Blog # 25: LIVING A HAPPY AND BETTER LIFE | CAP CLASSES

Hi friends,

Welcome back to CAP CLASSES. I am here with a new article on Being happy and living a happy life.

BEING HAPPY: such a simple and fundamental objective of any individual but such a rare thing one can achieve.

What are we working daily for? Obviously a smart person answers, for a better tomorrow. True. It’s 100% right. But when we travel to tomorrow, what we work for? A better tomorrow again??? So in the race of getting a better tomorrow, we miss one major thing in life and it is A BETTER TODAY. Remember, if you keep on working for a better tomorrow, a better today will never come in life. This is because we are trying to find BETTER in TOMORROW (future) but not in TODAY (present). How can we be happy then? 
In the search of a better tomorrow, are we losing a beautiful today?

So, first let me ask you one thing, what are the 10 incidences or instances where you were happiest in your life?

Can you list down 10 for me? (to be more appropriate, for you)

      1.       __________
2.       __________
3.       __________
4.       __________
5.       __________
6.       __________
7.       __________
8.       __________
9.       __________
10.   __________

Wait!!! first answer at least 5 of the above before continuing reading the remaining article.

So, what made you happy? Was it a situation? Was it a person? Was it a result? Or what exactly it was?

You passed an exam with expected marks and you are happy.

You went for a day trip or outing with your fellow chunkz and you are happy.

You were on a date with your lover and you are happy.

Your friends gave a surprise birthday gift and you are happy.

You went for a dinner with your family and you are happy.

You have attended friend’s wedding and you are happy.

And the list can run to infinity.

You know what???

Everyone is searching for happiness but unfortunately in a wrong direction. It is something like you want to write an e mail id but u do not know the exact e mail address and you keep on sending mails daily but immediately getting a delivery failed address not found notification. So, even when you keep on trying to be happy, majority of times you couldn’t since you are not able to find the source.

Let us understand few things first.

      1)      HAPPINESS:

The dictionary meaning of happiness is “the state of being happy, the experience of joy, contentment and a positive well being”. Like how light is the opposite of dark, happiness is the opposite of misery, pain, worry or suffering.

      2)      BLISS:

There is a better word than happiness and that is BLISS. It means a state of joy, personal fulfillment and happiness. (the difference between happiness and joy is that, the former is experience of joy where as the latter is living the joy itself)

      3)      SPIRITUAL BLISS:

One step ahead there is something called SPIRITUAL BLISS which comes from being totally connected with yourself, your soul and a higher power. It is a high experience of a quality of life which is unmatched by the trappings of material world.

What makes you happy? Money? Qualifications? Wealth? Relationships? Social life? What? You can have two answers, all of these and none of these.

Is it possible to have a HAPPY LIFE? The answer surprisingly is YES. But it is when and only when you realise the actual meaning of happiness, the source of happiness and the methodology of continuing it.

True source of happiness is within. In you, Inside you. You need to realise, understand and experience it.

Let me start with, what made me write this blog. I have been undergoing some stress and noise in life lately due to many reasons (majority of them are our attributes and perceptions though). I travelled to Bangalore for classes and then this happened.

Yesterday, I have visited my long time bestie’s home and spent an awesome time with her 6 year old kid Mahi. She is one of the prettiest girls I have seen and I took her into my hands and said, “Mahi, you are beautiful, you are soo pretty”. Surprised to the moon, she replied very innocently, beauty is not here (showing her cheeks with her little index finger) but beauty is here (showing her heart) and she said you are never beautiful from how you appear or look like. (I felt, she slapped half of the people in the world with this) Then I asked, who told you this? She said my teacher and momma.

She is studying 3^rd standard in Montessori (I was told that it is like Upper KG, for your info if you too don’t know it like me). For the first time I have seen a live demo of “contentment”.  She looks very satisfied and happy. I couldn’t stop asking her, Mahi how come you are soo happy? Is it shivratri today and you got a holiday. Is it because you don’t have school? She said, no I like going to school and then she ran into her room and came with 5 medals (3 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze). She said she is a district level champion in skating and practicing it for 2 years now. I could see the twinkling stars in her eyes. I am like wooooow. I patted her with an amaze. Then she said, skating makes me happy.

