5 Ways To Practice Happiness

By Joe Hart, Experience Life

We travel in search of it, marry for the sake of it, see coaches and therapists to enhance it, switch jobs to capture it, and sock away money to secure it. Yet, for many of us, happiness remains elusive. And even though we spend much of our lives chasing happiness, many of us would be hard-pressed to even define it in the first place.

So what is happiness? Where can we find it? And once we do, how can we keep it?

These are questions that have consumed philosophers, spiritual leaders and artists (to say nothing of folks like you and me) for thousands of years. In the past decade, though, the same questions have attracted the attention of a growing number of psychologists, neurologists, and other respected academics and clinicians.

These researchers are turning their attention toward the mechanics and chemistry of happiness, which they define (in simplified terms) as the emotional experience of having a pleasant, engaged and meaningful life. And their findings are having a dramatic impact not just on the field of psychology, but also on the way many of us are cultivating happiness in our own lives.

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A Look on the Bright Side
A growing number of psychologists who are part of what’s known as the Positive Psychology movement, have shifted their attention to advancing the knowledge of what makes us feel satisfied, energized, hopeful — and happy.

What they’ve discovered is that while overall life satisfaction does have an innate component (some people are just born happier and are wired to stay that way), happiness is also something we can practice and cultivate.

Happiness hinges on our choices, attitudes and thoughts — and when we know more about how these choices, attitudes and thoughts affect the quality of our lives, we have a powerful recipe for cooking up more lifelong joy, meaning and satisfaction.

Below are five of the fundamental conclusions from “happiness studies” done in recent years. Many of them sound like commonsense realizations — principles you’d think that we’d all be acting on already. But when it comes to creating our own happiness, turning common sense into common practice is a step most of us have yet to make.

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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Justin M.

11:40AM PDT on Oct 31, 2012

Thanks for sharing

October 31
send a green star

LMj S.

1:04PM PDT on Aug 14, 2012

Thank you!

August 14
send a green star

1:03PM PDT on Aug 14, 2012

Dale O.

8:22AM PDT on Jul 31, 2012

Life is filled with spices of different flavours, tastes...some mild, others moderate while some will cause a five alarm fire. One spends Life going through a variety of emotional states be these happy, sad, tragic, exuberant, tranquil or middling.

There are times when life kicks you in the stomach such as hearing about the sudden death of a friend, mother of a 5 month old baby with everything to live for but dies in a car accident, finding the love of your life, rest by a tranquil waterfall watching colourful birds fly by or simply a mundane act such as doing laundry.

Some with clinical depression must climb mountains to find happiness often slipping down the dark abyss many times before crawling slowly upwards towards the light slipping and falling downwards repeatedly before reaching the light at the top ~ some never make it.

Happiness is what you make it ~ some of the time. Circumstances/ Life can be unpredictable at best. Outlook, being gentle with oneself go a long way in helping individuals find happiness, so does being Mindful as well. At times it is not easy but hopefully the light will shine through.