Each week from tomorrow I shall share with you the seven phases.
I have often asked myself this on many occasions but more so over the last year or so… Have you ever questioned what happiness is? Finally realising that when I dug deep enough it was then that I realised that the core of my health was happiness within. This is when I decided to take the leap into the unknown, resigning from a full-time job to pursue my career as a Performance Life Coach and NLP Practitioner.
What is happiness exactly?
Happiness has lots of definitions… I’d like to invite you to take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle. One side write what is happiness and on the other what happiness isn’t. Take some time to dig deep into your heart and mind. I would really love it if you would share this- posting a photo of your list or writing it in the comments.
In the dictionary the definition is around the “the state of being happy”, with being happy: “feeling or showing pleasure or contentment”, but obviously each of us has a different way to get pleasure. For me, I think this quote by Charles Sprugeon gives a good definition
“It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy and feel that happiness within.”
Happiness is a journey not a destination.In fact, the happiest people don’t have the best of everything, they just make the best of everything.I then ask: Why some people are happy all the time?My answer to this is that happy people focus on what they have when unhappy people focus on what is missing- what they don’t have. The more we focus on the positives the happier one will be. I have made a huge shift (and continue to do so) in focusing on what I have and how much happiness it has given me.
Another thought!!!Ever met happy people who are constantly happy? I know that I have, and it has made me wonder even more why?I clearly remember, when I was still struggling to be and feel happier, and I was meeting happy people you could tell from miles off that they were really happy. They would have this positive presence, energy glowing out of them that would light up the room, a really huge smile on their face, always in a good mood and ready to laugh at anything- not taking anything personally. These are the types of people I love to surround myself with and even more so now I realise that I am attracted to these types of people. Happiness is contagious.
Are we born as happy people?
I used to ask myself this question often, if people were born happy; soon I realized that this can be true that some people might be “born” happy. It’s very important the environment we live in during the first years of our life. Our family, our teachers, our first friends play an important part in our growth. As you know, when we are children we are sponges that can absorb. We start understanding what is right and wrong, we start creating our values and beliefs and even unfortunately limiting beliefs. Beliefs can be altered just like happiness. Beliefs are not always really true however, we don’t know that because they are just presented to us as true unless we begin to question these beliefs. In essence if we were lucky to be born in a nurturing and safe environment, with happy people around who supported us, stimulated us and taught us the importance of some good values, we are more likely to have a positivelife and be much happier. However,if were born into a distressed environment, it’s more likely our life is not going to be an easy one unless we do something about it. We can’t choose where to be born but we can sure change the way we think, feel and plan out the journey of happiness we want. We all have the opportunities in some form or another to take charge of our life and to follow the path of happiness. There is always a lesson to be learnt. Isn’t it true that we have learnt a lot of things, walking, talking, writing, etc, so if we are not happy why not learn how to be Happy? I did, and I can’t see any reasons why you can’t do it!
If you are not happy with your life, you need to make some changes, you can’t keep doing the same thing and expect different results.The most important thing is to learn not to dwell on problems, so we can spend most of the time with a happy state of mind. Yes, we are going to confronted with problems in our lives. On the other hand, you can fight the unhappiness. If life is full of habits, then why can’t you make Happiness one of those habits?
As promised, over the next few weeks, I shall share with you my seven phases to happiness my personal experiences that I took to feel and be happy. Like with anything you must be prepared to take action, take charge of your own life, and stop blaming others for your unhappiness, as you are the only one in control and responsible of your life’s path of happiness.
Join me next week for Phase one article on- Happiness is a choice.