I felt like, to get back into the right track of life, speak with a 6 year old kid or 70 years old. You will understand life with innocence and experience. They are pure, they are real.

On the way driving back from her, I am introspecting myself about happiness, better life and contentment. Then I have decided to be happy. Few resolutions made in the evening while walking for 3 hours with ear plugs on. I took my first step. I realised this.

Everything starts with a mindset or may be with reengineering of wrong mindset.

The foundation of ACHIEVING happiness is living a life of faith, gratitude, intention, understanding and peace. It requires commonsense. It requires situational awareness. It requires understanding yourself. It requires living the present. It requires penning down the priorities. It requires understanding choices. It requires making choices and decisions. It requires empathy of situations and people. It requires discretion, good or bad, right or wrong, dos and don’ts. It requires understanding your expectations from yourself. It requires focus on being yourself; achieve what you want and living a life on your terms. It requires a complete enlightened mindset. But all the above are easy and worth your efforts to achieve happiness what you are craving for.

There are so many ways, means and methods of being happy. The list is never ending. However I have decided to write some of the basics in this article and I will add more and more to it eventually. This is, to be happy, to live happy and to share happiness.

First of all, let us start DOING certain things for a better life.

1) Spend 30 minutes daily on a hobby. Some activity which you love to do, which gives you happiness. Which makes your heart dance in joy. For me, it is music. I lost myself when I listen to songs. It can be dancing, watching your favourite show, playing an instrument, exercise or just a walk through. (I prefer if you can do it all alone which is more important cos you will simultaneous have “I time”).

2) Exercise or a physical activity. Do whatever you want. It can be yoga or a badminton game or jogging or working out in a gym or anything similar. If you cant do anything of this sort, even skipping in your room or preferably outside the house in a garden will suffice. But remember the objective. You should sweat out like completely got drenched in water. You should be able to see sweat all around. Then sit for a while somewhere and close your eyes. You feel extremely happy like a super natural power is flowing in you, nature is speaking with you or maybe you are connected one more time with your soul. This feeling is invaluable. Experience it. Live it. Trust me, you will love it.

3) Consume a lot of water. Drinking sufficient water boosts your metabolism and helps the body properly break down food. Water is a detoxifier that helps to flush out toxins and get rid of waste primarily through sweat and urine. Headaches and migraines are often caused by dehydration. So, to get some relief, drink plenty of water. You will experience the results sooner than what you expect.

4) Read a lot of books. Whether it is literature or fiction, subject book or comic read a lot, read regularly, read daily, at least 30 minutes a day. It helps you in mental stimulation, stress reduction, improves your knowledge and vocabulary, improves your focus, concentration & memory and results in stronger analytical thinking skills. 

5) Have enough sleep at night. One of the biggest challenges youth is facing today is lack of enough sleep or a wrong day cycle. Quite often I have observed youngsters waking up late till night and sleeping late night and consequently getting up late in the morning. This results in a disturbed and ineffective next day. Whom should we blame for this? Social media or your addiction to it? Whatever the reason is, you should realise the importance of getting enough sleep. Sleep helps keep your mind and body healthy. Most adults need 7 to 8 hours of good quality sleep on a regular schedule each night. Make changes to your routine if you can't find enough time to sleep. Getting enough sleep isn’t only about total hours of sleep. It’s also important to get good quality sleep on a regular schedule so you feel rested and active when you wake up.  

None of the above needs your money. It requires your efforts. It requires a right mind set and an attitude of changing your day to change your life; to change your lifestyle to change your results; to change the inside of you to change your level of satisfaction from yourself.

Welcome to a world of being happy and living a better life. Remember, you have only one life, add Happiness to it.

That which can’t change perishes and dies eventually. So, dear friends, for a better and a happier life, change the inside of you, to realise the beauty of life and happiness in it.