Happiness is a Warm Puppy
Finding Happiness Because Happiness is the Best Medicine
Together, love, humor, joy and happiness are the elements that make life meaningful and fulfilling. The forefathers of America thought that happiness was so important they included it in the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, “…Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Abraham Maslow, the famous psychologist, once said that happiness improves learning. Happiness is also very important in child development, in the preservation of health and in life longevity, in increasing productivity in the workplace, and is important for overall satisfaction in marriage.
Happiness, though, is not a personality trait, it is a state of well being. It is developed through a set of psycho-social factors including family, friends, achievement, values, and spiritual orientation. It is an attitude. It is a choice. It is a spiritual essence.The person who sees the glass as half full does so because that person chooses to be happy.
Happiness is not based upon material possessions. Sir John Templeton once said, “Happiness comes from spiritual wealth, not material wealth. Happiness comes from giving, not getting. If we try hard to bring happiness to others, we cannot stop it from coming to us also. To get joy, we must give it, and to keep joy, we must scatter it.”
Happiness is Contagious
Research also shows that social networks affect mood, and suggests that happiness is influenced both by the people you know as well as by the people they know. One study shows that happiness spreads through social networks, and may have a positive influence even on the happiness of someone they have never met. According to “Dynamic Spread of Happiness in a Large Social Network” (BMJ, James Fowler and Nicholas Christakis, December 4, 2008), the authors suggest that this can even be true for indirect relationships, between one’s happiness and their friends' friends' friends' happiness.
Happiness Can be Elusive
Many people, though, never find the happiness they constantly search for. It even eludes the rich and powerful. Abd Er-Rahman III of Spain, at one point one of the richest and most powerful men in the world, once admitted that despite his 50-year reign with power, glory, wealth and admiration, he never did find happiness. Happiness is not attained through achievement and accomplishment, but from something else… from appreciation and gratefulness for what one does have.
Most people are slightly to moderately happy. Unfortunately, many people never reach the level of happiness they desire. They continue to pursue fantasies which never do realize true happiness. Many others lose their happiness during their middle years.
Ten Tips for Happiness
In this regard, everyone needs to be self-aware and do occasional “happiness check ups.”
- Have an attitude of gratitude.
- Give rather than receive.
- Associate with happy people, happy friends make one happy.
- Strive for a more meaningful life.
- Practice random acts of kindness.
- Forgive others -- enemies as well as friends.
- Notice life's small pleasures, and stop to smell the roses.
- Take care of health, both mental, emotional and physical.
- Don’t lose your sense of humor.
- Practice positive thinking.
- Invest quality time into family and friendships. (In fact, often the happiest people are those that have the strongest friendships.)
Certainly, happiness is something that everyone wants, but they look in all the wrong places. They look for happiness through money, recognition, power, sex, or things. What they fail to realize is that things do not give happiness, at best they give a momentary euphoria.
A happy person really is happy with a warm, little puppy. After all, happiness is not getting what you want. It is wanting what you have.
Reference
Happiness is a Warm Puppy
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