Happiness is the ultimate goal of every living being.
This happiness can be defined in short as a feeling of well-being without any major painful conditions in life.
A person would not be happy if he has a long-term disease, poverty, lack of knowledge, lack of respect, lack of luxury, lack of family, and many more issues.
Some people can be happy with the presence of only a few things like good health and little responsibilities in life.
But on the other hand, many of us believe we can be happy if we have all the possible luxuries, people support, good health, and a huge amount of wealth.
And in thinking so many of us strive to achieve these by handwork. We spend our valuable lifespans to get these commodities.
But we do not find happiness. So what is needed to be happy
1. Be satisfied with what you have
2. Lead a spiritual life
3. Work with a service attitude
4. Maintain healthy relations
5. Eat sensibly
6. Practice meditation and yoga
7. Do not take up beyond your ability
8. Watch out for stressors
9. Have a good company of friends or family
10. Live natural and environmentally friendly.
The desire for happiness is natural and seems to have existed since man was present on the earth.
Even many thinkers suggested spirituality and social service as a way for happiness.
I do agree these are the best sources of happiness. But still, many of us do not follow these paths and take up wealth as the main route for happiness.
The problem is we are unable to distinguish the difference between luxury and happiness.
Secondly, we are always carried away by others. If some person appears to be happy because he has achieved some position or wealth, we think that achievement is responsible for his happiness.
But we do not see the handwork and pain involved in that achievement. Besides, we also forget that he has to work all his remaining life to keep up that achievement or wealth.
In doing so, he is mentally insecure due to the probability of failure and puts his efforts daily to keep that achievement.
So in doing so, he is unhappy. Then that person would search for happiness outside.
He tries to listen to others or get habituated to abuse substances like drugs, alcohol, etc.
But as per some spiritual teachings, the actual cause of unhappiness is desire.
The desire for something will lead to sorrow, disease, and even destruction.
This may seem to be boring to listen to and understand too many.
However, that one thing called desire is the root cause of poverty, disease, environmental destruction, social violence, etc.
So how to find happiness in life?
1. Be satisfied with what you have
Every one of us has something to be proud of in life. Thinking of that valuable thing with pride gives you happiness and also satisfaction.
This makes you think better and work for betterment. For this, I will give examples of two people and their thought processes.
One person has been born to parents with minimal lifestyle.
But, when questioned about his prospects, he says, ” I am thankful to my parents for giving me a healthy body and mind without diseases.
This is enough for me to grow up and prosper in life”.
To the other person who has been given a good education, property, and sufficient money by his parents, when asked about his prospects, he says, ” if my father were in a high profile position, it would have been easy for me to grow to a higher position in life.
Since he is not, I am unlucky and find it hard to grow up in life.”
Now seeing the two, whom do you think is happy and would work with life satisfaction — the first one with meager resources.
So, being satisfied with what you have would make you happy and give you contentment in life.
2. Lead a spiritual life
Many times we might have heard about religion or spiritual growth.
Both are different, but one would finally fall into spirituality when they take them up.
Spiritual life is present in human life since historic times.
Even great kings, rich businessmen, famous scientists value spiritual life as the highest form of life.
This is because a person with spiritual life would have the least resources and worries, yet he is very happy and satisfied in life.
He is not in fear of losing something or even afraid of death.
For me, the true essence of human life is to approach God or get enlightenment.
But there is a catch here. Not everyone can become spiritual, and also, among those who are spiritual, very few can achieve their goals.
But, one thing is certain that these spiritual people or those in a company of spiritual people would be very happy and satisfied.
3. Work with a service attitude
As per Shri Bhagavat Gita, a person is duty-bound to work but has no right and control over work output.
So one should be least concerned with the outcome of his duty.
These lines tend to be hard to digest, but it is true to the core.
If we work with expectation, it always leads to sorrow as the results could be unfavorable.
Even if you get an expected result, it will still not be complete or be short-lived.
So, it is better to put our sincere efforts into our work but leave the results to destiny or god.
4. Maintain healthy relations
Healthy relationships are one of the vital factors for happiness. The sense of happiness affects the heart and mind to a large extent.
