When someone asks me “What defines your happiness?”, then for me – besides thinking positive thoughts – it’s also studying and learning new things. At times my focus point of study is neuromarketing. Last year it was epigenetics.
Those 2 disciplines both have the primal brain as their object of study. Neuromarketing got my interest from a business point of view, where epigenetics triggers me on a personal level.
Epigenetics is a new discipline that studies the influence of our environment and our behaviour on the activation of genes. It shows that anything we do, eat, drink or think can make us stronger or weaker.
Genes change 0,5% every 100.000 years. That’s very little, isn’t it? Not much we can do about it. However, we are able to change our behaviour and our response to events.
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Happiness is more than thinking positive thoughts
Happiness is having your needs met. It’s not about having everything, or even the best. It’s about being satisfied with what you have. While at the same time being able to work for the things you want.
Happiness is not trying or finding, it’s deciding
The dictionary defines happiness as “the state of being happy” which gives you very little information about the idea or feeling of, or state of happiness. Let’s look at some different things that happiness can be, but realize that in truth, happiness is in the mind of the beholder.
You feel satisfied
When you are happy you tend to feel simply satisfied with your life. You think about your life and feel good about it. You feel very satisfied when you look at your life and see all the fortune you have whether it’s where you live, who you live with, or just about yourself doesn’t even matter.
You feel content
A happy person tends to feel really content about the things in their life. They feel content about their job, their home, their things, their health. Nothing is nagging at their mind about anything causing stress. But remember happy people do have stress, they’re just better at feeling content even when things aren’t perfect.
You are at peace
A happy person often feels a lot of peace about their life and family. They tend to know that everything will turn out okay and are good at turning negativity around to positivity.
Related: Is Happiness the Key to be Successful or Vice Versa?
When your environment doesn’t suit you, change it
It’s a journey
Happiness is not a destination that you get to one day and stay at. It’s a lifelong journey that will have many ups and downs and struggles. However, overall the ups and downs of life, you manage to feel good about it.
Your needs are met
When a person is happy, they usually don’t even have any needs that aren’t being met to the level they want them to be met. It doesn’t mean that someone is not having a hard time. It’s all about how you make what you have to fill your needs.
Your definition
The truth is, happiness is how you define it personally for you. It’s not about getting tons of stuff unless you want that. It’s not about finding a spouse unless you want that. It’s not about having kids unless you want that. It’s all up to you and how you define happiness.
It’s how you act
When you are happy you tend to act in more positive ways overall. When happy, you eat better, you move more, you think differently. Don’t worry. You have it in your power to be happy where you are in your life right now.
Related: Why Should we be Grateful for Health and Relations? 9 Benefits
Work on your happiness
To really and truly feel happy, you have to start thinking positively. However, this is not enough. Your positive thoughts also have to correspond with your actions.
Do you have tips to be happy? Tell us in the comment box below.
Hi Hannie,
Great article, with all these different aspects of happiness.
For me, happiness is a verb, like love.
I actively work towards feelings of love and happiness.
My tools are my gratutide and success journal, meditation and breathwork, being plenty of time in nature, having enough me-time, connecting with friends and family, keep on learning/ studying / experiencing new things.
A recently discovered tool is : healthy and helpful routines. I used to hate routines and planning, found it boring and constricting. But it actually brings me peace of mind, now that I chose my own healthy and helpful habits!
That sounds fantastic, Kadanza! I can imagine routines were not your cup of tea and if our lives would only consist of routines and no variety, it wouldn’t be very healthy. But a good balance harms nobody. I am glad you found your own method.
Well said, happiness is a verb! I’ll remember that one, as it immediately struck a chord in me when reading it. 🙂
Thanks for your comment and take care.
Hi Hannie, Happiness is a euphoric feeling but comes to us in different ways.
Your post differentiate clearly all the aspects of importance.
Some people need physical materialistic possessions to make them happy and others focus on an ascetic and non physical things like respect, love, protection and freedom to make them happy. Like you say different things make different people happy.
When you are happy you are grateful and being grateful makes you happy. It is one big circle, all connected with happiness in the centre.
Thank you for a great post.
Hi Estelle, I like your image of the circle and the connection going around it as well as radial. I see a wheel with all things that make us happy at the end of the spokes, connected in different directions. I should make a drawing of it. 🙂
Thanks for your kind words and I am glad you liked my post. Take care and be happy.