International Day of Happiness

Hi all..

Its 20^th  March  2013. The first ever  International Day of Happiness. It was a few months ago that United Nations finally marked a day for happiness  too. It is a movement by United Nations to promote happiness as a universal goal as it is one of the main factors  that determine the well being of humans .

So what is your  idea of Happiness?Lemme think... What is it that makes me happy ?Getting to spend quality time with my family is one. Getting excited and inspired of small things of creativity and getting engaged in those activities makes me happy. Like blogging for now. The hobbies may vary with time. But it gives me the same feeling- “Happiness”. Holidays used to be one of my happiness when I had a job. The feeling of joy when weekend was about to arrive was so immense.I can see it in my husband who always looks forward to weekends so that he can relax. Whatever it is, all these things are only a few of the reasons to be happy.. But if you are not basically happy with your life , its difficult to find happiness in all the small things around you.

Talking about the happiness among  people who are above the poverty line ,its sad  to know that most of the people are unhappy. So even if we believe that money can buy happiness(Who isn’t happy if he gets a good pay, a beautiful house, car and all?) its not entirely true to the core.To achieve happiness through out, we have to make it a point to lead a stress free balanced life. Some of the factors I believe which contributes to happiness are

#1 Job satisfaction: If  you are not happy with your job, chances are you will remain unhappy forever. So take the first step. Do whatever you can to change the situation. If this is not what you wanted to do, try hard and change the field. If its not about the field and you are disappointed on the fact that your  sincere work is not being given much recognition, then discuss with your boss on the matter. If still there is no  benefit, then act fast.Try hard and get another job and ditch the old company ASAP.Years will be wasted if you are late in taking action.

#2 Healthy relationship: Wife husband should be in good terms with each other. I am so lucky to get a loving and understanding husband. Of course we are just happily married (almost 2 years). Talking about the couples who are married for many years and busy with their kids, Even if they love each other, some of them crave for their old times.The magic disappears when you hoard your feelings. Small gestures of love and care spreads happiness throughout one's life. Say what you feel, serve him the best , be there with him always and he will be always there for you. I believe it’s a give and take policy! After all this relationship is not like that of a mother and a kid where mother is willing to do anything for her kid, expecting nothing in return. No person is perfect. I have negatives. He also has negatives.But if we fairly complement each other, that makes a happy, good  couple.

#3 Stop worrying: Now this is an area where I have to put effort and more practice. I m basically an easily worried person. I get easily tensed thinking how some things gonna work out? What should I actually decide about it? And the endless list of questions arise in my mind despite the fact that I am a true God believer. I know I should leave everything to God.Yeah that’s what I do.But the fact remains that we just cant sit idle leaving everything to God. God wants us to take decisions when the situation demands.And we should truly believe in that decision once we take it.

   

#4 Stress management: I think am ok in it.One big piece of advice from my husband is to never ever allow job stress to creep over our family life. Stress should be managed somehow, frustrations should not be thrown over your family. It will ruin the happy family life.

#5 Spirituality and gratitude: Believe in God. Spirituality is a must for a balanced life and the hereafter. I do pray to the Almighty Allah. But I wish I could dedicate more time in spirituality. Its one of my constant resolutions which of course is never maintained. Sometimes for a week I stick to the routine of reading good books on it and then again I will be back to my old routine .mm.. wish I could do something to improve my determination.Speaking about gratitude we should always feel thankful to God. There may be hardships in life.But remember all the good things you have which most of the people in this world don’t have. Shelter, food and family are truly blessings from God.

#6 Do good deeds: Serve others. Make it a practice to give more.Of course, in todays world if you are too good  people will see you as a doormat .Dont let others walk over you.But its good to be good.Do good, be good and you will feel good about yourself.When you find out you make others happy, you will feel happy yourself.

#7 Avoid shopaholism: I wasn’t and I am never much of a shopaholic. So I believe I don’t have to improve much in this area. Yeah we all know that it gives us a happy feeling when we buy something new. But I believe one should strictly refrain from being a shopaholic. When you buy something it gives you only temporary happiness and then what? You will have to go buy something again to make yourself happy. Its time for a thought for the shopaholics out there. Ask yourself “ Don’t I have enough items in my possession?Adding something to my already big collection of shoes/clothes/accessories is what that really makes me  happy?Thinking of all the blessings I already have, isnt more than enough for me to be happy?"

