfect,
then being happy may become easier. If, at times, we lose hope and
become discouraged,
we should remember that there is an
opportunity present in the problem. We only have to search for it.
Being realistic increases
our capacity to overcome troubles. With this kind of attitude, each new
obstacle can be seen as
another opportunity for improvement. Let us
cite one example: Two men have just lost their jobs. Instead of feeling
sorry
for himself, Mr. A. decides to take it as an
opportunity to explore new things and find a better job. Mr. B., also
facing
the same circumstances, decides to jump off a
twenty-storey building to end it all!
Here we see how two persons
react differently under the same situation. It only means that only we
can decide on how to react
to every event that happens in our lives.
Being happy is not always easy. It can be one of the greatest challenges
we have
to face in life, since it requires all the
determination, persistence, and self-discipline that we can gather. It
also takes
a lot of maturity to be able to take
responsibility in choosing to focus on what we have, rather than on what
we do not have.
As long as we
impractically yearn for much more than what we have, in terms of wealth
or luxury, we will be unhappy.
This is different from having a passion or
desire and being motivated to reach it, wherein we are excited or
thrilled in our
journey to attain it.
Some people feel they do not have enough. How much is enough?
For most of us, enough is a
little more than what we have. We often get envious of what our richer
neighbors have. Sometimes,
we fail to realize how lucky we are, compared
to those who are less fortunate. An increase in wealth does not
guarantee happiness.
It is obvious that happiness
does not come from material things that we focus on everyday. To
discover the secret to achieving
contentment and happiness is to know how to
enjoy what you have and manage the desire for things currently beyond
our reach.
