Find Your Happiness
What is your definition of happiness? Are you mindful? Do you focus on the past and the future more than enjoying the present moment? Do you feel happiness is dependent on material wealth and the utilization of new technology? If you said, “yes” to any of the above, you need to keep reading.
Personally I feel we are responsible for our own happiness and need to set our happiness as a goal for ourselves, but it tends to be pushed aside by other obligations. Most of us don’t take the time to realize that some of the smallest things in life can create great happiness. We seem burdened with a need to always want more, find lusher land, higher buildings, and greater wealth. American happiness is hardly ever about savor-the-moment contentment.
Remember, after my car accident, I had to rebuild my life from the bottom up. I could no longer take anything for granted and I had a new perspective from which to see the world. Neil Pasricha, author of The Book of Awesome, celebrates the perks of everyday life. It is really a wonderful world if you take the time to look and smell the “roses”.
Part of the solution may be to understand the workings of our brain. Earlier this year, leading neuroscientist Sylvia Morelli of Stanford University said, “Being distracted reduces our empathy for others and blunts responses in the brain.” I think that we have so much going on in the world around us, that one is unable to slow down and find joy in small things; the same small things that used to bring us great happiness.
It was possible for our ancestors to be happy on the prairie, so it ought to be possible for us to be happy in our jobs, our families, and our communities. We've got all the toys; now we need to take pleasure in the pursuit, the drive to find happiness.
The Zen teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh is referred to as the most beloved Buddhist teacher in the West. He lives every moment peacefully in the present moment and he says that “mindfulness” is at the heart of Buddha's teaching. To be “mindful” is to be fully present, not lost in daydreams, anticipation of what is coming, or worry what may not be coming. It means being attentive to everything as-it-is, not looking at it filtered through our subjective beliefs. In the rush of modern life, we tend to lose touch with a peace that is available in each moment.
I try to stay mindful of the obsession that is growing in this country to stay connected with everyone all of the time. Psychiatrist Mihaly Csiksczentmihalyi PhD, has found that knitting a scarf might be the secret to happiness. His research shows that immersing oneself in an activity that you find pleasurable can increase neurochemical dopamine, which increases your focus. This reaction is very beneficial for someone who is competitive, and wants to stay the course. I have realized that when I begin to run on overdrive, I become numb to the beauty and happiness around me. How do we successfully manage obligations to others and to ourselves as well?
What do you think? Can technology make you happier? Do we, in trying to capture “happiness moments” to immediately post on a social media sites for friends to see, miss something of the moment, for ourselves?
What is your opinion? Take a minute and examine your own life. If asked, can you honestly say what makes you happy and then remember when that something actually happened. When you say, “I love “sunrises”, can you actually see the colors in your mind and feel the happiness that the beauty gives?
I can not give you the answer on how to find happiness but, if you write me to tell me how you manage to balance day-to-day details and still find time to generate a little happiness in your life, I will share your thoughts with my readers.
Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life
by Thich Nhat Hanh
The Book of Awesome
By Neil Paricha