These are only a few things now i can think of.

What do YOU think that makes you happy?

Self Exploration

Do anyone among us make an attempt to know ourselves completely? I know, there is no need of the word “completely” in that sentence. Because, most of us may not have taken even the first effort to know oneself. With a fast- paced life offered by today’s world, who has got time for such things? And even if time provided , why engage in such rubbish things?

Then, there is a second category of people who are wishing to learn about themselves, but gets fed up easily or is somewhat afraid of what they may find out. I am one among them. Frankly speaking, I have a tendency to back out sometimes from knowing or exploring myself. One is afraid of what they are gonna find out. We human beings have both positive and negatives sides. While we are happy to find out what our positives are ,we keep a closed eye to our negatives. We can work upon our negatives and slowly improve, but for that we have to understand our negatives first. So knowing oneself is necessary.

Its in human nature to run away from problems. When confronted with a difficult situation , we face it and try to solve it only in the last minute, when there are no other ways to escape. Thats what I sometimes do. When I am fed up with giving my thoughts to a problem, i just drop that train of thoughts, which gives me a temperory escape. Its exactly the wrong thing to do. Cause one’s thoughts form the base of one’s self, No matter how negative or discouraging the thoughts are. “The way one thinks”, defines the person and running away from one’s own thoughts means running away from oneself. Of course, we can improve on our way of thinking, but should not run away from one’s thoughts itself.

Sometimes the way of learning one self turns out to be wrong. Some are bound to find only their flaws, That kind of self exploration should be got ridden soon without getting messed up with oneself. If started with the right spirit, one will slowly learn to identify with their positives, aims, dreams, together with accepting their flaws. You have just to make a gentle start on exploring yourself. Eventually your hidden talents will come out, that you thought you never had.

Even though I am always curious about knowing myself, i sometimes gets stuck somewhere in between. Quite usual! Because knowing oneself is a tremendously complicated task. And the fact remains that , no one among us has ever explored the so called “self” completely. Self Exploration continues throughout our whole life. Things this much said, it seems like I am sounding too much philosophical nowadays. Maybe the side-effects of “self-exploration”.;):D

"The monk who sold his Ferrari"

Hello Friends,

This is my first post in the book review section. Its about "The monk who sold his Ferrari" by Robin Sharma. The author is well known for his "self help" books in which he explains how to improve one's life in an effective way. It is one of the most popular books in the self help category and most of us may have read it by now. For those who have read it already, let this review be a revisit, because its the kind of book worth reading through out our hectic life.

The story is about a successful lawyer, Julian Mantle who has reached the summit of success that is admirable. He lived a successful life driven by his own abilities. He owned a grand mansion, a private jet and a red ferrari. But his obsession with professional success lead him to work day and night without taking care of his mental and physical health. Suddenly one day, he has to face the consequences of his unbalanced life.

The story begins with John, a friend and co-worker of the protagonist, describing the fantastic lifestyle and clever courtroom tricks of the great lawyer. But one day, he collapses in the courtroom because of a heart attack. He was looking more older than his age. He loses his purpose of life and one day he goes somewhere without telling anyone.

After three years, without any news, Julian Mantle visits John. John was surprised with his new look. He was completely transformed into a healthy human being, with a glow in his face. John asks about his story and he describes that after recovering from heartattack, he sold all his properties including his Ferrari and went to India. He wanted to restore the balance of his life and in search of that, he reaches a small place called Sivana, near Himalayas. There lived a group of sages, whose leader teaches him everything that he seeked for. He is filled with a new spiritual strength. He imparts the new found wisdom to John. All the tips to lead a life filled with positive energy, peace and joy was described in the form of fables by the sages. Julian Mantle explains to his friend ,how to cultivate our minds with joyful thoughts only. He expains the value of time and to use it to fulfil our dream. He advises John to embrace the present always and to never live in the past.After that he embraces John and leaves.

This book comes in handy for those who are always in a rat race for success, because of which they are having a stressful life. The principles to lead a happy, balanced life is penned down in the form of fables by the author, so that readers can memorize it more easily and follow it in their lives. The author imparts the knowledge of leading a balanced, happy, successful life in a step-by-step approach which makes the book more understandable.