DECIDING TO BE HAPPY

A Documentary about being Happy says that happiness depends 50% on our genetics, 10% on our environment and the other 40% on what we choose to do with our lives.*

Whether you see this DVD or not, there is a lot we can reflect on about where each of us personally is en route to happiness. Beyond this, we might also consider what we want to do to consciously introduce more happiness into our lives.

Considering what we are now learning about happiness it is important to recognize what our nature tells us about how we approach life.

Most of us usually know whether we see life as full of possibilities or whether we see it as a challenge and a struggle. Generally we are either approaching life as optimists or pessimists; the glass is half full or the glass is half empty so to speak.

Living with yourself is one of life’s learning experiences. Sometimes it might seem as if it is life’s greatest challenge. However, at some point it involves making some conscious decisions about who we are and what we want out of life.

I believe that in life, each of us should work towards knowing ourselves fairly well. The better you know yourself, the more you will understand what works for you. At some point it involves making some conscious decisions about who we are and what we want out of life.

Most of us thankfully will have the basic necessities of life as we work for them.  I don’t think however, that any of us becomes really happy until we understand what it is that we need as opposed to what we (think we) want.

I think that many of us eventually conclude that the material things are not going to provide us with enough personal satisfaction, however many possessions we have.

Whether others might admire or possibly even envy us, many of us realize that without people around us who accept and care for us as we are as individuals, we are not likely to personally feel that our lives are successful.

On the other hand, someone who is generally less optimistic about life may have reasons of their own which enable them to be very self motivated, goal oriented and single minded. Others though become extreme Type A personalities and appear relentlessly driven.

Although I personally don’t admire, or even like most of them very much, I accept their different approach to life as a personal choice they have made. Possibly they will find their happiness and satisfaction in reaching their goals, just as I do mine.

Knowing as we now do, that we have a great deal of control over the quality of our lives, especially based on the way we choose to approach life, there may be ways in which we can make ourselves happier.

For example, how long it takes us to recover from the ‘small things’ that sometimes upset us and disrupt our lives and get our sense of balance back, is apparently an important factor in our ability to be happy.

Considering that we have more potential control over our own happiness than we realized, it is worth reflecting and thinking about the deliberate ways we might introduce more happiness into our own lives.

*HAPPY, 2011, by Director Roko Belic, and Executive Producer Tom Shadyac, complete with Happy Face smile on a blue sky background, is a very good way to spend 75 minutes, learning about how people in various parts of the world describe their lives and find happiness in them.