Happiness should we look for it or can we experience it
By: Diepak Paul
Tags: Life Lessons, Feelings, Self Improvement, Happiness

Happiness should we look for it or can we experience it

Photo by KAL VISUALS on Unsplash

The dog is happy the man trying to reach it

Happiness is an emotion that most of us want to master, but most do not even reach near it. Here we will try to understand what it is, how to be happy, and why it is important for our fulfilling living. I am no expert but have been attempting to learn and understand. Here my thought tells me to remember the little moments and the large stretches when I felt it in my being. I remember I had it as a physically disabled child sometimes. I have had it during my grown-up life. It was there when I went to college, started to work. Has remained with me after being incapacitated thrice during the last twenty-four years. During my living years learned from hearing, reading, and trying to understand it. It is embedded in our being. Let us explore.

What if Happiness

Happiness remains present in our life throughout our existence. It is an emotion that varies from a

quiet contentment,

a smile,

ecstatic jump,

to finally the joy or bliss where our fulfilled self has no more to ask.

My first lesson was from the Indian ethos, where I heard the concept of the Soul.

Happiness is one of the seven inbuilt traits of the Soul. That told me it existed inside of all of us. When high school ended, I came to the city of New Delhi to pursue further education. My parents came with me. They thought I might need support in the town, having grown up in a small town. I was physically not perfect and only traveled when required. That gave me time to read, observe, and understand. I found happy and unhappy people in the town where I grew up and the city, which had more people, much more to see and achieve. There were sad people, maybe more than my little town. The questions of what Happiness was and made only some happy others remained unhappy. That bothered me in my idle time. The library gave me a place to find the answers. I would ask my mother about whatever I read. Slowly I realized it was a part of me. The scientific explanation of Happiness says it is generated by the activation of four hormones or chemicals. They are

Dopamine

Serotonins

Oxytocin

Endorphin

They, when activated, result in the feeling of Happiness in various forms and degrees.

Dopamine is called the feel-good hormone and makes us feel happy.

Serotonin stabilizes our mood, creates a feeling of well-being, and makes us feel happy.

Oxytocin is the love and belonging hormone and can reduce our stress level and promote our proper response to social interaction.

Endorphin can promote the euphoric feeling that energized feeling.

Now we explore how to be happy.

How to be Happy

Once we understand Happiness to be our own, which resides in us, to be in that state of being, the path and tools must be found inside. I am first listing things that I learned from my understanding before explaining the scientific take on it. To correct or treat anything, we need to know and understand the entity itself.

The entity is us, which is happy sometimes, but not always. Hence the first step is knowing ourselves. We need to view ourselves like an objective puzzle, not a subjective maze. To do this, we could take a paper and analyze or meditate on our observation. The list of things to be identified is as follows:

what makes us happy

what makes us an unhappy

This will not be an exhaustive list please add yours to it, we will list all that makes us happy unhappy. Like I have said, we can either analyze it all meditate on it. We usually find the following things on the list. Of something that makes us happy

Finishing our work

Being around people, we love such as family & friend

Being loved, trusted, and being listened to

Being hugged

Listening to selected music

Playing a game, exercising, and dancing

Going on adventures trips with a desired companion

Opposed to this are things that make us unhappy

Not being unable to finish our work

Being alone, ignored, and no one listening to us

Not having any pleasurable physical activity

Being confined to our economic bind and not being able to venture out on any journey

Now let us look at the take of science and the chemicals that make us happy. Listed below are the substances and what activates them. The effects related to these were listed earlier.

Serotonin

It is activated by

Exercise

Meditation

Sleep enough

Remembering happy memories

Having gratitude

Oxytocin

Listening to soothing music

Meditation

Sufficient sunlight

Listening to loved ones sincerely

Saying I love you

Hug your loved ones

Trusting others

Getting a massage

Dopamine

This feel-good hormone is activated by

Exercising

By creating something

Listening to music

Make a to-do list. Ticking of complete starts it

Do not get attached to any results or outcomes

Build a momentum of your effort

Sleep enough

Endorphins

This balancing hormone is activated by

Exercising

Walking

Completing your work

Why we need to be happy

Having looked at the activators, and the effects we must realize being happy stabilizes our thought, mood, increases our focus. That results in our living more fulfilled lives.

In the end, be happy and make this world a great place by giving away the Happiness you got.

Diepak Paul writes about his understanding of life and society. His focus has increased on here and now. He also writes about human state of Mind. He can be reached at Diepak.paul@gmail.com