It is found that those people who do not have good relations with others tend to have heart ailments.
Even you can notice, when you are happy with everyone around you, you will be healthy and least stressed.
But, if you are having personal problems even with one person in the office, you will be under stress.
So, to be happy, it is important to have good relationships with neighbors, colleagues, and even family members.
Having a smile on the face and speaking with care can avoid most of the relationship issues.
5. Eat sensibly and the right food.
Food is a vital need, and it can keep you healthy and happy if taken sensibly.
But many times, we tend to either neglect it or eat whatever comes in the way.
This will not have immediate effects, but it would lead to diseases, obesity, and a short life span in the long run.
Even the discomfort in the belly can affect your mind when you eat the wrong foods.
As per Shri Bhagavad Gita, there are three types of foods like
a) Satva b) Rajo and c) Tamo.
Satva food is simple, pleasant, and also easy to digest. They keep your mind and body happy.
These foods include fruits, milk, curd, cereals, and other vegetarian diets with less spice.
Rajo foods are those having high amounts of spice, and when taken, they can excite your mind, disturb it or even irritate it.
These include food like a non-vegetarian diet, spicy burgers, pizzas, fried foods, etc.
They make you agitated, restless, and short-tempered.
Tamo foods make you lazy, sober and addicted. The foods could be rotten ones like the wines, stored foods, etc.
Eating them will make you undisciplined, careless to work, or have other vital issues. Your mind would be inactive and less enthusiastic.
6. Practice meditation and yoga
Yoga and meditation are gaining popularity recently.
They were the essential practices of monks and saints of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, etc.
These practices tune the mind, heart, and body. They improve the health and thinking process and remove negative aspects like irritability, short-tempered behavior, etc.
They also imbibe in you the presence of mind and devotion to work and society.
So, practicing yoga and meditation would remove worries and keep you happy.
7. Do not take up beyond your ability
This is a mistake many of us do during childhood or teenage. With growing age, we tend to avoid this.
Here we tend to take up the tasks beyond our capacity.
By this, I don’t mean you should not take few risks in your career, but what it means is, out of excitement, we take up few tasks though we are suitable to them mentally and also physically.
Taking such tasks will add a toll on our body and mind, and sometimes, we cannot easily recover from it.
So, it is important to be careful while we decide our career or life in terms of our ability.
8. Watch out for stressors
There are many stressors in life, like spending whole nights over the internet, television, drugs, etc.
These can be even simple, like long drives, long work hours, night shifts, etc.
These stressors would affect our mind and body over a period leading to unhappiness.
Sometimes it would be too late to correct the mistake. So, always be careful with routine stressors.
9. Have a good company of friends or family
Having friends and family is always helpful to take the right path in life and also overcome stress.
Whenever you are in a problem, this company helps you overcome it by giving suggestions and support.
And of course, you could ask me what if I don’t have family or friends.
Then it would help if you remembered that you are never alone, and your creator or almighty is always with you.
You can ask him for support with sincere prayer, and you will be given the help. Try out once.
10. Live natural and environmentally friendly.
We have become addicted to technology and scientific innovations. One cannot live without electricity, mobile, automobiles, etc.
But still being with them has some disadvantages besides the benefits. If you can notice them, then you can see real happiness in life.
Try to see the sky at night from places where there is no light. You will feel the brightness of the moon and stars, which can give an immense sense of peace.
Try to walk barefoot in a garden, farmland, or even road. You will feel the difference of touch sensation in your feet.
Spend time with animals like pets, cattle; you will notice that they are never under unnecessary stress.
They sleep, eat, drink when they like. Doing so, they have a valuable thing called health and peace. Seeing them, even your mind would resonate with peace.
Remember, all of our minds resonate with the ones around us.
If you are in a stadium watching a high voltage match, it would be impossible for you to sit quietly because your mind resonates with the thousands of others there.
Similarly, your mind resonates with nature and its beauty. Protecting nature by minimizing the misuse of water, electricity, pollutions would give you happiness.
Do you have any other points on how to find happiness in life? Please leave them in the comments below.
Good luck.