The pursuit of happiness is one of our inalienable rights. We all desire happiness - and most of our habits, whether healthy or unhealthy, are our pursuit of it in action.
What Exactly is Happiness?
1. Happiness is a feeling.
A sense of lightness in body and mind. A tendency to giggle. A severe case of perma-smile.
No matter what’s going on around you, you’re okay. You got this.
2. Happiness is a cycle.
You are happiest when you don’t even realize it.
- You’re too busy being happy to notice how happy you are.
- Then you become aware of your happiness which shifts you into evaluation or judgment mode.
- Or something happens to change your mood which makes you want to be happy again.
So you choose to be happy again, to do things to bring that good feeling back. You get so involved in feeling good, you don’t notice that you don’t feel unhappy any longer.
3. Happiness is a choice.
A million things can happen in your life. Some of them you’ll like. Some you won’t.
That’s okay. You could spend time bemoaning your fate or getting a case of the “why me’s”.
You choose to be happy, though, because you understand that everything is temporary. Hard times are the fertilizer for a garden of goodness.
4. Happiness is an act of courage.
- Happy people let other people own their unhappiness without taking it on themselves.
- Happy people stand strong in defiance of circumstance and manipulation.
- Happy people acknowledge what is wrong and have the power to respond from an inner wellspring of security.
- Happy people know they can’t make someone else happy, but they can show them how.
5. Happiness is hard work.
We are meant to live a spectrum of emotion, just like a rainbow is a spectrum of light.
Just like we can’t take one color out of a rainbow, we can’t eliminate uncomfortable emotions and be complete. When we feel uncomfortable it’s important to recognize the emotion and feel it... without getting stuck in it.
So How Do You Go from Hurt to Happy?
The beauty of happiness is that it doesn’t just pounce on us unexpectedly. Happiness is a state of mind we can create intentionally.
The most important step is simply to choose it.
I know what you’re thinking but it’s true! Deliberately choosing happiness puts you in control of your emotions.
There are simple habits that help prime you for good feelings and make them your natural state.
- Getting enough good quality sleep.
- A healthy diet.
- Regular exercise that you enjoy.
These all help your body and mind to be more receptive to good stuff and innoculate against negativity.
Our hypnosis audio can also help you choose to be happy. Try it now.
Play and laughter isn’t just kid stuff, adults need to have fun too. As we grow up and get more responsible we are exposed to the pressures of work, bills and more complicated relationships.
Making time to play - to have unproductive fun, be silly and to laugh refreshes body and soul.
Laugh more. Laughter, whether it’s spontaneous or forced, feels good and refreshes our state of mind.
When things don’t go our way, by a little or by a lot, sometimes the only thing we can control is how to respond. While it's difficult to remain happy throughout every trial, we can always find moments of joy and happiness and be all the stronger for them.