What is happiness?
Many factors affect happiness in this fast-changing, often chaotic world. Take your daily life, for example. Good and bad effects impact your overall joy or unpleasantness that you experience daily.
Your relations with family, friends, and others, as well as your lifestyle, contribute and influence your happiness. It can bring you closer or push you farther away from answering what brings you joy and happiness in your life.
Your thoughts generate positive or negative triggers that ignite cheerfulness or unhappy emotions. It can and often does define what is happiness and what it means to you.
So, while you lack control over all things that goes on around you, you do have full control over your pleasure and what is happiness in your environment.
Identify the Source of Melancholy
We commonly hear of depression and anxiety complicating family and personal life. Therapy and other methods of mindfulness are also popular responses whenever issues escalate.
But how do you identify the root cause of melancholy or unhappiness? It can be a challenge. Identifying specific behaviors that adversely impact you is not an easy task. Stress, anxiety or a fight with a loved one can complicate your emotions on top of every thing else. You grope to find what is happiness in vain.
It does take a bit of courage to undergo the process of finding the root cause of melancholy or unhappiness. You will likely need to motivate yourself to follow through and push yourself along this road of self-discovery just to unveil what is happiness.
In the long run however, it is something that will reap you many benefits. Also, it is a vital part of the gratification you need for a well rounded understanding of what is happiness and maintaining that bliss on a constant course.
How about you consider these ideas to identify the source of melancholy or unhappiness so you can resolve significant issues and discover what is happiness:
- Answer the question, where do you visualize you to be in life right now?
- Are you doing what it takes to change your situation?
- Please write down your short-term goals and pursue them immediately.
- Understand that everything requires a process, which starts with a decision by you.
- You visualize a different situation, could this be why you are unhappy?
Maybe you’ve told yourself that you tried everything, but did you? You have the answer. You need to ask yourself if you’re giving your life everything you’ve got to give. For most people, the answer is NO!
Many people are in denial when it comes to what they could be doing. Yes, it’s a defeatist mentality at work to cheat you out of deserved happiness. A majority of people fail to find enjoyment in living life to the fullest.
You should set goals and set out to achieve them because giving up should never be an option. It will not fulfill your concept of what is happiness to you.
What is happiness when you are in control
Do you know what is important to know about what is happiness? What is important to remember is that you are in complete control of your happiness.
Only you control the direction you take on the journey toward happiness. It is the choices you make that have a direct impact on how joyous you are and how you regard what is happiness for you.
Be Selective with Who You Let in Your Inner Circle
People come and go in your life. But take notice of the people who contribute something meaningful to your life. They will likely contribute to your happiness over the long haul.
It’s essential to find good people to be in your inner circle. It makes a big difference, and ultimately, you’ll want to have a lot in common with these special people. So choose wisely because they inevitably help define what is happiness for you.
What is Happiness Within You
In my observation, there is so much unhappiness and uncertainties, as reflected by current events. And notably we do not have any control over rapidly changing domestic and global events.
Although we have no control over these matters, we do have full control on our life and how we choose to react to fluid situations. We control our personal space and our immediate environment, our emotion and mindset.
When a person is in harmony with themselves and the environment, they have clarity of mind. They believe and trust themselves to handle challenges that can creep up unexpectedly.
Many people lack this skill. They look to others or other external sources for answers and relief when happiness evades them or trouble prevails.
You only have to look within to find the solutions or deal with an issue. By asking several straightforward questions of yourself and answering them honestly, you will come to know the possibilities available to make a rational, informed decision.
With confidence, you can navigate through uncertainties and make positive choices. Yet so many shy away from digging inward to make a deeper connection with themselves.
For some people, the fear of the unknown stops them in their track. It could be that it’s uncomfortable to dig deep within because they seldom make an attempt or have no clue how to attempt this exploration.
Quieting the outside noise and listening to that voice within can be unnerving at first. But it can also spark a soulful connection, a heart to heart talk with you and your inner self, that power, that field of energy within is a massive part of what makes you uniquely you.
