Where Happiness Lives
Where Happiness Lives - Finding it Within
How do you define happiness? Is it being with the people you love, gaining inspiration from the work you do, losing yourself in a hobby, or finding the right balance between work and private life?
Recently, I’ve been thinking about the different ways in which happiness comes to me – through the love and affection I share with my husband; through fun and laughter with family and friends; through wandering along the beautiful canals in my city, Amsterdam; through my hobbies like reading, swimming and yoga; and through clients and being a part of their personal successes.
These things make me happy. And in all of these instances my sense of happiness increases when I take time to reflect on them and what they mean to me. There are wonderful things in my life that can whizz by unless I pause for a moment to take stock.
Oh and yes, there are some not so great things that happen in my life too (I am human!), but I find that the less I let myself dwell on negative thoughts, the less power they seem to have, and the more the scales tip towards happiness and fulfilment.
So I got to thinking about the role that we each play in creating the conditions in which happiness can thrive in our lives. Looking outside of yourself for happiness – a new pair of shoes, a spa day with your best friend, an afternoon at the beach – seems the most obvious way to bring a few extra doses of the good stuff into your life. But all too often, relying on an external situation or stimulus to provide happiness turns out to be merely a short-lived boost. One that feels great at the time, and perhaps for a short time after, but the effect eventually fades.
What if you could sustain a level of happiness always (or almost always)? What if you could re-create a feeling of happiness and contentment at will, regardless of what’s going on around you?
By focusing inside yourself on your thoughts and emotions you can, over time, re-programme the way you think and feel, so that more often you bring positive thoughts and feelings to the fore and so increase your overall sense of wellbeing. Over the centuries people have used different ways to ‘turn within’ – yoga, meditation, prayer, self-reflection, even day-dreaming. And nowadays life coaching programs and techniques such as NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) are being used with great effect to help generate long-lasting contentment.
So by all means continue to do the things you love and the things that bring you happiness, but slow down from time-to-time and allow yourself to reflect on all that’s good in your life. There’s often (even) more than you think!