When you’re overtaken by calm and a sense of tranquility, you’re happy. You can appreciate what is happiness at that moment in time.
That’s why failure to negotiate that connection with your inner self may find you missing out on what is happiness for your whole being, your total person. Happiness is a choice only you can make for your situation.
Understanding what you want out of life is vital. Without accomplishing what you desire, you will always feel a void that will leave you unfulfilled. Also, it may harm your chances to answer the evasive what is happiness in your life.
True Happiness Is Gained From Loving Yourself
Why is this?
You may think that individual possessions or accomplishments will genuinely make you happy. Instead, you feel a void you can’t quite place. Sure, they’ll make you happy at that moment, but once that fades, you’re right back where you started.
You continue to search for something to trigger your happiness. But as you learn, you find that it doesn’t work. It doesn’t work in most situations because the root cause is that you are unhappy with yourself.
Without self-love, you look to other things to stimulate your joy and fill that void in you. When you’re comfortable and happy with yourself, you’ll find true satisfaction that won’t fade in your quest to discover what is happiness.
How to Spot a Lack of Self-Love
It can sometimes be challenging to spot a lack of self-love. Fortunately, there are a few tell-tale signs. It will appear in your behavior, which you can observe first hand.
Question yourself, do you find a compulsion to fix your imperfections? Do you find yourself feeling critical of yourself? If you do, then you might need to address your self-love issue to figure out what is happiness and what it means to you.
Being critical occasionally is excellent and healthy. But, being overly analytical can be highly destructive. Your self-esteem and confidence will plunge. Please make a conscious effort not to allow that to happen.
Remind yourself that you are perfect and beautiful or handsome as you are. Your “imperfections” are what make you uniquely you. So look yourself in the mirror, smile, and be grateful you’re alive and breathing.
You hold in your hands an opportunity to embrace all that you are born to be and be genuinely happy in the process.
Accept Yourself
Also, you need to accept yourself for your indiscretions and poor choices you’ve made in the past. You need to put that behind you immediately. Instead, learn from them. Treat yourself kindly and love yourself.
You’re only human, and you deserve another shot at living life to be the best you can be. Self-image, self-esteem, self-worth, and self-confidence all run hand-in-hand as you seek out what is happiness.
Once you start loving yourself more, you’ll be more accepting and loving of everything that represents you the person. So like the saying goes, practice makes perfect.
What is happiness is discovering what you can do to work on that self-love a little every day. Force out any and every negative thought that may hinder your cheerfulness and joy.
Think Positive
Whenever you feel those negative energy cropping up around you, force them out. Think of positive one’s encouraging self-love and being joyful. When you find yourself thinking you’re ugly or mean, pause.
Consciously make an effort to think, “you are beautiful just as you are; you are kind, and you matter.” Yes, indeed, you are a valued member of humanity and part of what is happiness on a planetary scale.
A good practice replaces any negative thoughts with positive ones. Keep a positive mindset as a good habit to hone. You can leave positive notes around the house on sticky notes.
You can write them on whiteboards, mirrors, or paper and tape them where ever you will come in contact with these notes the most.
Again, let past transgressions dissolve onto itself. Please do not allow it to eat you up inside and destroy your confidence and self-esteem. You have to forgive yourself for the mistakes and draw upon the lesson learned.
Let go of the self-hatred you harbor against yourself. It would be best if you did this for yourself, or you will find yourself leading down a path of self-destruction. Don’t lose yourself and forever be lost to what happiness is.
Quiet your inner critic because your ability to love and value yourself all starts with how you think about and view yourself. Don’t allow yourself to be overly critical. Perfection is impossible to achieve as a human, and you’re doing the best you can.
Start with cutting yourself some slack and commit to being honest with you. Evaluate what you want and need, then look within to find what happiness is for you. Don’t compare with others; just deal with you.
Take a deep breath, exhale and smile, you’re on your journey to discovering what is happiness.
Believe Yourself and Thrive!